NBC Presents: American Olympic Idol!

You’ve all seen my Twitter and Facebook rants and whines about the Olympics. Why do I have so much Olympics hate? I’ve realized that it’s not actually Olympics hate. It’s NBC hate. (And no, this has nothing to do with the Conan/Jay Leno Tonight Show debacle, though that certainly didn’t help matters.) No, the reason I hate NBC is because they insist on treating one of the most organically and inherently dramatic sporting events like a reality show.  NBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics might as well be called “American Olympic Idol.”

It Starts With the Slick Advertising

I first got this notion when I saw a commercial for NBC’s prime time coverage on its sister network, USA. “Coming up during prime time tonight,” the ad said, “See America’s greatest Olympic stars! Lindsey Vonn! Shaun White! Shani Davis! Apolo Anton Ohno!” Each one of the athletes had posed for the shots, looking glamorous, handsome and totally flawless. I thought to myself, good grief, am I watching an ad for a sporting event or for some sort of bizarre athletic reality competition show?

Ratings Showdown

On Wednesday night, NBC’s prime-time Olympic coverage broke American Idol’s six-year stranglehold on the 9 p.m. time slot. Idol has always been a ratings juggernaut and its worst ratings since 2004 caused quite a stir in the media world. Look at what NBC has done! What a coup! NBC provided dramatic programming that people responded to! Just read the blather that Jeff Zucker was spewing after the Peacock’s ratings victory.

But why is this one-week ratings blip a surprise at all? Americans simply changed the channel from one reality show to another. Think about it. NBC’s presentation of the Olympics has been packaged and produced just like a reality show. And if there’s one thing America loves, it’s reality television.

American Idol v. NBC’s Olympics Coverage: The Tale of the Tape

How is NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics any different than American Idol? Let’s break it down, tale of the tape style.

• Prepackaged segments about contestants/athletes designed to tug on your heartstrings? Check.
• Editing each broadcast so the story is told in a specific way as dictated by the producers? Check.
• Sponsor branding everywhere? Check.
• A ratio of approximately five minutes of “action” for every five minutes of commercials? Check.
• Designated contestants/athletes being singled out as more “starworthy”? Check.
• Epic failures emphasized in order to highlight the successes of the stars? Check.
• Judgy judges? Where applicable, check.
• A soundtrack of generic inspirational songs? Check.
• Insipid in-studio interviews with contestants/athletes by the obsequious Ryan Seacrest Bob Costas? Check.
• Live broadcasts for prime time on the East Coast and tape delayed for the West Coast? Check and check.

Dick Ebersol has made his decision. Rather than providing live coverage in all time zones of an event which has all the makings of the most dramatic unscripted show of all (precisely why we love sports), NBC has chosen to give the American people a pre-packaged, scripted and totally overproduced set of hand-selected storylines. And unfortunately, it’s working.

Enjoy “American Olympic Idol.” Or, if we’re staying with NBC shows, “The Biggest Loser: Olympics.” And the biggest loser is the sports fan.