NBC Broadcast Criticism/Conversation

[makam]

Yeah, lets not kid ourselves, there is a certain segment of the US that would have a cat if the olympic team was Biles, Chiles, Lee, Blakely and Douglas.

NBC could absolutely do a better job showing more routines while still doing some of the “storyline” stuff. With graphics overlays, they could keep us up to date on the scores of gymnasts who just competed while showing someone else. NCAA coverage is blazing the trail, NBC just needs to copy them.

 

[dweiss324]

Some very good points here.

I think an intro “fluff-lite” that helps tell who is who and differentiates their narrative is helpful for the general audience and a great hook. It’s not too much to sit through, it’s good context for where we are in the season / quad. And it helps mitigate against the argument that following more than a few gymnasts would be harmful to understanding their narratives. I think nbc actually used to do this somewhat well, it was one of the only times I remember Al’s voice actually contributing anything of value.

It should be up to the commentators to help explain the sport as it happens in the context of the season, not manipulate the footage to help viewers stay interested. What other sporting coverage skips over large chunks of play??? How are casual fans of Simone supposed to grow into actual fans if they’re treated like idiot casual fans?

Also weird to hear Sam defend the coverage when she has so much NCAA experience with Bart and Kathy and they help explain the meets so well and in such dignified ways, with back to back and often overlapping gymnastics. It seems… disingenuous. How do they not have anybody on their team pushing back against the nbc coverage style, or are their hands just tied??

 

[Puffin]

I have to say that the International youtube stream was great - back to back routines and no patronising dumbed-down commentary - in fact no commentary at all

I think that the BBC do a much better job as gymnastics commentators - they use the technical terminology but explain them as well plus a few interviews and pre-filmed pieces but the bulk is gymnastics. Noone will become a fan of gymnastics by watching Simone doing her hair and getting a water bottle. The success of NCAA coverage shows that audiences like watching routines. NBC’s coverage seems really old fashioned.

 

[Laura722]

Rumor is Nastia wanted more money. I think she’s done as a gymnastics commentator at NBC.

 

[MaryClare]

That doesn’t explain Tim’s absence. He’s been the anchor for a very, very long time

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

Solidarity with Nast?

 

[MaryClare]

He’s a NBC sports broadcaster, not the Union man at a steel mill

 

[YurchenkoLoop]

But wouldn’t Timmy look oh so dapper with a hammer and sickle?

 

[Laura722]

I want to know what is up with Tim Daggett not commentating, too. If he’s not commentating anymore, I’m going to be sad. I was thinking about how excited he would have been during Simone’s YDP.

 

[dweiss324]

It’s hard to say I would miss Tim’s commentary per se, but I would a little bit miss his familiar presence and he did get excited which I can very much appreciate. He clearly loves this sport intensely.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

Yeah, like with Scott Hamilton and figure skating, I could always tell that Tim has so much enthusiasm for gymnastics. I still miss Scott’s commentary for figure skating.

 

[Denn]

You don’t fucking get smarter by someone dumbing it all down for you.

Peszek almost literally said “The general audience is too dumb to understand gymnastics”. That’s not true. The problem is that NBC is treating her like she is too dumb to figure out how to explain it. (Other commentators also.)

I have literally sat in the stands with non-gym fans and, after a competition, they not only knew TONS but also asked lots of great questions because I fostered it. It can be done by someone with a mind to educate.

(Inserted red stuff)

 

[Passion]

I have literally sat in the stands with non-gym fans

At this point, before the meet starts, they were already interested enough in gymnastics to buy tickets and show up at a competition.

NBC/ESPN seem to be telling their commentators that they need to grab people who just happened to walk by a TV and gymnastics was on and turn them into dedicated fans. NBC/ESPN wants their commentators to do this with storylines and hyping up star athletes. It’s not just Peszek “being dumb.” It’s what her employers are telling her to do.

Tim, when off primetime NBC, is an amazing commentator and can go for an entire competition excitedly explaining every detail about what’s happening. On primetime NBC he has to tell the story that NBC wants told, because that’s what they hired him to do. I don’t watch NCAA at all so I can’t comment on how different Peszek is on a SEC stream.

The problem people were having with the broadcast that led to Peszek’s explanation in the first place was the lack of gymnasts/routines being shown. She doesn’t have any control over that. She can’t explain anything about Kayla DiCello’s UB routine if the cameraman is pointing his camera at Biles watching Cecile Landi scroll on her phone.

USAG and Li Li Leung have complained to NBC about not showing enough athletes and NBC still wants to do it their way. If they can’t get things to change, I don’t know what people think someone like Daggett or Peszek could possibly do. USAG at least is doing what they can to mitigate it by uploading every routine by athlete for free to YouTube so their gymnastics can still be seen. If Peszek says in a meeting “I think we should show these athletes and talk about this” and NBC says no, just hype Biles for two hours… then ultimately that’s what she has to do. She can quit and they can get someone else to do it, but either way we don’t get more gymnasts shown on the broadcast.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

You know, what meet had really great coverage? The 1997 Junior ITC on ESPN. It wasn’t live, but it’s the reason why I’m a lifelong gymnastics fan now. There were very few routines that weren’t shown. Mostly Romanian bars, but who really wants to see that anyways? I watched it over and over and over again and by the time the 2000 Olympics rolled around, I recognized Elise Ray, Andreea Raducan, and Ling Jie.

 

[Denn]

I agree about the shift of blame to NBC. I edited my post to reflect better what I believe.

I know that the major complain was the amount of gymnastics shown, but that’s not what I am responding to. I am responding to some of these other statements.

 

[Denn]

I have said this before and I’ll say it again — Tim is a VERY capable commentator, and @Passion is right that NBC basically constrains him because when he’s commentated elsewhere, it’s fantastic.

That said, I DO think it’s possible to make for a very accessible story line AND talk intelligently about the sport at a level that fans can enjoy.

Is there ANY other sport that is dumbed down this much? Even skating gets all kinds of technical commentary. People love it when Johnny Weir nerds out.

 

[JDB]

Could this be split into a thread for complaining about NBC? I’d love a two minutes hate for NBC thread.

 

[makam]

If Peszek says in a meeting “I think we should show these athletes and talk about this” and NBC says no, just hype Biles for two hours… then ultimately that’s what she has to do

And then when Biles (or any other over-hyped athlete) has an issue or fails to deliver, it bites them in the ass. I guess in Tokyo they were able to pivot to discussing mental health and athlete stress because Michael Phelps and others were open to talking about it bit they were almost left with nothing cuz they had built their Olympic coverage around Simone winning everything instead of just covering what happened at the games naturally. They tried to be lazy.

 

[MaryClare]

I don’t think Sam will last long. She’s a stop gap

 

[Yarotska]

The Peacock coverage of Tokyo was generally excellent. Even worlds coverage has been good.

But that’s also because they’re forced to use the same coverage as the rest of the world. When they stopped sending their own cameras and crews to worlds, their life coverage got significantly better. I think the last straw was in 2007 when they took FILM cameras to Stuttgart and it looked absolutely awful on TV and just completely out of place at 24 fps when they were combining it with the world feed that was 50 fps.