NBC Day 10 Bikes, Bars, Bolt, and Boards!

[Cloudy_Gumdrops]

NBC should've explained that Gabby wouldn't have won (or even medalled) even if she was perfect instead of portraying it as going for her 3rd gold.

I know they wanna sell the AA champion in a positive way, but it still would've been nice to educate the audience a bit.

[altai_rose]

Yay Mustafina!!!

Brilliant in 2010 bringing Russia's first AA and team gold at the World Championships, overcame a difficult struggle to recover after the knee injury, and now the first Olympic gold for Russian gymnastics since 2000! I'm so happy for her.

[Cloudy_Gumdrops]

Yay Mustafina!!!

Brilliant in 2010 bringing Russia's first AA and team gold at the World Championships, overcame a difficult struggle to recover after the knee injury, and now the first Olympic gold for Russian gymnastics since 2000! I'm so happy for her.

Let's hope Komova and Afanasyeva can bring home two more on beam and floor respectively. *knock on wood*

[altai_rose]

Let's hope Komova and Afanasyeva can bring home two more on beam and floor respectively. *knock on wood*

Errr... yes, I hope so *knock on wood* but no I don't think so....

So... Aliya Mustafina--Olympic champion!

[flipforsynchro]

NBC should've explained that Gabby wouldn't have won (or even medalled) even if she was perfect instead of portraying it as going for her 3rd gold.

I know they wanna sell the AA champion in a positive way, but it still would've been nice to educate the audience a bit.

ITA my entire twitter feed was of clueless fans saying how if Gabby didn't win they would "slap those judges"

[Eeyora1]

Yay Mustafina!!!

Brilliant in 2010 bringing Russia's first AA and team gold at the World Championships, overcame a difficult struggle to recover after the knee injury, and now the first Olympic gold for Russian gymnastics since 2000! I'm so happy for her.

Beautifully said! It's incredible how hard she worked to overcome the injury. I would have been proud of her even if she finished fifth.

[ks1227]

Dare I say it but ... has the NBC prime-time coverage improved drastically since Track and Field started? They are actually showing the heats, and comparing the times of the racers. They are doing fluff pieces about athletes from other countries. They are (gasp!) even showing medal ceremonies from other countries. The commentators seem informed, like they know the sport. They are comparing the results of this race with past Olympics. Seems like less time is wasted.

Like ... why couldn't it have been like this the first week?

Some of the criticism during the first week was actually over the top. But I agree that the coverage seems to have improved a bit. Like, did we even have to sit through Ryan Seacrest at all tonight?

Truth is, criticism does sometime improves coverage, even if the executives get defensive during the process. I doubt we'd have as much online access to live events at these Olympics if people hadn't complained in the past.

That said, a very significant majority of Americans believe NBC is doing an "excellent" job in coverage anyway, according to a Pew poll:
Pew Says ... 77 percent like Olympic coverage

Among the most compelling findings is that 77 percent of those surveyed believe NBC is doing an "excellent" or "good" job in coverage. That is certainly at odds with perecption of widespread criticism in social media, with some analysts saying there are "millions" of disgruntled audience members.

Maybe it's only people on figure skating message boards who are pissed about NBC.

[Eeyora1]

Maybe it's only people on figure skating message boards who are pissed about NBC.

I do consider myself bias as a result of the lousy figure skating coverage thay have given us over the years

[Jimena]

Agreed. A friend was horrified about how she smiled and hugged her coach when Gabby ****ed up. I think NBC has it's mind set on the "EVILLE BITCHY RUSSIANS!" storyline and refuse to deviate from that.

It's very annoying to me. It's all done to manipulate the audience and heighten "drama". And it works.

NBC should've explained that Gabby wouldn't have won (or even medalled) even if she was perfect instead of portraying it as going for her 3rd gold.

I know they wanna sell the AA champion in a positive way, but it still would've been nice to educate the audience a bit.

Sadly, I don't think that will ever happen. They really do their damnest to take the joy out of the sport for me.

I enjoy athletics much better than swimming. And it improves the coverage exponentially. I wouldn't be surprised, however, to see the ratings go down during week 2. Much less USA USA USA rah rah rah than when swimming was around. The casual fan seems to really respond to that.

[Lara]

Glad I don't see NBC anymore since last thursday... I could not stand the fluff-festival their primetime is now, after getting live events in Beijing with so zero to very few fluff this time in London is ugly

Glad also that for Rio 2016 the time zone difference will be very very friendly and will allow most likely to schedule swimming, gymnastics and athletics at the NBC primetime lineup, so that will allow to follow SPORTS and not fluff (or at least less of it)

If NBC insists on sticking with 8-12 pm EST for their primetime broadcasts, there will still be tape delay. And the reason gymnastics and swimming didn't overlap live in London (which was great) was because gym finals started at 4:30 GMT and swimming 7:30. We won't get that luxury in Rio I expect. And between the back and forth, it's safe to say swimming wins/has the upper hand over gymnastics. IOW, I don't expect *that* significant an improvement come Rio.

But no question the coverage was a lot better last night - better late than never! It'd be nice to get all of beam and floor like we did UB, and NBC usually loves high bar so I can see that getting close to full coverage.

[dbell1]

NBC should've explained that Gabby wouldn't have won (or even medalled) even if she was perfect instead of portraying it as going for her 3rd gold.

I know they wanna sell the AA champion in a positive way, but it still would've been nice to educate the audience a bit.

^^This. A perfect routine wouldn't have had her anywhere near gold.

[allezfred]

Switching athletics and swimming would be genius.

They did that in 1956 and it was such a success.....oh wait.

Athletics is the marquee event of the Olympics with the widest global participation of all the sports at the Olympics. It's fitting that it is the climax to the event.