The Winter Olympics has long embraced offbeat events, awarding medals for skills such as head-first sledding and target-practice on skis.
But when NBC's coverage of the quadrennial competition begins from Sochi, Russia on Feb. 6, the Winter Olympics will push even its own quirky boundaries. For the first time, the Games will feature such events as team figure skating, women's ski jumping and the trick-filled downhill course of skiing and snowboarding known as "slopestyle" — part of a complement of a dozen events that have never before been included in the Games.
Not least of its upended rites: The opening ceremony actually won't take place until Feb. 7, a day after the competition begins.
Video: Winter TV preview 2014
In what will be the longest, largest and most broadcast Winter Games, NBC will offer a number of debuts and innovations. The first Winter Games in Russia will also be the first Winter Games to have every moment of its more than 1,500 hours of competition available on TV or via live-streaming.
The Games will also offer special challenges, such as political abstentions over an anti-gay law, a cloud of free-speech controversies under the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, security questions in the wake of dual terrorist bombings in Volgograd and a hefty time difference that will especially stand out given the urgency of social media.
"New events like women's ski jumping and team figure skating come at a time when the audience's appetite and ability to interact with all sports is growing," said NBC Olympics executive producer Jim Bell, the "Today" veteran who is helming his first Winter Games after stepping into the retired Dick Ebersol's shoes several years ago. "What you saw in London was a big step in terms of airing everything live. What you'll see in Sochi is another significant step."
These Games will have the most new events in 22 years. Those will include a halfpipe ski competition, an extreme-sports spin on the classic skill, and a luge relay, which manages to allow for its own version of baton-passing for racers shooting down a mountain, on their backs, at 80 mph.
And if you thought scoring for individual figure skating was byzantine, consider the team competition: It will feature a total of eight events over three nights.
BEST TV OF 2013 Lloyd | McNamara
It's part of a bold — some say fraught — effort by the International Olympic Committee to raise the Games' profile among newer viewers, particularly younger ones, even as the expansion leads to the question of whether more is better. The Games could thus face a backlash that it is engaging in event creep, and doing it for sports that belong more at the X Games.
Those involved with the coverage, however, say that only enhances their appeal.
"At first I was a bit of a purist," said Al Michaels, who began covering the Olympics in 1972 and will again anchor many of the Games' daytime telecasts. "But the thing is, all the other sports are still there for those who want to watch them. And these X Games-type sports bring new people to the Games."
The stakes are high for NBC, which paid $4.4 billion for the rights to broadcast Olympic competitions through the 2020 Summer Games. The network must compete against the likes of a new season of "American Idol," which Fox has counterprogrammed against the past few Winter Games.
NBC must also this year contend with a turnover in prime-time-friendly stars. Figure skating could be dinged by the recent retirement of fan favorite Johnny Weir (he'll be in the broadcast booth) and the nonparticipation of Vancouver gold medalist Evan Lysacek, out because of injury. Apolo Ohno, who electrified performances the last three Games with his short-track speed skating performances, will also be in the booth following his retirement.
Like a capable biathlete, NBC will have several other magazines in its rifle.
Shaun White, newly shorn, will bring his Flying Tomato act to Sochi as he tries to win gold in the snowboard halfpipe for the third straight Winter Olympics and also looks to make his mark in snowboard slopestyle.
And the U.S. will be fielding a ski team rife with intrigue. The complicated, unorthodox Bode Miller, 36, will compete in what is almost surely his last Games, while women's superstar Lindsey Vonn is recovering from a serious knee injury and is a question mark for Sochi.
But of the greatest relevance to NBC and its new-demographic ambitions is Mikaela Shiffrin, the 18-year-old slalom phenom who is the reigning World Cup champion despite having competed internationally for only three years, and who comes in bearing a host of expectations.
"I don't think the U.S. ski team has ever gone into an Olympics with more star power," said Steve Porino, the former U.S. skier who will serve as an analyst for NBC. "These are once-an-era athletes."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Winter Olympics will push quirky bounds and NBC will be there
Dengan url
http://sehatumbuah.blogspot.com/2014/01/winter-olympics-will-push-quirky-bounds.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Winter Olympics will push quirky bounds and NBC will be there
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Winter Olympics will push quirky bounds and NBC will be there
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar