Screw the X Games–TOP GEAR Creates the Real Extreme Winter Olympics

Don’t go into sports withdrawl now that the Super Bowl is over–the lads of Top Gear have you covered. You may not watch the biathlon during the “real” Winter Olympics (shame on you–they’re amazing athletes), but how can you not want to watch the Top Gear biathlon, which uses cars and has as its stakes [...]

The Ten Best Television Moments of 2008

I’m one of those grouches who generally doesn’t love New Year’s Eve, spending the evening grousing in a corner about another year slipping away into the ether. In a lot of ways, however, 2008 has been great enough to kick me out of that rut. This year, we saw whales in two different oceans and camped with [...]

The Olympic Buffet: Sunday, August 24

Oh, NBC, you think you’re so tricky. How could we have possibly guessed who would win the men’s 10m platform diving when you showed us two teenage Americans low in the rankings, two Chinese divers striving to close out their country’s sweep, and a stray Australian? With a mysterious Russian popping up for the last [...]

The Olympic Buffet: Saturday, August 23

The “NBC giveth, and NBC taketh away” nature of US Olympic coverage continues, with a strangely piecemeal presentation of the decathlon. It’s pretty hard to build any sense of drama and suspense when you show only one competitor. And yet, showing the medal ceremony for the men’s 400m encapsulated the highs and lows of the [...]

The Olympic Buffet: Friday, August 22

NBC’s sideline interviews haven’t been outstanding–Andrea Kremer putting an awkward hand on weeping 15-year-old diver Haley Ishimatsu’s shoulder after Ishimatsu didn’t qualify for the 10m platform finals was a low point–but the live interviews at the Bird’s Nest provided a couple of moments today that give a glimmer of hope. The interview immediately after the [...]

The Olympic Buffet: Thursday, August 21

Thank goodness there weren’t any sports being contested at the Olympics today so NBC could show the “Champions’ Gala” gymnastics musicale revue in which absolutely no medals were awarded. In other news, Usain Bolt is awesome. In fairness, so were NBC and commentator Ato Boldon in untangling the disqualifications in the men’s 200m and capturing [...]

The Olympic Buffet: Wednesday, August 20

I have accused Olympic coverage in the past–which has meant NBC recently–of spending too little time covering sports and too much time doing sob stories, with sun-dappled athletes who have overcome the heartbreak of hangnails staring pensively into the distance. There seems to be less of that in this year’s coverage (although possibly more on [...]

The Olympic Buffet: Tuesday, August 19

I’m not sure what I think about his histrionics in terms of sport, but since NBC is a fourth-place network, I just don’t think they have anything to lose by putting Bela Karolyi in his own reality show. Possibly with subtitles.
Tuesday’s Blue Plate Special: The men’s 110m hurdles competition has turned out to be a [...]

The Olympic Buffet: Monday, August 18

OKSANA CHUSOVITINA!!!! Woo! And NBC even deigned to show her this time!
Wow, I wish I were in Jamaica this week–there might be a party or two celebrating sweeping the 100m races. Too bad we had to watch an extensive feature on Michael Phelps’ shoelaces and Mary Carillo’s search for acupuncture before seeing it. Expect this [...]

The Olympic Buffet: Sunday, August 17

Hooray for the old ladies! In addition to Dara Torres’s remarkable performance in the pool, 38-year-old Romanian runner Constantina Tomescu-Dita won the women’s marathon and 35-year-old Bulgarian rower Rumyana Neykova won the women’s single sculls yesterday. In their honor, I shall continue to sit on the couch and watch their exploits on TV. This sacrifice [...]