For openers, NBC is educational TV

By SHARON GINN

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 16, 2000

James Earl Jones -- as he usually does -- said it best.

Sydney is a place, he intoned in a dramatic segment that kicked off NBC's Olympic coverage, "where winter is summer and today is tomorrow."

If Friday night's Opening Ceremonies broadcast is any indication, viewers will learn much in the next two weeks about the remote but compelling host nation, its climate and culture. And that may be the best reason to watch because almost everything you see in 84.5 hours of prime-time coverage is going to be more than 12 hours old.

Well before NBC's coverage began Friday night at 7:30, the network's Web site, NBCOlympics.com, had posted 24 pictures of the Ceremonies, including a gorgeous shot of Australian Aborigine Cathy Freeman lighting the torch -- a scene television viewers wouldn't see until around midnight.

Before the parade of nations even started on TV, today was tomorrow on NBC's home page. By 9 p.m., the lead story was about the first triathlon in Olympic history, which had just been won by Switzerland's Brigitte McMahon. (You won't see McMahon win, by the way, until tonight.)

Though NBC host Bob Costas promised "the most comprehensive coverage ever," he acknowledged in the first 10 minutes that "to present the Olympics to a time convenient to you -- that is, while you're awake -- the Olympics will be presented on tape delay." Even the few events that could be shown live won't be so NBC can control the video.

The network has several things going for it, though: the beauty of Sydney, the sheer volume of events to be shown on MSNBC and CNBC, and, of course, Costas.

The likable pairing of Costas and Today host Katie Couric made bearable watching the Ceremonies -- which, despite the beauty and pageantry, always end up being way too long. Though at times the commercials and programming seemed to run together, Costas and Couric added enough observations to keep things fairly interesting during the long wait for the U.S. and Australian teams.

Costas, for example, told of visiting Aborigines in the bush and meeting an 80-year-old man who could "nail a kangaroo at 20 paces using a bottle of water."

"When he was in his prime," Costas added, "I imagine kangaroos just walked up and surrendered."

Costas was far from perfect, though: "The Central African Republic is located in Central Africa" was the best he could muster about that delegation. And Couric just couldn't resist mentioning ancient pop group ABBA during Sweden's march.

Appropriately, Costas and Couric held their tongues during the "Deep Sea Dreaming" segment, explaining some of the symbolism but letting the breathtaking performance of 13-year-old Australian actress Nikki Webster speak for itself.

SAY WHAT?: The oddest aspect of the coverage came early, when NBC chose to show a 15-minute segment on the Salt Lake City 2002 bidding scandal, seemingly to report it and get it out of the way.

Though the segment detailed the bribes given to International Olympic Committee members during that process, it glossed over this likely not being the first time a city had attempted bribery to secure the Olympics. There was no mention of reports that in 1993 the Australian Olympic Committee offered $70,000 to two African members of the IOC the night before Sydney won by two votes over Beijing.

A better choice would have been to air that later during the Olympics and shift into high gear by showing the compelling feature on U.S. flag bearer Cliff Meidl that inexplicably ran earlier in the week on the Today show.

SPOIL SPORTS?: When it comes to local sports reports and the Olympics, don't watch if you don't want to know. Every area station -- including NBC affiliate Channel 8 -- plans to report the latest results in its newscasts, even though highlights won't be available.

Though some die-hard fans will hold out for the prime-time coverage, Channel 28's Jay Crawford said, most people are casual fans who would just as soon find out who won. Like other stations, Ch. 28 probably will give a short warning, but "if you don't want to know, you're not going to watch a sports program" anyway, Crawford said.

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