by Kate Blake, Admin Entertainment Hotline
Some of my thoughts on why ratings slipped mid-week.
The Hollywood Reporter writes that the Wednesday night ratings for the Olympics prime time coverage dipped. They speculate that Paul Hamm not being in the men’s all around gymnastics final was to blame.I have someplace else they can point a finger—- the incredibly BORING and lame synchronized diving. Who decided this was a prime time worthy event? Show us some rowing or maybe the contested wrestling matches that have been going on. That was just lame. I have been recording the events every night then I watch on my dvr so I can fast forward through the stuff I don’t find interesting. The swimming- good, volleyball- good, gymnastics -good. Two men or women trying to hop off a board at the same time and most not succeeding? Meh…I am guessing other people felt the same way. The U.S. diving team is trying desperately to rebuild itself. This is not the way to do so! No throwing rotten tomatoes at me- I appreciate the skills involved- but like synchronized swimming- this is not the type of riveting competition that is ready for primetime.
Track and field get going next week- that will be much more interesting and filled with action- the drama has already picked up with some injuries to expected favorites.
Also- a comment from me to the reporters in Bejing covering the Olympics- please ask the swimmers about their own accomplishments- we do not need to hear them all commenting on Michael Phelps. You have beaten into us that he is the star of the games. We don’t tune in for a single person or a single event. I prefer more varied coverage of more events. The NBC coverage of the gymnastics was awful during the men’s team final- not showing us all of the American men on all of the events was a WHAT? moment. Also- if your coverage is going to go an hour over- let folks know with a ticker when you re-broadcast for the west coast so we can set our DVRS! I kept missing the end of events when the coverage went over all week.
Highlight of Thursday night had to be the American one two punch of Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liuken taking silver and gold in the women’s gymnastics all around competition. The two teammates showed two kinds of gymnastics- one a more powerful pure athletic expression ( Johnson) and Liuken showed a combination of grace, strength and athletic talent. I really loved watching Liuken on the bars and throughout. Anyone who has done any kind of strength focused exercise knows that half of really doing things well is your body position and how you line yourself up. Skiers are always doing hip checks to make sure they have their feet, shoulders and hips lined up correctly. Doing so not only assures you that you perform at your peak but it looks better and the other upside is- fewer injuries.
One of the complaints over the years about gymnastics has been that the women only compete in 4 areas unlike the guys who do 6. Watching the top women in these games attack the uneven bars and do the kinds of handstands and strength moves that the men have traditionally done along with the release skills has been a treat and it shows that the sport can evolve and get more challenging. It is up to the athletes to push the limits. Watching Nastia Liuken on bars, beam and floor along with her awesome position in the air on the vault was a real treat.
Fantasyverses
SuperVerses
