Rate the Olympic Trials TV Coverage on a scale of 1-10

For NBC this was probably about a 10. I can't see coverage being any better than this for the Olympics. For a European network this would be about a 5.

darren ritzethein

Ryan hall was in the hunt too long fore a retired guy not in the race

-3

We saw 7 minutes of rupps 131 minutes race. No mile splits. Worst tv coverage of any sports event ive seen

I agree with 8/10. Props for from loading the commercials allowing us to see more of the action at the end.

I'd say 8/10 too. My only gripe was the commercials and that long update on other sports.

This is not really a high bar, but best coverage of a US marathon in recent memory by far. Berlin and sometimes London and Dubai are better, though.

the first 45 minutes wasn't great, but after the halfway mark it was pretty good.

9/10 for the last 60 minutes.

they should have caught on earlier that desi was closing fast and played up the drama of whether cragg should or should not cut anchor and go.

btw, cragg did a 5:31 mile once she cut loose - she is fit.

10.

Any live/full coverage for 3 hours is a win. Thank you NBC. Hope people watched and supported them.

Actually I thought the coverage was very good. I watched with closed captioning while running on the treadmill and the amount of race shown was very good. They did show the majority of big moves in the race. They initially missed the first womens break but it was so early it didn't matter. Desi running down Shalane was the most exciting followed by Galen just leaving Meb with ease.

I'll go with an 8.

I'd say 8/10.

A couple tips of the slung don't bother me.

I would have liked to see splits.

Didn't care for the sports break, but most of the coverage was about the race. No breakaways for maudlin human interest pieces.

Commercials are a given.

Pretty good overall.

Really?? I honestly hated it. We came to see rupp a d meb running and we only saw them for 10 minutes max. But we learned about cocacola, zombies, cheese snacks, helicopter views of LA without runners. There was no other info appart of the time. You couldn't know if it was mile 21 or 16. In the middle of the thing we saw a resume of the english premiere league! It was awful.

4/10

Lost track of the women's race for at least 15 minutes while covering the men's finish, plus interviews, plus breakaway commercials. Use the split screen, for crying out loud.

They did not regularly provide splits

They did not regularly provide projected finishing time. Didn't know if men were on 2:10 pace or slower, or if the women were tracking to sub 2:30

It was better than I expected. Lots of commercials is inevitable with broadcast TV, but they were front loaded. The coverage over the last few miles was good. I'm surprised they didn't do more canned profiles of the contenders early in the program. Biggest fault was not showing splits or gaps, particularly as the lead pack broke up.

I'm going to guess the people giving 8/10 or higher don't watch many other sports. Yes this was improved over previous efforts but still awful overall. The production team needs to spend a few hours in a room with the NASCAR and Tour de France teams who manage to provide continuous splits, distance remaining, and gaps between competitors. NASCAR even puts the race in a little picture-in-picture during commercials.

agip wrote:

btw, cragg did a 5:31 mile once she cut loose - she is fit.

What was Desi's 25th mile?

I'm going 5/10. would have beena point or two higher had I not had to stare at/listen to The Skipper from Gilligan's Island all day.

Uk wrote:

-3

We saw 7 minutes of rupps 131 minutes race. No mile splits. Worst tv coverage of any sports event ive seen

I agree with this, the same terrible non coverage as usual.

karpopper wrote:

darren ritzethein

This was an absolute insult at the very ending of a legendary career. They don't even know his god damn name...

I liked the British commentator. Why can't NBC or other networks hire someone like a Frank Shorter, Craig Virgin or a Bill Rodgers to provide commentary. It would add a lot more gravitas to the broadcasts.