Let's start with Prime Time last night--Craig Melvin steps in for Torico, who as of that recording has just landed in the US for the Superb Owl. Why Melvin? Because he's the only NBC "name" left in Beijing. He's joined virtually by Maria Taylor back in Connecticut. They send us onto to (deep breath) Women's Individual Freestyle Sprint Cross-Country Skiing?
First off, thank you "refrigerator magnet event naming system". Second, shouldn't this be an afternoon event? The fact that this leads off Prime Time tells you that something unusual is about to happen, and it does--the US's Jessie Diggins gets the bronze, the first individual cross-country medal for the US. We then move to the Women's Halfpipe, which is of course all about Chloe Kim. We also get a taped bit from Torico, interviewing the "old man" of snowboarding, Shaun White.
Taylor sends us to Women's Slalom and Mikaela Shiffrin. It's a clutch run after she disqualified in the Giant Slalom--and she did it again. The camera continued to capture her, sitting dejected on the side of the slope, even through a commercial break. In a terrible decision, a VISA ad featuring Shiffrin aired in the next break. This may be THE QISE story for the rest of the games. Of course, NBC dumps the event to Peacock. In an attempt to save ratings for the night, they throw stuff at the wall:
An interview with Jessie Diggins
A rerun (yet again) of Nathan Chen's Skating Short routine
Steve Kornacki and his Magic Board going over Men's Skating stats
A scene of Italy winning Mixed Curling gold (?)
Wishing John Williams a happy birthday (the composer of TV's QISE theme, only a tiny part of his incredible career).
Off to Men's Big Air. There's a package about Colby Stevenson, who had a horrific car accident, only to come back to competition. Back to an interview with Shiffrin, who's clearly rattled by all this. Of course, the interviewer keeps pushing her, to the point of her crying (which was exactly what NBC wanted). Social media are comparing this--very negatively--to Simone Biles' travails a few months ago.
Late night kicks off with Men's Halfpipe and Shaun White. Feel free to turn down the volume and make up your own trick names--"Wow, a 1480 Scooby-Dooby-Doo, right into a 1080 Backside Walla Walla!" Finally, NBC returns to wrap up the Women's Slalom (but mostly to stew about Shiffrin).
I scrubbed through The Today Show, and learned that Lindsey Jacobellis won Snowboardcross--never saw that last night. Maybe this afternoon? Meanwhile, an IOC "legal issue" has held up the awarding of medals in the Team Figure Skating competition. No real details, other than that "athletes that have won medals" are involved.
In the afternoon coverage, Lowe sends us to Men's Luge Doubles. Two very confident men, wearing spandex, lay on top of each other, then slide down a crazy track. Then it's Nordic Combined--Ski Jumping and Cross Country. NBC blew through this fairly quickly. Then more Short Track, followed by a wildly over-produced teaser for Nathan Chen's free skate tonight, and what I think is a rerun Men's Big Air. Disgusting Big Air trick: "Nose Butter". Ewww!
Prime Time kicks off with Torico, now stateside. He covers the latest on the skating "legal issue"--reportedly, a non-Russian team skater tested positive for a banned substance before the competition. No other details--yet. We then move onto Snowboardcross and Jacobellis (finally), as the US gets the gold. This was followed by--a rerun of Shaun White's qualifying run? Seems like NBC wants to get the evening started with content they can control, unlike last night. We finally got some drama with Chloe Kim's Halfpipe run--will she win the gold?
More to come.