It’s quite probable that I will never understand American television standards. The cut the word ‘shit’ from the Closing Ceremonies (it’s Python! COME ON!), but, possibly worse, they cut out Muse and Kate Bush to play more commercials. It was after 10pm by the time Mr Idle made it to the American airwaves and, per a commenter on Gawker, it wouldn’t have been an FCC violation*. So what gives? Python sings the truth. Also, the Dutch team all sang along. IT BROUGHT PEOPLE TOGETHER.
Also, shut up all NBC commentators. Victoria Beckham, for better or worse, IS a fashion designer, she doesn’t just think of herself as one.
Oh, the Olympics are over and so they will? YAY!
Anyway, I read complaints on Twitter about young people singing old songs with talented Geezers. I didn’t mind at all. I’m fairly sure said brilliant geezers approved the matches too. Also, Jessie J. is great. I don’t care what people say.
To read more, look at my Twitter feed from yesterday. It was jam-packed. Apologies to my followers. I sat through (most of) the ceremonies twice.
I also turned off my alarm in my sleep this morning, so that’ll be it for today.
*Here is Mr Idle singing a song about the FCC. NSFW, unless you work with me.
Nobody understands NBC’s Olympics coverage. It’s been going on for ages, and it doesn’t look likely to change. I don’t like seeing it painted as a generally “American” thing, though, as if it’s representative of what Americans like and want to see, because it’s not.
Sorry, you’re right, it’s not an American thing specifically. NBC has had a monopoly on Summer Olympics coverage in the States for decades (and will be broadcasting them through 2020), so I was generalizing unfairly based on their endless fuckery. (Though, I still think that network television should allow for more sweariness in later-night fare, though.)
I am curious to know what kind of delays will happen in Rio, though. That bit of Brazil is only an hour ahead of the East Coast in the summertime, so will there be the massive delays for things like opening/closing ceremonies? Or will the internet make NBC’s coverage (even more) irrelevant?
NBC has the exclusive rights for the Olympics, both winter and summer, and they added a new level of insanity this year by requiring that viewers have a cable TV subscription to view online streaming coverage, even though NBC itself is a regular old over-the-air channel. That effectively limits the reach of streaming in a way that doesn’t seem entirely fair. I’ve watched the Olympics in Canada and New Zealand, so I know what I’m missing out on. I don’t know how they’ll handle the time difference in Rio. They do show a decent number of events live on their other channels (MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, NBC Sports) during the day, so it’s possible that they’ll be forced to do more of that, but to be honest, I have the feeling it’ll be very similar to this year’s coverage. If it’s a big-ticket event, you’re waiting until prime time to see it on TV.
A lot of networks have gotten gun-shy about what my mother would call “language” in the last few years because the FCC was aggressively enforcing rules all of a sudden and doing so in a way that seemed more extreme than before. Technically, it’s OK to say certain things after 10 pm, but I suspect NBC is being overly cautious. Here are the official FCC rules: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/obscenity-indecency-and-profanity There are also some Supreme Court cases on the matter (George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words” was entered in the record as evidence in one).