Sorry, Sorry Night

I don't know which is worse: the fact that I missed the live online streaming of the Olympics Closing Ceremonies due to a power outage in my neighbourhood, thus shutting off the WiFi router which, natch, shut off my Interwebs access, or that when the power finally returned later in the evening and I tuned into NBC to watch the already-finished extravaganza, I found myself faced with a one-hour "special" from NBC promoting their next Big TV Show offering (aka The Next Mess) rather than moving on to the festivities. And no, I didn't stay on NBC . I changed the channel and then promptly fell asleep. Being without power can be exhausting, you know.

NBC can tout their high ratings over and over again but their coverage of the Olympics was – overall – boring as hell and far from the days of old when ABC had the Olympics contract and actually hired Sports-related announcers to cover the events. You know, when things were usually LIVE and not Tape-Delayed. When special medal moments were actually covered In Real Time. When one tuned-in to see sports instead of Tom Brokaw's TV documentary on World War Something-Or-Other.

So, I can only go by the beautiful pictures of the Closing Ceremonies and read reviews of the performances…along with the news that several key bands and artists' performances were cut from NBC's broadcast, presumably so that they could air the "Special" for their new show's one-hour Promo Blitz. Yep. I guess seeing Posh Beckham not smile – AGAIN – as she and her other Spice Girls writhed and lip-sang on top of classic, bedecked, cars, was far more important to NBC than also airing a classic rock British band such as The Kinks. After all, Ray Davies wasn't dancing on a car or anything that cost a lot of money to produce.

Nevertheless, it's time for us, The Audience, to now move onward toward the end of summer and into the next round of competitions on the political stage. As mentioned yesterday and many days prior to that, Ready Or Not, here come The American Elections! I doubt that NBC will break into The Great Debates coverage with little teasers of their Primetime Programming. And, by then, I wouldn't be surprised if most of the shows they promoted during the Olympics will have been cancelled by Election Day.

Pssssst, Ann Curry. Try to get out of that NBC contract and find another network that will allow you to be serious and report The Newz without someone pointing at your shoes and the wisps of grey in your hair.

Image via: http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com