Olympic overload: What's left on the sidewalk of dreams
Stuff we've found to pass along from Beijgingville encampment before Becks kicks another ball into the crowd:
==Sports Illustrated says that its Aug. 25 cover of Michael Phelps with his eight gold medals will be commissioned as a poster for global purchase -- the first for SI. The poster is selling through Fine Art Limited (linked here) at 13x18 size ($15) or 18x24 ($19.95).
==Headline on latest NBC press release:
211 MILLION WATCH BEIJING GAMES ON NBC UNIVERSAL THROUGH 16 DAYS, SURPASSING THE ATLANTA GAMES' 209 MILLION
Nielsen Media Research provides those numbers, allowing NBC to claim the Beijing Games, on sheer number of eyeballs, have surpassed the 1996 Atlanta Games, which were viewed by 209 million Americans and zipped past Athens (200 million).
As Michael Heistand in USA Today points out (linked here), the Olympics are considered one event. Which is like the NFL saying its entire season is one TV event.
So, the list of the "most viewed events in TV history" are:
1. *2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, 211 million (*through 16 days)
2. 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, 209 million (17 days)
3. 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, 204 million (16 days)
4 . 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, 203 million (17 days)
5. 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, 194 million (17 days)
As for those fabricated "TAMi" ratings (Total Audience Measurement Index) that lumped together the 3600 hours of programming during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including Television (P2+ reach), Online (Unique Users), Mobile (WAP unique users and Mobile VOD unique users) and TV Video on Demand (unique users):
=Friday, August 22: 79.8 million
TV: 73.3 million, online: 6.1 million, Mobile 421,000, TV VOD: n/a
=Thursday, Aug. 21: 87.7 million
=Wednesday, Aug. 20: 91.2 million
=Tuesday, Aug. 19: 95.5 million
=Monday, Aug. 18: 94.4 million
=Sunday, Aug. 17: 107.4 million
=Saturday, Aug. 16: 108.0 million
=Friday, Aug. 15: 95.1 million
=Thursday, Aug. 14: 101.6 million
=Wednesday, Aug. 13: 101.0 million
=Tuesday, Aug. 12: 105.1 million
=Monday, Aug. 11: 103.2 million
=Sunday, Aug. 10: 113.1 million
=Saturday, Aug. 9: 97.8 million
=Friday, Aug. 8: 74.6 million
==Sports Business Daily reports that Oprah Winfrey is trying to book every U.S. medalists for a special in September. Three agents who represent medal-winning athletes said that the show contacted them and asked if their athletes would be interested in appearing. With 110 medals given out to the U.S. -- some duplicates, of course -- we're talking about at least 90 athletes, plus many more from team sports.
Agents said it's highly unlikely Oprah would be able to get every medalist to appear -- you think?
Before the athletes get Oprah-filed, David Letterman will have gymnast Shawn Johnson on tonight, decathlon winner Bryan Clay on Tuesday and Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor on Wednesday.
==NBC has struck a deal with the carry the Paralympics Games, to be taped and aired in October. Seven-day coverage would start Oct. 8 with three-hour broadcasts live and delayed, hosted by Al Trautwig. The Paralympics run in Beijing from Sept. 6-17, and will be available on universalsports.com. NBC parent company General Electric is a Paralympics title sponsor.
==Another "Good, Bad and Ugly" assessment of the NBC Olympic telecast by the blogspot AwfulAnnouncing.com (linked here) included:
"It was more than frustrating that they billed NBCOlympics.com as the go to site for every live event, when that certainly wasn't even close to being true. They also didn't even make their videos available for embedding and promotion on other sites (not just blogs). They seemingly ruined their chances at a big payday and record numbers online with that move alone."
And three "losers" we endorse:
=Craig Sager (Basketball): Outside of talking about Hooters the sideline reporter was dreadful. He ruined results from events for West Coasters and even said that if the U.S. beat Argentina they'd "play finalist China on Sunday".
=Andrea Kremer (Swimming): "How does it feel to win ______ swimming race?" was all she ever asked.
=Al Trautwig (Gymnastics): Just terrible and the hyperbole was off the charts. He was even quoted as saying this at one point...."The Olympics begin with footprints in the sky." (Blech!)
About this blog
Leave a comment