General Nonsense 12 Aug 2008 @ 22:02
Live? Maybe…
As someone who used to be ‘part of the magic’ I hate to shatter your fantasties, but to my west coast readers - note that I say this like I have east coast readers, I can dream, can’t I? - anyway, to my west coast readers, the Olympics that you see on primetime are not really live….I know, I know - you’re thinking that I am going to tell you that the Easter Bunny isn’t real next - well, I can’t speak for the Bunny, but despite the ‘LIVE’ bug
in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen the Olympics you see east of the Eastern time zone are tape-delayed. To those of us who have watched west coast TV for any length of time we have grown accustomed to the “LIVE, except on the West Coast” disclaimer that accompanies pretty much every ‘live’ TV event including those originating on our coast with the exception of sporting events - we get to see those truly live! So, what’s up NBC? Don’t want to screw up the primetime schedule by having coverage start at 5 p.m. PDT? But, I digress there are plenty of other blogs griping about that. I want to get to the real point of this article and why all this back story is important:
So, we now know that NBC thinks that they have been pulling the wool over our west coast eyes, but in a entry posted on a blog that covers the industry a tipster says that the Men’s 4 x 100M swimming final, where Phelps could get his 8th gold medal, may be live to all time zones. From the TVNewser site,
NBC giving serious consideration to airing Saturday’s prime-time Olympic coverage live in all time zones due to Michael Phelps‘ potential 8th gold medal. This would allow full network to show race as it is happening. Otherwise, West Coast viewers would see it three hours after it takes place. Final decision may be made late Thursday night EDT.
So, let’s hold our hopes up that Phelps’ keeps winning those gold medals - that way we will be able to see him go for the 8th (in these games) live. And just so you know that I’m live it’s 2 minutes ’til 10 PDT and I have yet to see Phelps’ swim tonight - somehow my Google homepage knows that he took a gold already…oh, and so do my east coast readers - whoever they are.
None the less, I wait with anticipation for 7:30 PM Eastern/Pacific when NBC will (re)broadcast the Olympic Opening Ceremony here in the States. Now, most of you who know me well know that I do not particularly care for sporting events, but something about the Olympics is different - I think that it is the spectacle of it all. NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams” began broadcasting live from Beijing yesterday evening and will be there for the duration; of course, the network has the U.S. broadcast rights for the Olympics through 2012 so sending the flagship news team is really a no-brainer. But, something about these Olympic games are especially important, I believe, because of their location: inside the world’s next great superpower. We have already seen a multitude of stories coming out of China about the government’s determination at any cost to get this right, tearing down entire complexes of homes, mandatory factory closures and taking cars off of the road to ease pollution. So, with every news outlet in the world focusing on Beijing, I heard that NBC alone has some 4,000 staffers there, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Oh, and I guess to see all those amazing atheletes compete too.