Olympics. Is it me or is NBC showing more sports.

[edhopper]

and a lot less of the insufferable "Up close and personal" bullshit they have shown in the past.

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. The personal stories were an effort to attract more female viewers

Until they realized that women DO watch Olympics, up to the point that track & field starts.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Hmph, I watch AFTER track and field starts, too

:-)

But I don't watch boxing, shooting, wresting, or weightlifting.

[w8liftinglady]

3. I love weightlifting!It's my favorite event!

I love the olympics...it shows women of all body types being strong and powerful.It is liberating to watch!

[Dreamer Tatum]

5. YMMV n/t

[seemunkee]

16. Haven't seen any of that except online

I also don't even see track cycling on their website

[TahitiNut]

4. Other than the jingoism, I'm liking the coverage.

But I have CBC to supplement NBC's red-white-and-bull shit.

[marmar]

6. Yep. When the flags starts waving too prominently, it's a quick flip to Comcast Ch. 99 for me.

They seem to handle patriotism a lot less annoyingly on the CBC.

[kestrel91316]

7. Absolutely! And I am actually, for the first time in a long time,

watching large blocks of Olympics programming AND watching some of the great online video of stuff I missed by not having cable, like equestrian events.

I love how they have abandoned the shaky cameras and weird camera angles and choppy editing MTV-style done at the hands of apparent ADD sufferers. They actually settle down with one or two sports for an hour or two instead of just brief clips of what they think you want to see.

[Canuckistanian]

8. NBC is showing sports?

I thought they were too busy NOT showing McCain's gaffes.

It's hard werk.

[AlinPA]

9. It looks like it to me. I watch it at the gym and it's mostly sports.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Yes, I am noticing a difference too.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Yeah well I am just a tad pissed

My softball game got rained out last night...and they substituted it for badminton??Who knew that was even an olympic sport.*snort*

[CatholicEdHead]

12. Universal HD is replaying last night's CNBC feed

That was an intense badminton game. It was played at the highest level I have ever seen a game.

[Berry Cool]

13. It seems to me like they're showing more sports, too.

It's great. I'm female, but I want to watch the sports. Sure, I'd like to know a little about the people involved, but I don't need ten minutes of hyperemotional soap-opera crap to get me on board with them. The sports are inherently dramatic without any gussying up the story, and not everyone HAS a dead relative to win a gold medal for or a disease to overcome anyway--that doesn't make them any less deserving of the gold.

Dick Ebersol is a smart man but there are two things I could never figure out about him: 1. why he canceled SCTV for Friday Night Videos and 2. why he ever thought women wouldn't watch the Olympics without all those drippy soap-opera profiles.

[spanone]

14. but volleyball?????

[pokerfan]

20. You hate volleyball

Tonight was the first non-beach volleyball that I've seen. This week has been mostly swimming and gymnastics to the exclusion of all other sports which are pretty much banished to the lesser cable channels.

But yeah, I'm seeing fewer puff pieces, I agree.

Now if they could something about the tape delay on the west coast so we could all enjoy the live events together.

[sendero]

15. I noticed that too..

.... I literally turned off the olympics in 04 over the maudlin, treacly crap profiles they were doing.

I don't think I was alone.

It's much better this time.

[theboss]

17. The Winter Olympics tend to be sappier

More men watch the Summer Games, which means heavier emphasis on sports.

[Bluebear]

18. ABC and the late Roone Arledge were guilty of most of those sob stories

[Iggo]

19. Granted, I haven't watched much...

...but I have yet to see one "human interest" story.