DURANGO TV: NBC

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Sunday, February 9, 2014

The Spectacular Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic's Opening Ceremony Telecast Was Not Totally Ruined By NBC's Bob Costas

Friday night's NBC telecast of the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics was the first time in a long time I made it through one of these events without bailing.

With that bailing caused by no longer being able to tolerate listening to the constant, interrupting, mostly pointless, blathering of Bob Costas and his cohorts.

The blathering and interrupting ruined the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics for me.

My view on the blathering babbling is that I have invited these people into my TV viewing area to watch an event with me. I did not invite them to be constantly talking, telling me useless trivia, which I have no interest in. If an in the flesh person were watching one of these events with me and they were constantly babbling, telling me tidibits of info about what we were viewing, I'd give that person one "shut up" warning and then with the next violation ask them to leave.

Now, with the Sochi Opening Ceremony we did have that regular NBC Olympic irritant, Bob Costas. And other information providers.

However, the incredible spectacle that was the Sochi Opening Ceremony overwhelmed the annoyance of the NBC babbling. That and there seemed to be a lot less of it the babbling this time.

Perhaps the complaints by the millions of annoyed viewers have been heard.

One of the few times I did find the babbling annoying I think it was Bob Costas providing the annoyance. I am not sure, because the voice was not identified, but it sounded like him. It was when the USA team came into the stadium. A female voice said something like "Let's listen to the reaction as the USA team enters the arena."

I thought, yes, that will be interesting to see how the Russians react to the incoming Americans.

However, what I believe to be the Bob Costas voice began incessant babbling, with the volume of the babbling overwhelming whatever noise the Russians were making. Bob Costas felt we needed to know about the guy who was carrying the American flag, and to speculate as to how proud the guy's kids must be to see dad carrying the flag.

Yes, this was a very important observation for Bob Costas to share with us, much more important than just letting us peacefully, quietly watch and listen.

If Bob Costas had been in my TV viewing room, in person, that point in the ceremony would have been when he would have been asked to leave my abode.

Anyway, good job, so far, Russia, and Mr. Putin. Let's hope the whole show keeps going as well as the opening.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Stars Earns Stripes is Another Big NBC Fail

When I first read about NBC's Monday night Stars Earn Stripes Reality TV Show, the concept seemed so ridiculous to me that I thought it might be entertaining.

An slight added hope that it might be entertaining was the fact that the man responsible for unleashing Survivor on the world, Mark Burnett, was one of the creative geniuses behind Stars Earn Stripes.

Well.

Stars Earns Stripes, in my opinion, is a terribly wrong TV show.

"Stars" are paired with what the show calls "Operatives" to go on "Missions."

The "Missions" seem like a trivialization of what the men and women in the armed forces actually do in real life.

Somehow it all seems in bad taste to me.

Dean Cain is embarrassing himself being all overly earnest about how dangerous the "Missions" are. At one point he said something along the line that he could get killed on one of these serious "Missions."

Dean Cain has also mentioned his young son multiple times. If he really thought he could get killed on this Reality TV Show, leaving his young son without a dad, shouldn't he get himself off this show pronto?

Dean Cain is very impressed to be paired with Chris Kyle. Cain had read Chris Kyle's book "American Sniper" prior to meeting him. Chris Kyle is reputed to be the deadliest sniper in American military history, with 160 confirmed kills out of 255 claimed kills. These kills took place in Iraq and earned Kyle the nickname "The Devil of Ramadi."

I am sure each of the men and women that Chris Kyle killed deserved to die. But still, something seems unseemly about focusing on this.

Sniper kills is part of "Mission" on Stars Earn Stripes.

General Wesley Clark also seems to be embarrassing himself by being involved in this dubious operation.

The show is very repetitive. I could not watch it without a fast forward button.

Of the "Stars" I don't think Laila Ali and Todd Palin have embarrassed themselves. Yet. Beyond the fact of agreeing to be on this show.

Whatever happened to the NBC that produced "Must See TV" on Thursday nights? With Friends, Seinfeld, ER and others?

NBC is the last place network, despite the fact that for 3 weeks in a row NBC has had the top rated TV show, for 2 weeks that being the Olympics and this week America's Got Talent.
Speaking of the Olympics. NBC's coverage of the world's biggest sporting event was reviled by millions of viewers, considered by many to be a HUGE Fail. NBC botched both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Methinks Stars Earn Stripes is symptomatic of whatever is is that has diseased the quality of what the National Broadcast Corporation broadcasts.

I watched the first 2 episodes of Stars Earn Stripes. I won't be watching any more episodes.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Venting Olympic NBC Disgust @ #NBCFAIL on Twitter

I doubt NBC had any idea their bad coverage of the London Olympics was going to get them hammered badly by social media, like Twitter, which has grown much more powerful since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

After the horrendously bad way NBC covered the Opening Ceremony a Twitter hashtag of #mattlauershutup popped up. Apparently I am not the only one who found Lauer's commentary insipidly, intrusively, ignorantly boorish.

I imagine there is a Twitter #hashtag devoted to bashing the NBC Olympic coverage embarrassment named Ryan Seacrest, but I've not seen that one.

You can click the #nbcfail link below to read the latest Tweeted NBC laments. You will need to log in, which means you need a Twitter account, something which, apparently, the majority of humanity has.