Name of the Game

After seeing so much snow on the ground, I could not help but wonder how these Olympians (since they are participating in Winter Olympics, they become Olympians, right?) perform in such cold conditions. Even when I am watching the games with my blanket over me, I would feel the cold breeze and the chillness from the Cypress Mountain. That being said, the winter Olympics is on and is going to end in a week or so. While USA is participating and is on top of the medal counts, NBC is the only channel airing the winter Olympic Games from Vancouver. Even with that, NBC is airing the games only during primetime and not at the time that the game is actually held. Come on, I can understand why the games are aired after the fact, if the games are held in China like in 2008. But people on the West Coast are on the same time zone as Vancouver and yet they watch the games after it has happened. We on the East Coast are also watching the limited coverage that NBC is offering.


So, why all this prejudice in airing Winter Olympic Games when compared to the regular Olympics? Simple reason is that most of the games in Winter Olympics is not really followed by most viewers here and also the participants in those games are not as popular as those in regular Olympics. When I say Phelps, you know exactly who I am talking about but if I say Mancuso, you would be like man, who? Moreover, the news that is aired on TV or radio starts off with the mention of whether USA is in the lead on medal counts or whether US bagged another Gold medal versus the actual sports itself.


Many who follow the winter Olympics do complain about it. The best coverage that the NBC could offer was the accidental death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, Luger, during his trial run. NBC was airing that video quite often and news was read covering different angles and sentiments. In fact, many had complained about the video clip and NBC had to take the video off the air. But ABC took up on the news and is airing it and they have it on their official site as well. Obviously that is what is bound to happen because that is where the money is. Ever since Lindsey Vonn won the Gold in Downhill, she has been the prime focus on the slope events for women. Mancuso is all but forgotten even after her two Silver wins. Next coverage is on Apollo Ohno – how many medals is he going to bag for USA and what his total career medal count going to be? The news and coverage on television is better when the Americans are doing well and are winning medals in the events. When Shawn White won his Gold on Half Pipe, I could see the repeating news and clips being aired even after the game were over. But do we hear about other Gold medal winners from other countries? Maybe their country is airing their videos repeatedly just like we are for our winners. That is the name of the game in the Entertainment world where TRP (target rating point) is the decider of what or who gets coverage.