Let's do the Olympic time warp again

By Tom Hoffarth on August 8, 2008 7:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

To get your body clock around what's going on in Beijing 15 hours ahead of us versus what NBC will actually show you on its time schedule, take the Opening Ceremonies actually happening at this moment as a launching point.
That's an Associated Press photo above from the event, which moved on their service at 10:04 a.m. EDT/7:04 a.m. PDT. So we have plenty of visual evidence it's on.
At 6:56 a.m. on KNBC-Channel 4's local insert into the NBC network "Today" show. The local anchors throw it out to reporter Ted Chen, who's live, standing in the dark, outside the Olympic stadium.

"For the last couple of hours, we have been able to watch the opening ceremony of the Games of the 29th Olympiad, and it has been a visually spectacular show, a display of Olympic pride and a display of China's pride," says Chen.
Now we have some verbal video confirmation.
"There's great anticipation about how the Olympic caldrin will be lit," Chen continues.
"The New York Times is reporting a potentially embarassing situation -- American triathlete Matt Reid says he may wear a mask during part of the Opening Ceremony because of concerns about air pollution, but we have not seen any sign of that yet."
He finishes: "We will have highlights and reaction from Southern California athletes tonight on the Channel 4 news after the Opening Ceremony on NBC."
The tape-delayed coverage of the ceremonies on the network, of course, won't start until more than 12 hours.
Over at NBCOlymics.com, there's a photo from Getty Images from the ceremony, and a link to blogger Alan Abrahmanson (linked here), who has a post at 4:38 a.m. EDT/1:38 a.m PDT that says Brunei notified International Olympic Committee officials they wouldn't be coming to the ceremonies, meaning there's 204 countries marching in, not 205 that we keep hearing. But still no live reaction from the ceremony.
flux%20capacitor%20jpeg.jpg The "Today" show continues with reporter Kevin Tibbles on the "Olympic Green" and the graphic that says "LIVE EDT," meaning whatever he said three hours ago is now being replayed for us.
They then eventually go to Bob Costas and Matt Lauer to preview the opening ceremonies -- taped several hours because they'd have to be working live inside the stadium at that exact moment actually working.
Where's Michael J. Fox and his suped-up DeLorean when you need him?
Oh, and we also know President Bush has made it over, ready to provide plenty of fodder for "The Daily Show." A couple hours before the ceremony started, he posed with a bunch of U.S. athletes. What kind of good luck wishes does he seem to have for an otherwise oblivious Jenny Finch?