My Ox Is Broken

Ox Notes: February 23, 2010

With less than one week until the cast of Dancing with the Stars 10 is announced, details about the new season emerge. Pro dancers Lacey Schwimmer and Jonathan Roberts announced via Twitter that they won't participate this season. Pure DwtS posted a summary of which twelve pros seem likely to compete in DwtS 10.

Pure DwtS also noted that the new cast members will be announced during Monday, March 1's Bachelor finale by Tom Bergeron and Melissa Rycroft. Does that mean Melissa's officially the new co-host?

DwtS pro Derek Hough got himself involved in the ongoing drama between British singer Cheryl Cole and her allegedly philandering husband, footballer Ashley Cole.

I'm loving Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, especially since I'm rooting for the Villains. People and EW interviewed the latest booted cast member, Stephenie LaGrossa. EW, as always, features great episode recaps and Jeff Probst's blog.

One thing I'm not loving is NBC's Olympic coverage. Besides the universally despised tape delay the network insists on using, even in the DVR era, I'm most disappointed in the network's Web coverage of events.

The event I've been most looking forward to -- the men's 4x10k cross-country relay -- takes place tomorrow at 1:15 CST, and it's not airing on any network. U.S. men's hockey, which normally airs on USA or MSNBC, is the Wednesday afternoon feature on NBC. Instead of airing the cross-country relay in the open timeslot, USA is airing a marathon of NCIS reruns.

Here's the really dumb thing. NBC's Olympic website is only streaming curling and hockey live, two events that already get live coverage on the main network or on cable. Why not use the website to broadcast events that won't be aired on TV? I'd even be willing to pay a small amount ($.99, a la iTunes) to watch a live stream of some of the cross-country relay.

Instead of making money off of me and other fans of sports in which the U.S. isn't competitive, either directly or via ad exposure, NBC forces fans to seek out international live streams on the Internet (bring on the Tim Horton's ads, Canadian Olympic coverage!).

NBC's Olympic broadcast contract runs out after 2012. I'm hopeful that a new network will embrace current technology and profit from making the Olympics more accessible to viewers.

Posted by Kathy (myoxisbroken@gmail.com) on 02/23/2010.

Comments

Amy wrote (2/23/2010 2:26:00 PM EDT) …
I have been so bored by the olympics that I have actually forgotten about them on several occasions. What bothers me about them is that they are running the final events of some of the gold-medal races or programs after 11pm, when I am already in bed. Some of the events have been great, but I don't want to hear the same 5 names over and over again.

And I too am loving the new Survivor. It really goes to show that regardless of what kind of reputation you have from previous seasons, lack of chemistry as a team will cause your downfall. Stephenie was totally the wrong person to go. Amanda would not have been the right choice either because she was neither a liability or an asset at that point. It really should have been James. What kind of idiot rips his team to shreds in the first week? What kind of idiots keep him around after that?

Kathy, my dollar is starting to look nice!
Katy wrote (2/23/2010 5:56:00 PM EDT) …
I happen to love curling and the only time I get to watch it is during the Olympics and figure skating so so I am happy with the coverage. I have also enjoyed the snowboarding events..and look forward to the ariels. Can do without the filler stories though. Get rid of the filler and show more events.

My husband will be glad that Edyta is back. I hope the celebs will be worth watching.
Jen C wrote (2/24/2010 1:25:00 PM EDT) …
NBC has really botched the coverage for this Olympics. They've got 5 networks to air coverage on (including Universal sports which isn't really getting used), but when one event runs over they're not shuffling to overcome it. For example, TBS has the rights to the first round of MLB playoffs, but if the east coast game goes to extra innings they show the start of the other game on TNT. Now don't get me wrong, I actually like curling. But if a curling match runs long, which they all seem to do, they don't show the start of the hockey game somewhere else, and the web stream only fixes that problem if you load it ahead of time, because it can take like 10 minutes to get the stream going. I missed almost an entire first period of one game, it was like 3-0 when the curling match ended. The hockey example applies to other sports too, which are getting all mixed up in the shuffle when NBC could easily give themselves more breathing room by designating time on another sister network.
Kathy wrote (2/24/2010 2:27:00 PM EDT) …
You're right, Jen. It seems like NBC isn't fully using the cable resources it has, not to mention its Web capabilities. I've come to enjoy curling this Olympics, thanks to the coverage it's been given. I just wish NBC granted the same amount of time to other sports.

Heck, why not go all Olympics, all the time for two weeks? Do they really make that much money from the 90 minutes of local news, 30 minutes of national news, Extra and Access Hollywood that they show between the afternoon and evening coverage? Those shows devote time to the Olympics, so why not just show the events themselves?

The cross-country relay is taking place right now, and I'm not having any luck finding an international stream of the event. Thanks a lot, Internet.
Jen C wrote (2/24/2010 3:24:00 PM EDT) …
If you're really checking this, there is a cross country relay on Universal sports right now, but I'm not sure if it's the one you're looking for but it's possible....
Kathy wrote (2/24/2010 6:14:00 PM EDT) …
Thanks, Jen C. There was another cross country relay yesterday, and I think that's what Universal Sports was showing, based on the TV schedule. I'm not even sure if I have Universal Sports.
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