QISE Review - Pyeongchang Edition - Day 7 / by Mark

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From last night—

  • You know the Half-Pipe commentator had “White is the new Gold” in his holster since the last QISE.
  • Oh, yeah—there’s also Pairs’ Figure Skating going on. I’m sure the Bobbsey Twins had a ton of scripted bits we won’t see. Johnny is going for the Liberace look.
  • Natalie Morales apparently got “indisputable” in her Word a Day Calendar—she said it twice in the same sentence while introducing a package on female athletes. I think the intro was longer than the package.
  • We did get to see the North Korean pairs’ skaters on the broadcast. They actually qualified for the finals, so I guess their families get to eat tonight.
  • With the huge scheduling hole caused by the skiing delay, the Peacock decided to replay the White win in “prime plus”. It makes sense since the earlier showing generated the highest Pyeongchang QISE ratings so far for the Peacock.

Onto today--

  • The high winds causing delays on the slopes also impacted the main QISE park, which had to be evacuated due to debris (like tents and tables).
  • I was way behind on my watching due to earlier errands—until the Florida school shooting pre-empted the afternoon coverage.
  • To happier things—prime time begins with the Women’s Giant Slalom (the weather finally decided to cooperate). Of course, Kabletown’s attention is on Mikaela Shiffrin, who they’ve been hyping for weeks.  Their insistence on having events during US Eastern prime time means this started at 6a local time.
  • I can’t express how much I hate the Chevy commercials with “real people—not actors”. They are all too peppy and surprised at everything. I was hoping to avoid these during QISE, but no luck.
  • Off to speed skating. There’s a ridiculous package about husband and wife skaters (she’s from the US, of course).
  • I’m glad the Lexus/Black Panther ad reminds us it’s not safe to drop down through the sunroof of a speeding vehicle. I was planning to do that.
  • Luge too controlled for you? How about going down the track face first? That’s Skeleton. Think of it as falling on your face, then continuing to do so for hundreds of feet.
  • Things are really getting stacked up due to weather delays. The rest of Skeleton moves to NBCSN, Shiffrin’s last Slalom run won’t be until “prime-plus” on the mothership, Men’s Downhill is starting up—and that doesn’t include the final of Pairs’ Figure Skating tonight. The latter’s priority to Kabletown is dropping now that the US is basically out of it.
  • For the Downhill, the Today Show’s Willie Geist has been brought in for interviews Apres-ski, in addition to the regular commentators. He’s been stuck up on the mountain during the morning show, so maybe this makes up for it.

More to come. Happy Valentines Day!