Delay

Even though the Winter Olympics are on the west coast of Canada this year, NBC has decided to do a tape delay for people in the mountain and pacific time zones. Last night as the games were on, I made the mistake of going online to read some other news of the day. And, naturally, all of the results of the events were already posted. On most of these sites there wasn't even a warning; the headline screamed the winners' names. I knew the outcomes before the events even "started" where I am living. Tape delays make sense if the games are held on a different continent. But if the games are held on the same continent where the time difference is a matter of only a few hours, what's the point? The Super Bowl and World Series are never on tape delays, so why delay the Olympics.

Between about 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. NBC showed nothing but "paid programming," as it is called in the TV guide. Paid programming is another phrase for infomercials. They showed a few hours of the Olympics, then news, then Entertainment Tonight before going back to the Olympics. Who cares about fad diets, exercise equipment that is supposed to take the effort out of working out, or make up that is supposed to make you young and beautiful? And, yes, I know that some people might really enjoy Entertainment Tonight. I personally don't watch it, because I don't care that much about the trashy, tabloid stories about celebrities and politicians. No wonder NBC is such a disaster. It seems like they wasted so many hours that could have been better used for the games.

Current mood: annoyed with Olympic coverage, but good in general
Current drink: coffee

Tenth Muse Asks - Football Commentators

How many people do you really need to do the pre-game, halftime, and post-game football commentary? There was a time, many years ago maybe, when you'd just have two people doing these things. Now for some reason they need six or more people doing these shows. I'm waiting for the day when they have 53 people crammed around a tiny desk; the 53 could represent every person or position on a typical football squad. But I suppose you need to have more than 53 to account for the different coaching positions. And, sure, why not add celebrities and comedians to contribute their opinions too. This doesn't even include the people who do the play-by-play commentary. That number seems to be growing every year as well. Hasn't anyone figured out that two people can say the same things and say them just as well as ten people?