NBC Broadcast Criticism/Conversation

[irichluck21]

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.

I miss Moira Driscoll’s commentary.

 

[rlayt]

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.

I get that. But unless she bought into that explanation why would Peszek go on social media to promote that explanation. It makes her look naive, an accomplice or a shill.

 

[MaryClare]

It makes her look naive, an accomplice or a shill.

Well yes. She doesn’t quite have the professionalism. As I said, she doesn’t feel like a permanent replacement to me

 

[RedBirdie]

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.

It’s not just using the world feed. The commentary is much better, too. For Tokyo, it was a stark difference between live Peacock and tape-delayed prime time NBC.

 

[irichluck21]

Peszek has a bigger social media following than Liukin has.
At least in terms of promoting gymnastics and gymnastics content.

Laurie Hernandez was also at Classic, so I was surprised not to see her at least doing floor commentary.

I don’t see Tim gone yet, he is clearly needed for the MAG broadcast, unless they use John Roethelisberger. He was at Classic, not sure for what reason as the live stream was without commentary.

Maybe they are going with just one color commentator (Peszek) during WAG. So just her and Terry.
Cynthia Potter commentated diving on her own or with an NBC commentator. I loved when she commented solo because there was no back and forth.
However, Potter is also extremely great at her job. She keeps it simple but she also explains the deductions very well.

 

[irichluck21]

It’s not just using the world feed. The commentary is much better, too. For Tokyo, it was a stark difference between live Peacock and tape-delayed prime time NBC.

Same in Rio and London. The NBC coverage itself was poor and loaded with commercials.
However the live stream coverage was excellent. Lots more gymnastics. IIRC it was Shannon Miller and Roethlisberger in 2012 and Jonathan Horton and Courtney Kupets in 2016.

I know Horton, Miller, and Kupets all did Olympic live stream coverage. just can’t remember who did it when.

 

[rlayt]

Remember that recap show that was extra? Horton wasn’t bad in it.

 

[Yarotska]

It’s not just using the world feed. The commentary is much better, too. For Tokyo, it was a stark difference between live Peacock and tape-delayed prime time NBC.

But the difference between the Rio and Tokyo live coverage and the primetime coverage was the use of a world feed vs NBC’s own crew. They had their own cameras so they could film whatever they wanted to “tell the story” how they wanted to. The live coverage was just following along with whatever was being shown. No control over what’s shown = less ability to come up with whatever nonsense they think middle America is gonna eat up.

Pretty much the best thing to come out of NBC’s coverage in Rio was the perfect shot of Wevers’ double L turn in EF that the world feed missed.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

Yeah, I was also thinking about how they compared Monique Chang’s and Wu Xiaohua’s triple fulls side by side, which was neat to see because they were the top two floor scorers. Raducan actually had the best triple full of the meet although she didn’t do it as her last past like the other two. But I think that’s how you actually cover a gymnastics event.

 

[rlayt]

Laurie was good at the floor commentary but she gets to be too much when she has to carry a whole meet as a main commentator. She didn’t strike a balance.

 

[QuietColours]

I don’t see Tim gone yet, he is clearly needed for the MAG broadcast, unless they use John Roethelisberger. He was at Classic, not sure for what reason as the live stream was without commentary.

He’s a gym owner, coach, commentates for NCAA which many of these guys do, and he’s a big fan of the sport. Even if he isn’t there on broadcasting duties, I imagine it would be both professionally useful and personally enjoyable for him.

 

[irichluck21]

He’s a gym owner, coach, commentates for NCAA which many of these guys do, and he’s a big fan of the sport. Even if he isn’t there on broadcasting duties, I imagine it would be both professionally useful and personally enjoyable for him.

Others reported he was on the competition floor and not just a member of the audience.
Maybe he had athletes competing? Too many guys to go through the list. LOL

 

[QuietColours]

Maybe. Honestly, with his connections in the sport I wouldn’t be surprised if he could get credentialed if he wanted too and could make a professional argument for it

 

[rlayt]

Somebody like Tim could go off and do their own thing with great success. Podcast + blog could be successful.

 

[Denn]

I don’t think he owns the gym anymore. I think he sold it to one of the coaches and it’s now called “Western Mass Gymnastics”.

 

[makam]

Maybe Nastia took some time off to work on her health. She was not looking well.

I didn’t mind Laurie’s previous commentary attempts. I figured she would get better with more practice. In the end, i don’t care who they try (except never bring Al back. Never!) because the nbc script is always going to be the same. Focus on the big name/usa, work in a competitor or other country if you absolutely have to.

 

[RichardL]

Laurie was pretty awful though, of course not going to do her the disrespect of comparing her to Al. She never had any idea what a score was going to be and literally said that sentence after every routine: “I wonder what the score will be for that.” Yes, we’re all wondering, Laurie! Just a total pretense of no expertise, which I’m sure is a confidence thing because obviously she knows the sport, but it’s a different skill set to project expertise and confidence than it is simply to have it.

 

[MaryClare]

Laurie displayed no technical knowledge beyond being able to name the skills and even then, she used phrases and short forms that aren’t really useful for the casual fan

 

[Laura722]

She’s still not looking well. She’s in Hawaii and did one of her Instagram posts with photos of herself. People commented on how insensitive she was being due to Hawaii’s wildfires. At first, she turned off comments, then she eventually took it down.

 

[Laura722]

Good news for us who like Tim: