Mixed in with this first week’s report on the snow and ice competition in Vancouver is a burning question.
Will backlashing ever become an official Olympic sport?
NBC continues to feel the backlash from its schedule of prime-time delays, particularly in the Pacific Northwest (three hours) and the airing of key daytime downhill skiing events in prime time.
Seattle, Vancouver’s U.S. neighbor, is up in arms about the three-hour prime-time delay. While there have been no reports of rioting or defaming peacocks, unhappy fans are threatening a lengthy boycott of KRON, Seattle’s NBC affiliate.
Meanwhile, this fast-moving electronic age has produced a new type of backlash — complaints by online readers — because many newspapers, including The Denver Post, are posting results as they happen, thus “ruining” the suspense of prime-time coverage.
Most radio and TV organizations historically have quickly reported winners — and losers — in daytime Olympics competition. But the growth of the media’s use of the Internet has widened instant coverage.
Scott Monserud, who runs The Post’s sports department, notes that numerous readers are “irritated” about the paper’s policy of reporting results quickly on the Internet.
“It’s our job to report the news, not withhold it so NBC can package everything,” he said.
But NBC’s solid TV ratings indicate that even complaining viewers still watch in prime time.
Wednesday night’s telecast, which included a taped replay of Lindsey Vonn winning the USA’s first-ever gold medal in women’s downhill, produced what NBC, in jingoistic style, called “the greatest single day in Winter Olympics history.” This prime- time coverage also featured gold medal performances from Shaun White in the men’s halfpipe and Shani Davis again taking gold in the men’s 1,000 speedskating.
In ratings roulette, an all-important Olympics competition, that night’s coverage beat Fox’s “American Idol” in total viewers and key demographics during head-to-head competition, marking the first time in “Idol’s” six-year run that the series has lost its competitive time period.
Even audience ratings cynics will concede that a group of performing wannabes couldn’t compete with the effervescent Vonn, who has become a legitimate American idol.
Meanwhile, Denver’s 9News, through Thursday night, leads all NBC outlets in audience figures.
The station has the highest rating (23.3) and is tied with Salt Lake City for second in audience shares (38), after seven nights. Seattle displays the highest share (40). (A rating is a percentage of TV households in a designated viewing area. A share is a percentage of those households watching television and tuned into a particular program).
Overall, NBC’s prime-time ratings are 27 percent higher than the Turin Games four years ago but 20 percent behind Salt Lake City coverage in 2002.
Backlashing and ratings issues aside, NBC’s coverage has, predictably, been highlighted by terrific camera work while commentary and reporting have ranged from professional to over-the-top jingoism.
Keep in mind that Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports and Olympics said at the outset the networks planned to focus on talented U.S. stars. The graphic replays of downhill competition, showing up-close views of twisting bodies and sliding skis, produce a lot of “how-do-skiers-do-that” comments in my house.
Every Olympics has at least one major “thrill of victory and agony of defeat” scenario.
It will be difficult, during the second week, for any athlete to top Vonn’s emotional roller-coaster ride on skis with her success Wednesday and the crash Thursday.
Several, like John Shuster, the leader of the USA’s curling team has, so far, felt only the agony of defeat. Shuster and his teammates lost a Wednesday battle with Switzerland after he missed a chance to knock out a Swiss stone from competition. (The team lost its fourth contest to Denmark on Thursday).
After the Swiss defeat, Shuster shook his head, rubbed his eyes and slumped his shoulders while the small crowd of U.S. supporters waved flags in a consolation gesture.
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Reach him at tvtime@comcast.net.
