NBC pulls out stops on Olympics coverage

In Athens, the road to success is excess.

There were so many complaints about NBC’s pre-taped, pre-fab, lifeless broadcast of Sydney’s 2000 Summer Olympics, you’d have thought NBC-bashing had been added to the list of events.

Well, this time, NBC is determined to drown the critics in coverage.

Launched by a grandiose opening ceremony that seemed to last as long as the Winter Games, these Olympics are being carried on seven NBC networks for a total of 1,200 hours — which, NBC tells us, is three times what we got from Sydney. (And, no, it only seems as if a thousand of those hours have been devoted to swimmer Michael Phelps.)

What this Olympian TV effort means is that NBC and its cable sisters are able to give almost everyone almost everything.

You wanted a better feel for the competition as it unfolds? More events are being shown in full.

You asked for more minor sports? They’re playing badminton on Bravo.

You want the biggest events live? Not gonna happen.

Live: That’s always the sticking point when the Olympics are held outside of American TV’s prime-time zones.

True, there already were more live events over the weekend than you saw from Sydney, including Sunday’s appropriately crucial coverage of the U.S. men’s basketball team’s loss to Puerto Rico. But more would be possible: NBC could have shown us Phelps winning his first gold medal live on Saturday afternoon, or losing his second (and his chance at the record) on Sunday afternoon, instead of on tape at night.

Sorry, but you’ll never see a schedule like that as long as advertisers pay for the Games, so get over it. For their money, ad buyers want an exclusive run of marquee events in prime time. Showing high-profile gymnastics and swimming finals live in the afternoon would be economic suicide, and it wouldn’t be much of a service to viewers, most of whom wouldn’t be able to watch anyway.

While NBC’s prime-time show remains largely pre-taped, it is much improved since Sydney. Led once again by gold-medal anchor Bob Costas, it is less aggressively packaged and has fewer, and less maudlin, profiles.

Even so, there are problems NBC should address. While we understand the need to promote the fall schedule, we don’t want to see more of ham Donald Trump than we do of gymnast Paul Hamm. And the network should start resisting its urge to worship stars where none have risen, or to pump up drama where little exists.

The worst offenders are gymnastics commentators Al Trautwig and Tim Daggett, who acted as if a judge’s ruling Saturday against the U.S. team was the most shattering Greek tragedy since “Medea.” The athletes responded stoically; Daggett and Trautwig should try doing the same.

Even in the middle of welcome excess, moderation remains a virtue.