It's all Olympics, all the time
There are many options for watching the Paris Summer Games, and many talking heads telling us about it. A few are good at it.
During the decades that I traveled around the world to cover 18 Olympics and other major sports events, my family and friends would inevitably greet me with a flurry of questions when I returned.
Usually, the inquiries were routine: How was the food? How was the weather? What did you bring me?
But after the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, I repeatedly heard one question that left me totally baffled.
Just about everyone asked the same thing: Had I met David Letterman’s mother, and was she as nice and funny as she had appeared on TV?
I had no clue where that came from, until someone told me that the “Late Show” host had sent his mom, Dorothy, to the Winter Games to be a “correspondent,” and that her appearances had made her an unlikely star among late-night audiences in the U.S. We reporters had no access to American TV broadcasts while in Norway, so I had no idea she had become a sensation back home. When you’re at an event like the Olympics, you’re watching competitions live or on a monitor that’s showing an international feed. You’re not viewing a U.S. network’s TV feed or hearing U.S.-focused commentary. Back then, in pre-internet/tiktok/instagram days, you didn’t immediately learn about who had said or done something outrageous on the American broadcasts. Sorry to say that I never did meet David Letterman’s mom.
I left the L.A. Times in late February, and I’m not covering the current Paris Games. It’s the first time I’ve missed an Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games. I’ve watched the first few days of action from Paris on NBC, Peacock, and USA during prime time, early morning and the middle of the night. More than once it occurred to me that being unable to see the U.S. broadcasts and hear the commentary all those years wasn’t such a bad thing.
NBC is going to relentlessly promote its performers and people who appear on its shows. Got it. And it’s going to fawn over celebrities in the audience, though some seem to be there merely to be seen and not to see the competition. It’s like the Lakers’ celebrity row, but at an international level. Not my thing, but if someone else is interested in watching Tom Cruise and Ariana Grande smile, let them enjoy it.
As someone new to all these viewing choices, I’ve been impressed by the accessibility of events via NBC, USA, and the many options on Peacock. The time difference between Paris and the U.S. (the French city is nine hours ahead of Los Angeles and six hours ahead of New York) has led NBC to later air replays of events such as the women’s gymnastics qualifying competition, which began around 2:40 am on Sunday. NBC repackaged that event for its nightly prime time show, using different announcers and adding features on American athletes as well as video of prominent gymnasts from other countries.
In the early going, at least, these Games have been the Snoop Dogg Olympics. The man is everywhere, wearing a Coco Gauff tee shirt or a Simone Biles tee shirt, sitting with athletes’ parents and relatives and making himself part of the family, playing the role of a cheerful, fun-loving uncle. He is a genuine sports fan and has helped young, would-be athletes, as I wrote in a column five years ago. His easygoing attitude has been a plus, and his attempt at badminton play-by-play in a Sunday highlights compilation was hilarious. He’s scheduled to team up with Martha Stewart on equestrian dressage coverage, and that should be a hoot.
He’s not the only winner among the announcers and analysts. Noah Eagle and Dwyane Wade, the top basketball announcing team, are poised to be the breakout broadcast stars of the Games. Eagle, a former Clippers radio voice, is the son of longtime broadcaster Ian Eagle, but Noah has succeeded on his own multiple merits. He and Wade play well off each other, as they did in Sunday’s U.S.-Serbia men’s game.
When Eagle smoothly brought up the difference between NBA and international rules, Wade chimed in on the impact of playing 10-minute quarters in the Olympics vs. 12-minute quarters in the NBA. “In the NBA, you can come out and jab a little bit,” Wade said, a luxury not available in the condensed quarters at the Olympics. Wade also had the grace to stop himself when he referred to the American team as “us,” an understandable lapse. “You’ve got to keep me honest,” he laughingly told Eagle. NBC, which recently got a slice of NBA broadcast rights, should consider keeping Eagle and Wade together after the Olympics.
Here’s a few more early winners: Six-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Amy Van Dyken has been a strong presence as a commentator and analyst. Her knowledge and enthusiasm shine through. The same is true for soccer analyst Julie Foudy and late-night host Maria Taylor. Ted Robinson (diving) is a pro at every sport he calls. Swimming announcers Rowdy Gaines and Dan Hicks are dynamic, informative, and entertaining. They’ve deservedly become the signature voices of Olympic swimming. They’ve been joined by Michael Phelps, who knows a little about swimming after winning 28 Olympic medals in the sport.
On the down side, the Paris Games are only a few days old and we’ve already seen too much of Peyton Manning, who was badly miscast as a commentator at the opening ceremony alongside an out-of-place and giddy Kelly Clarkson. Since then, Manning has been shown watching different events, appearances that seem calculated solely to promote him—and, maybe in NBC’s thinking, somehow tap into the NFL’s enormous audience.
The best insight he could offer during the rainy opening ceremony is that he had played a Super Bowl in the rain so he could identify with the Olympic athletes. It would serve viewers better to show less of him and more of the athletes’ performances and backstories. Especially those who aren’t American. Let the athletes be the stars.
And isn’t it funny how Colin Jost, co-anchor of the Weekend Update on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, got the plum assignment of covering surfing, which is being held in Tahiti? It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it. All the better for NBC if it’s somebody who can help them promote another NBC show.
Jost gave it a good shot the other night, gamely standing up to do a report while saying he had cut his foot open on a coral reef and that ants were crawling all over his foot while he spoke. Asked by host Mike Tirico if he felt like he was at the Olympics, Jost was honest. “Not really,” he said. “I would say sort of a rural circus.” Let’s see if he can contribute more to the Olympic circus.
And why use artificial intelligence to recreate Al Michaels’ voice on the daily Olympic recap on Peacock? Why not employ the real Al Michaels? Just because it’s possible to use AI doesn’t mean it’s the right or authentic thing to do in this case.
The action will continue this week with more swimming and with team and apparatus events in gymnastics. Track and field, another of the marquee sports of the Summer Games, will start Thursday (Paris time). I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of it, and to listening to most of it.
We have been watching mostly men’s and women’s gymnastics and diving. ( Watching women’s uneven bars individual finals as I type this.) Men’s gymnastics has been especially exciting with Steven N. and Frederick R. from Massachusetts. I always enjoy your articles so much and have always loved watching the Olympics. Last weekend at Springfield College we celebrated the 40th anniversary of Jeff Blatnick’s ‘79 gold medal win in Greco Roman wrestling. Jeff’s widow and daughter joined us and brought his gold medal. It was a special day. (Just now…nice bars routine by Suni Lee -Bronze Medal! 🤸♀️😊) I always enjoy Tim Daggett’s commentary as well. He is a native of Western Mass and his gym (Daggett Gymnastics) is 5 minutes from our home in Agawam and is where Amy and Megan went when they were little. (He has since sold the gym. At the time when Amy and Megan were going, he was coaching his son Peter and the Level 9s and 10s so we would often see him in the gym. ) Thinking of you.😊
I enjoy having it on while I’m puttering around the house during the day. I agree-Snoop Dog is just having fun and sharing his joy with us all. I enjoy him.
Best of all is watching these athletes-especially the young ones sharing their passion with us. And how neat to see folks from all over the world come together for fun in sports!