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Olympics Will Be Antidote To Economic Blues, Says NBC Exec

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 6, 2008

The summer Olympics are not just about the United States winning the most medals. They're also about bringing the country out of its blue funk, says the man in charge of NBC's coverage.

"I think the country is really ready for this, because it isn't exactly a joyful time in America right now," proclaimed Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics.

Speaking to TV critics recently via satellite from Beijing, Ebersol said that, "With $4 gas, people who can't afford vacations, wild prices on food and so forth, they're really looking for something to cheer for. And the American team and the Olympic athletes certainly offer that."

OK, so it is about winning.

And if U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps doesn't take a record number of gold medals and gymnast Shawn Johnson doesn't kick butt on the vault, well, I'll just have to wait for my college football team to win and make me forget that I can't afford the gasoline needed to get to the game.

Ebersol is in charge of a mind-blowing 3,600 hours of online and broadcast coverage - more than the total of all previous televised Summer Olympics in U.S. history.

Make that 3,600-and-a-half hours, because NBC has decided to start the opening ceremonies at 7:30 p.m. Friday instead of 8 p.m. Actually, if you add in all the pre-Olympics hype on the "Today" show this week, the total goes even higher.

Ebersol has produced NBC's Olympics coverage since 1992 and is known for building up interest in the competitors through human interest features that turn them into heroes - a device designed to make the games more interesting to female viewers.

Ebersol is also known for having produced "Saturday Night Live" in the early 1980s and marrying actress Susan Saint James - both admirable accomplishments in my book.

In theory, just about every sport at the Olympics will get some kind of coverage. It will be spread over the networks owned by NBC Universal including MSNBC, USA, Telemundo, CNBC, Universal HD and Oh! (Oxygen Network). All of it will be in high definition.

Coverage also will be streamed live online at nbcolympics.com and on AT&T Mobile phones capable of receiving the new NBC Olympics 2Go channel. Each day's highlights also will be available online.

NBC will focus its coverage on what Ebersol and company consider the "most popular" with viewers: swimming, diving, gymnastics, volleyball, beach volleyball and track and field.

If you're interested in obscure sports such as badminton, table tennis or air rifle competition (yes, it is a sport), then you're going to have to maneuver your way though nbcolympics.com to find out when, where or if your fave is being shown.

It took me only 12 tries and about 30 minutes to find out when table tennis matches are scheduled, and that's one of China's top sports. The schedule isn't easy to decipher, but the NBC Web pages devoted to the history, pageantry, significance and stars of table tennis are impressive.

If all this sounds like Olympics overload, it is. The network paid $900 million for the rights to the summer games and is spending another $100 million in production costs. So it has to go all out to make as many commercial spots available as possible between Friday's opening and the closing ceremonies on Aug. 24.

Ebersol says NBC will still be playing the human interest card but not so much as in the past. "We learned our lessons finally after Sydney in 2000 that we probably had too many features," he said.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

So You Think You Can Dance, 8 p.m., ABC

With only four dancers left, the first of a two-part season finale begins. Joshua Allen, Twitch Boss, Courtney Galiano and Katee Sheen remain in the running, er, dancing.

MythBusters, 9 p.m., Discovery

Those wild and crazy guys in the science lab are back for another season. The opening episode looks at fan-suggested myths such as tenderizing steak with explosives.

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