I love the Winter Olympics, but this year they were all but ruined for me by NBC. It started with what I thought was terrible commentary during the Opening Ceremonies. From Meredith Viera’s advice to “Google” the cyrillic alphabet, to Matt Lauer’s smug, and often insulting, political analysis of every single country as they entered the arena. Strangely, I’m unable to find any video of it on the web. However, it was also noted by Mary McNamara in the L.A. Times.
In short, NBC have been terrible guests. Impolite to our hosts, insulting to the athletes, and harping on the Olympic ring malfunction during the opening ceremonies. (As well as reporting it as “news” after the fact.)
The banality of the commentary was highlighted by Meredith Viera explaining what we were watching, in the most literal of senses. It was reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commentary on the “Conan the Barbarian” DVD.
