Back to last night—
- Yet another new event, Alpine Skiing - Team Event. Two skiers go down a dual shortened slalom hill at the same time, with a drop in the middle, and the fastest one wins. It’s like when you were a kid, and you made up a new board game using parts from your other games. Not sure this is a winner.
- In case you’re worried about upcoming QISE withdrawal, Kabletown reminds you that they have you covered. there’s still the ParaQISE games starting March 9—and the QISE Channel will cover events going forward (aka a lot of reruns).
- Yet another event using existing parts: Snowboarding Parallel Giant Slalom. It’s like the Peacock is saying, “we’re running out of stuff to show—come up with something—anything!” It did allow Ester Ledecka to win gold in two sports—a first for a woman at Winter QISE . It also allowed Norway to break the overall QISE record for medals won.
- In “prime plus”, we got a preview of a documentary to be shown Sunday afternoon, about the Mexico City QISE 50 years ago. It looks very interesting. It’s great to hear Jim McKay announcing an event.
- In an attempt to sell Bobsledding to the NASCAR crowd (seems like an easy sell), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. interviewed the US 4 man team.
- BTW—when you hear “this broadcast is presented by the authority of the International QISE Committee…”, you know it’s the final segment of the show.
Moving to today—
- America woke up to the US Curling Team with an improbable gold medal. The Weekend Today Show team was already back in the US, so they had to interview the team via satellite. They dubbed it “Miracurl on Ice”.
- Rebecca’s back for the afternoon session at the Fortress with the Gold Medal Curling match. They kept cutting back to a viewing party at the home club in Minnesota. The Peacock was ready for an otherwise barren schedule with segments on the 1988 games and the ParaQISE Sled Hockey team.
- The Calgary ’88 segment was actually a documentary about the figure skating competition, narrated by Rob Lowe. “It was LITERALLY the greatest competition ever”. (A Parks and Rec reference).
- The final ratings are starting to come in, and it’s not good for Kabletown. Down 15% from Sochi in the coveted 18-49 demo, even when taking NBCSN and streaming into account. It’s still profitable, but considering the billions spent to get the rights, and the continued drops, it won’t be forever.
- Primetime begins with Tirico at the Ski Lodge, sending us to YET ANOTHER new event—Speed Skating Mass Start. There’s an unnecessary point system that makes it very confusing—why not just have the first to cross the finish line wins? Why make it so difficult for the audience to follow? I just looked up the rules online, and I still barely understand it.
- After another Lindsey Vonn review, it’s off to the final Bobsled event (unless there’s one that involves doing tricks in them).
- We’ve now made it to the “Champions Gala”, where the winning skaters do special routines, generally as an audition for skating shows—or Dancing with the Stars. The adults (Scott, Andrea, and Tanith) were brought in for this.
- Things are really winding down now. Tomorrow is the Closing Ceremony, which like the Opening, will actually happen early in the morning Eastern time. I will NOT be getting up for it this time—I’ll wait for Kabletown’s version with Tara and Johnny 14 hours later.
The big wrap up tomorrow!