NEW YORK (AP) – A former journalist turned college professor, Kelly Whiteside is watching NBC’s prime-time Olympics coverage this month for the first time in 16 years. She’s surprised at what she’s found – not because the programs have changed so much, but because they haven’t.
“It’s almost like a time capsule for me,” said Whiteside, who covered several Olympics for USA Today.
Much of what NBC does at other times is markedly different from what she remembers; the Olympics are spread around nearly a dozen different cable networks and every competition is streamed live online. Yet NBC’s prime-time, the Olympics point of entry for the vast majority of viewers, has remained an island unto itself by sticking to a time-honored formula.
Prime-time ratings are down this year from the record-setting London Games, and NBC says a big reason is because more people are watching cable or their devices. But it’s worth posing the question: Is the formula growing stale?
NBC’s prime-time focuses on a handful of sports – swimming & diving, track & field, gymnastics, beach volleyball – to the virtual exclusion of all others. It’s a mix of live and “plausibly live,” or tape-delayed coverage that allows action to unfold as it happens. A narrative style humanizes otherwise unknown athletes, letting viewers page through a picture book that swimmer Ryan Murphy drew as a child or watch gymnast Aly Raisman’s parents squirm in the stands.