NBC Edits To the Olympic Opening Ceremony NOT an Improvement

By On 07/29/2012 · 42 Comments · In American Idol

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I really wanted to do an Olympics Opening Ceremony post today with some video, but there is none to be found anywhere. I don’t get NOT making the event available after it’s aired everywhere. There was some pretty cool stuff in Friday night’s event, directed by Danny Boyle (Slum Dog Millionaire) from actor Kenneth Branagh reciting Shakespeare during a tribute to the industrial revolution, to J.K. Rowling reading an excerpt from Peter Pan. There was a cool tribute to the man who helped create the internet that was wrapped up in trippy trip through decades of British music.

I really wanted to post video of Sir Paul McCartney closing the ceremony with an emotional performance of ”Hey Jude” to a swaying crowd.  Paul was literally choking up as he began to sing.  Even the most famous musician in the world was not beyond becoming overwhelmed by the experience.

But, now, I wish I had watched one of the BBC live streams instead of the NBC special, as it turns out the American network cut out parts of the ceremony for reasons that don’t make much sense to me.

The most significant omission was a beautifully choreographed tribute to the men, women and children who lost their lives in the 7/7 terror attack seven years ago. Scottish singer Emeli Sandé performed the Christian hymn and sporting anthem “Abide With Me.”   You can watch the entire performance at Deadspin HERE.  Instead, we got Ryan Seacrest interviewing swimmer Michael Phelps. Yay. Not.

Also missing in action, as cataloged by Yahoo Music:  The cool Brit pop tribute was interrupted at the end of the 70′s section, completely cutting out the Sex Pistol’s “Pretty Vacant.  The Arctic Monkeys were seen by US viewers covering the Beatles’ “Come Together” but didn’t get to see their first number, “I Bet You Look Good On the Dance Floor.” Lucky for me, I did tune into the live stream somewhere in the middle of the parade of countries, and managed to catch their stellar performance. A tune by folk singer Frank Turner was also no aired by NBC.

I suppose the brass at NBC reasons that American audiences don’t care about talent that’s uniquely British, nor tributes to terror attacks that don’t directly affect them.  If my assumption is correct, the former  is infuriating–because isn’t the point of the ceremony to celebrate the culture of the host country? As a Brit pop fan, I am really disappointed I didn’t get my full-on British experience. And the latter?  I really think NBC is underestimating American viewers if they assume they would not have been moved by such a beautiful performance.

I also found the commentary, particularly from Matt Lauer, really annoying. But that’s a rant for another blog post.

In conclusion. Epic. Fail. NBC.

 
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  • Anonymous

    You can see a lot on Streaming from NBCSports.com   Easy to sign up using many different Cable options.  You can watch the sport of your choice, event, rerun of Opening Ceremony and any Live event you want.
     NBC, CNBC, and Live Streaming on NBCsports.com

  • http://twitter.com/v_streamer Allison

     You’ve got to be kiddiing. Better than Beijing!? These ceremonies were ridiculous, right down to the awful outfits the sign-bearers wore.

  • http://twitter.com/v_streamer Allison

     Bob Costas -Yes! Matt Lauer – NO !

  • http://twitter.com/v_streamer Allison

     They reran the Beijing opening ceremonies in its entirety, that I know.

  • Anonymous

    You can keep Bob Costas.  I haven’t had any use for him since his ignorant and borderline bigoted attacks on Shani Davis during the Winter Olympics a few years ago.

  • http://twitter.com/Quu3 Q3

    ITA “Epic faill”. Unfortunately, NBC butchered the coverage, but still got rewarded with the ratings:

    “…with a record-setting 40.7 million people watching NBC’s first night of summer Olympics coverage.

    “The Nielsen company said Saturday that London’s opener was the
    most-watched opening ceremony of any summer or winter Olympics. It
    topped the previous mark of 39.8 million people who watched the 1996
    Atlanta Olympics begin, and the 34.9 million who watched the colorful
    first night from Beijing four years ago.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympic-viewing-nbc-sets-record-with-opening-ceremony-ratings/2012/07/28/gJQAA9R8GX_story.html

    They are crediting the internet and twitter buzz about it not being live, for generating the high ratings.

  • Tess

    40 million American peeps watched the Olympic opening ceremony so NBC did something right….besides, if you don’t know it happened who would be the wiser from the typical American audience.  NBC is probably targeting what they may presume as a sports minded audience who are more into the athletes and the competition than into an “arts” spectacle, though enjoyable, is not the goal of the Olympics.

    As far as highlighting American participants…hell, I think that is the job of NBC.  Afterall they are presenting to Americans who, for the most part in my opinion, are interested in what the Americans are doing…national pride and all that.  I can’t see most Americans interested in an early round BB game between Uruguay and Russia or a boxing match between Australia and France.

    And, listening to NBC commentators they ARE lauding the great athletes from other countries.  I watched both bicycle races and the Americans were history by the 3/4 point and yet the coverage continued and I learned a lot about those challenging for the win.

    I for one am enjoying the Olympics, just like I have for 50 years…long before “live” TV….and I fully understand NBC saving the “highlight” events for evening TV when people have the most opportunity to watch.  If they didn’t the Olympic day would be over at 5pm here in Salt Lake and I would have to get up at 2am to see anything live.

    Oh, by the way, I went to the opening ceremony at the winter olympics in Salt Lake and I can truthfully say that I was bored out of mind during the march in of athletes, and it was as 3rd as long as the one on Friday.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ACMLXLYSSX73RNYQOUZWSO2I4U Enough already!

    I thought the Opening Ceremony had a level of sophistication that needed a close watch to catch the nuances, but alas, with the cuts to commercials, Matt’s inability to shut up even for a while, and the we had to see Seacrest special, I can only say NBC may have won the fight, but lost the war. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000563730041 Joy Lyerly

    I enjoyed the Olympic ceremony parts that were shown.  Found it very interesting.  The “newest Bond girl” was a highlight and I like to watch all the different countries marching in, many with interesting costumes.  Every year it seems there are countries I never heard of before. 

    Of course I doubt anyone will ever top China’s opening at the last olympics.  That was just spectatular.

    Boo to Seacrest, too.

  • judes

    opalruby at least we had all of the Opening Ceremony Live -even if it was 5.30 am in the Morning .The good thing about it was that I recorded it so I could fast forward the bits I didn’t want to see & watch what I wanted. [Oh & we have an annoying commentator too- Eddie Mcguire-I muted him a lot] 
    The thing I don’t get from NBC is why didn’t they allow the US audience to have the opportunity to mute what they didn’t want.If its not shown -you can’t see it. From what I have read NBC is not showing swimming live either – what a shame . Swimming over here is one of the most watched events.I do understand Why NBC wants to only show US events -happens here to on our free to air channel. We as a family , are fortunate to have Foxtel Pay TV which airs 8 HD channels -so we have the choice of watching anything we like -without the annoying advertisements. These days you do have to pay to have a more rounded viewing of the Olympics.

  • Anonymous

    Opening Ceremony re runs available on Stream  NBCsports.com  You just sign up for free and click whatever cable you have and you can watch everything in real time and or replay it.  Try it.  I’ve watched swimming and basketball during the day for example.

  • http://www.fatladysings.us/ TFLS

    NBC has really screwed everything up this year!  We’ve been trying to manually record those portions of coverage highlighting sports we’re interested in.  The result?  Volleyball when it should be archery or weightlifting when we wanted equestrian.  We don’t want to blind record every hour broadcast and laboriously sift through it.  If it’s supposed to be 45 minutes of an archery final than thats what it bloody should be!  This changing things radically w/o a heads up sucks big wazzoos.  Now you say they edited the opening ceremony.  It’s bad enough they’ve changed the athletes rules to fit TV restrictions (if Usain Bolt get DQ’d for twitching at the starting block I’ll scream).  Last Olympics (and the one preceding) it was easy to find a sport and record it.  This time around I may as well say to hell with it and hope I can find it online later.

  • http://twitter.com/KariannHart Kariann Hart

    lso missing in action, as cataloged by Yahoo Music: The cool Brit pop tribute was interrupted at the end of the 70?s section, completely cutting out the Sex Pistol’s “Pretty Vacant.

    Indeed, I complained here at MJ’s even though there was no thread availble at the time.  It seems the almighty dollar rules and NBC just had to get in those stupid commercials.  It ruined the smooth flow of the terrific presentations.  On Saturday, I asked if the entire ceremony can be seen somewhere with no interruptions?

    Plus, if you had friends or relatives from other countries in the Athelete’s Parade, you may not have seen them.  NBC really screwed up the telecast!

  • http://twitter.com/toastyred Sara Traynor

    That’s pretty crap for you guys over in the USA.  I have to say though, I think the BBC’s coverage is fantastic.   You can literally watch any event live (love the red button) with commentary.  Of course they focus on team GB, but they still give a good coverage of all the events (I am not British so this is important to me).

  • Tess

    NBC is paying out of the nose for the “rights” to air the Olympics as do other world-wide TV networks…where do you think the millions of dollars spent on the opening ceremonies come from….and in order to pay for the right NBC has to sell advertising and advertisers want to be seen and heard when the most people watch…hence, big draw events like swimming finals will be aired when most people tune on their TVs, just basic economics.

    And…television networks have “tried” the no talking during an event…the time they did it for a football game almost the entire couch potato network turned off the station.  People like me (and I don’t think I’m in the minority) like to be told what is going on and seem to like all the jibberish.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V3JX273C3GNY57DKUFDBISIVJM Fran

    Laurer/Vieira’s constant chatter was annoying. The James Bond/helicopter/Queen parachuting bit = ?, but David Beckam motoring down the Thames in his neon boat was quite enjoyable.

    The 7/7 tribute was beautifully choreographed, very touching, and the best of the entire ceremony.  Somebody (at NBC) must have looked at what they were editing out?

  • http://couturediva22.myopenid.com/ Div

     Were you born in 2000??

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