Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

Social media is remembering only one thing, and it is neither of those

 

I still don't understand NBC using Spielberg, Kelly Clarkson and Payton Manning. Honestly, there has to be some celebrity who has spent enough time in France to "explain" the country, I didn't think anyone of the three - and Tirico added much to the broadcast. Humor? Historical anecdotes? Context? Knowledge of the various countries? They were all like Americans who go to Paris and eat at McDonalds. Timothee Chalomet would have been better. Or a French-based journo. It was weak.

 

Also benefitted from a well-placed graphic.

 

Kelly Clarkson is so desperately bad at this.

 

Gold standard (no pun intended) of NBC Opening Ceremony broadcast teams to me is Bob Costas and Dick Enberg in Barcelona. All the tidbits about all the countries, plus a lot of color as only those two could.

 

Anecdotes are not data, but I find it interesting that all the complaints I’ve seen on my timeline (including friends of friends) have come from women.

 

Now having watched the whole broadcast:
Tirico - he's the man now, so he had to be there. Plus, it cuts down on the Today show crew.
But Manning and Clarkson? First, is Manning just on loan from the WWL or is he with NBC now. Some good insights, but at times, talking about all the athletes and the towns they were from, felt like Harry Caray doing a Cubs game on WGN. Clarkson? Worthless until the end with Celine.
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Well, the Bad Boys (and Girls) of Badminton ((C) Mary Carillo) are underway. The Americans are playing the second-seeded Chinese in a pool play match and just lost the first set 21-11, so I think I'm going to bed.

 

Personally, I only had one issue, and for me it was a big one, the headless Marie Antoinettes. It's not so much that they did it, but there was no warning. I was watching with my 6-year-old daughter and she was very much shaken by it.

 

... actually, I had a second, much smaller issue. At one point they had statues of prominent women rise up to be prominently displayed. NBC didn't even bother to tell us who they were and I think they only showed a couple.

I looked them up: Olympe de Gouges, Alice Milliat, Gisèle Halimi, Simone de Beauvoir, Paulette Nardal, Jeanne Barret, Louise Michel, Christine de Pizan, Alice Guy and Simone Veil.

Sacrebleu!

(Celine Dion was pretty remarkable -- I haven't been a big fan of hers because she oversings too much, but this was very impressive, especially when factoring in what she' been through).

 

The Youtube TV quadbox is clutch for all sports, but especially an Olympics where I’m not sure what I should be watching.

 

And Peyton wasn't? Tirico was surrounded by incompetence.