Chinese Olympics

[RYou]

I haven't tuned into any of the events except stopping to watch Sean White on the halfpipe while flipping through the channels.  It's the first time I've had zero interest in watching the games.  Maybe when men's hockey starts up, if the games are on at night.

Apparently, I'm not the only one, ratings are down 40% for these games.

[Bob H.]

Same here.  Part of it is that it is in China (both because of the politics and because of the time difference) and part of it is the NBC coverage (and maybe a little bit of COVID malaise).  They were providing a lot of coverage of the events I didn't care about and not much coverage of the sports I was somewhat interested in.  On top of that, the TV listings didn't match up with the events they were covering, so I didn't know what was going to be on any channel.  The net result was, "Meh.  I'll watch something else.".

[mspart]

I haven't watched any of it either.  NBC is the worst.  I even read on the web complaints of their individual 'up close and personal" reports and how there is more of that than actual competition. 

No thanks.  That's part of the reason I mostly watched just wrestling last summer. 

mspart

[a guest]

We cut our cable years ago.

We don't pay for Peacock.

Therefore, watching the Olympics is not available for us.

With that said, the winter Olympics just don't have the same pull as the Summer Games.

It's seems like an Olympics for wealthy kids that had parents that had the time to drive their kids to luge tracks  and the money to buy skis every year

[RYou]

We cut our cable years ago.

We don't pay for Peacock.

Therefore, watching the Olympics is not available for us.

With that said, the winter Olympics just don't have the same pull as the Summer Games.

It's seems like an Olympics for wealthy kids that had parents that had the time to drive their kids to luge tracks  and the money to buy skis every year

You forgot paying the skating coach. 

NBC plays up ice skating and the X ice sports.  They convinced the IOC to team skating title because they think people go out of their way to watch skating.....no wonder the viewing audience was off almost 50% this year

[Bob H.]

In general, I like what I call the "testosterone sports".  For example, in the Summer Games that includes all of the combat sports, weightlifting and gymnastics (mainly men's, but some of the women's events that require strength and power, not the rhythmic gymnastics).  For the Winter Games, that translates to the speed events such as downhill skiing, the ski jump, luge and bobsled.  On the few times I tuned in, they were broadcasting curling, X-games types of events or yapfests.  Snore.

On the plus side, I saw some wrestling duals on the ACC Network during the Games (I don't get the Big Ten Network.  The SEC and ACC networks were included with the tier I was already getting.) and live high school wrestling (No college wrestling teams in Florida anymore.  GRRR!).

NBC thought their formula would bring in more women viewers without losing male viewership.  It hasn't worked out that way, but I think their management is too stubborn or too stupid to change.

[mspart]

For winter games, I do not watch ice skating.  I like long track and short track speed skating, all ski racing events, and that's about it.  Speed Skating is a lonely sport a lot like wrestling.  The conditioning those guys go through and the intensity of their desire are great and I love watching.  I don't like sports on which you get rated by a panel of judges.  They are all biased for one or two and costumes count.  I want actual competition.   The only exception for me is gymnastics, the strength and fluidity I like.  It is not unlike ice skating, but  I think there is more merit there. 

mspart

[RYou]

Most of that was aired in the afternoon and there was no way I was going to waste a day to watch it. I wasn't about to watch and wait for recaps at night.  Every time I checked NBC or the Olympic channel, there was some form of skating or ice jumping so I so I just moved on flipping channels.

[RYou]

On the plus side, I saw some wrestling duals on the ACC Network during the Games (I don't get the Big Ten Network.  The SEC and ACC networks were included with the tier I was already getting.) and live high school wrestling (No college wrestling teams in Florida anymore.  GRRR!).

Up here we get BTN and B12 included but not ACC and SEC.  BTN runs duals Friday night and 2 on Sunday.  During the week they run a program B1G Wrestling in 60 which is a recap of the duals for the week with highlights.  It's a nice way to follow the conference action without having to buy into BTN Plus streaming.  If you want, you can buy into the BTN Plus streaming of the B1G conference championship for like $12 and then cancel the subscription on Monday.