Tuesday, August 14, 2012

London Olympics Had The Music, NBC Didn't!

Ray Davies singing "Waterloo Sunset" had him trending on Twitter all day long. NBC TV viewers did not get to see it!

The Who were not shown on the NBC prime time telecast! How do you leave out the Grand Finale?

Somehow The Spice Girls made it on the TV broadcast but MUSE did not!
    What's the deal with NBC? Talk about a love/hate relationship with your audience. They start out by showing some of the London Olympics live on the internet but not all of it. Especially the Opening Ceremonies. I mean, if you're gonna go for the gold then go all the way! There was so much grumbling that NBC changed their policy at the last minute and decided to show the Closing Ceremonies live on their web channels. Great idea since that topic trended all day long Sunday on Twitter and Facebook. They had people chirping during the day in the USA about the extravaganza as it happened live and then at night while NBC showed it on TV tape delay. Sounds like a win-win situation for everybody. So what's the problem?
    Seems like they cut out some of the best musical moments from the TV broadcast.  All day long I heard how great Ray Davies of the Kinks sounded singing his love song to London: "Waterloo Sunset." Ditto for Kate Bush singing the obvious Olympic anthem: "Running Up That Hill."  So I made rum and cokes and prepared to stay up until midnight PDT to hear those performances. I never saw them. Not only did NBC see fit to omit those great artists, they even left out Muse singing "Survival" - THE OFFICIAL SONG OF THE 2012 OLYMPICS!
    Hello? Ferris? Bueller? Anyone?
    Around 10:30pm when I realized I was not going to see the above songs I dozed off. I awoke to see some sort of sitcom on the tube. Later found out it was a pilot for a new NBC show called "Animal Practice." According to Twitter, it's now the most-hated sitcom on TV. Music fans who stayed up until midnight in California became outraged when NBC butchered the Who's performance at the Closing Ceremonies by making them sit through "Animal Practice" and the local news. Then returning to a promised "grand finale" which only included part of The Who's medley of "Baba O'Riley," See Me Feel Me" and "My Generation."
    It doesn't make any sense. NBC pays billions to televise the Olympics, does a good job for two weeks, then drops the baton on the final lap of the race.  I understand why they showed many of the athletic events on tape delay because they need the prime-time revenue advertising dollars.  I'm fine with that. I'm not fine with knowing the rest of the world was able to see Ray Davies and The Who and that the USA television did not get that chance.