I don't think it was that cruel, either. With the occasional exception, it's the inane chatter that drives most people up the wall, not "poisonous" observations.
Exactly. Although I believe the coach Rebecca Boyden's comments do reflect how a number of people perceive NBC's T&J coverage, I do not think T&J are intending to be cruel. The problem is just the ingrained, limited format and the network's lack of knowledge about how to cover the sport, plus the sport's insular, elitist tendencies. Everyone has raved about T&J's online coverage at the Sochi Olympics. I wasn't able to hear any of it back then unfortunately, so I have nothing to compare with what they did on primetime in Pyeongchang. Honestly, I have been so often annoyed and distracted by Tara's useless chatter when skaters were moving into their first jumping passes. It got to the point where I wondered last evening if it's anxious nerves on Tara's part for the skaters that causes her to go on so loudly about,
"This is what he fell on," "This is their weak jump," "She didn't land this in warm-up..." And so on ad nauseam. At times I was screaming for her to please shut-up. Still, I don't think Tara and Johnny are entirely to blame. They are not in a position apparently to suggest innovations to how the coverage is done. And the network is covering figure skating as if it's any other sport. But IT'S NOT!
Much can be said about Tara's and Johnny's numerous peccadillos and annoying comments. They have tried to adjust their behavior I noticed and they do sometimes make good observations, but overall the coverage has been the standard status quo fare. But perhaps some people are more bothered by their shtick and so the coverage issues rankle that much more. You'd think that Johnny would speak more sincerely about his own rough Olympics experiences instead of being harsh toward competitors, but it seems like that's the approach decided on, along with know-it-all soundbites. It's not just T&J though, even though it is off-putting when their remarks come off as snark-driven. Again I think it's largely a fault of the format and the fact that T&J do not know enough about the sport's history, and the format limits them, and so they only have time for a superficial, hype-driven ISU status quo approach. The network itself takes a OTT hype-driven approach to every sport.
The main NBC Olympics host and the hosts on
Olympic Ice online are quite skillful and professional at what they do and very pleasant and chatty, but none of them know much about figure skating. Actually, I think Charlie White, Ben Agosto and Kristi Yamaguchi who were on
Olympic Ice, might have been good for a home viewing audience to see, but it seems that they were on
Olympic Ice in order to provide more expansive coverage that the primetime booth does not allow. The commentators on the online feed were rather boring, but the female commentator did have hands-on knowledge of skating. I'm sure Mike Tirico knows much more about golf and the other sports he covers. It boils down to the fact that figure skating coverage has not evolved, just as the sport itself is mired in so many serious management and leadership issues that they simply refuse to acknowledge. Who knows whats going to happen next year when/if the proposed new WTF rules are implemented.
No actual problematic issues either about the discrepancies in the scoring or about the need for better training methods and nurturing of skaters were even broached on the network nor online.
All the bellyaching going on about the U.S. women's results in the press is also clueless because they don't seem to understand that these ladies did not have much chance politically and reputation-wise going into the Games in the first place. And the way NBC was focusing and banking so heavily on Nathan as the big story and face of Team USA without understanding how this outsized pressure could affect his athletic performances. He's an amazing athlete but he can't simply perform on command like a wind-up toy or a jukebox. What all of these athletes do on the ice is clearly misunderstood. The sport seems to want to treat them like a hybrid between rock stars and jumping machines, not growing adolescents and young adults whose bodies are being battered in the pursuit of elusive championship medals and Olympic glory.
