Olympics
TV marathon the newest Olympic event

By Jayda Evans
Times staff reporter

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NBC should send PBS a quick thank-you note.

Slogging through overwhelming news about doping scandals and bribes since the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, many were ready to write off the Athens Games, saying that corruption has ruined sports. Or that they'll turn their cheek to the less-publicized events, instead of watching the suspected BALCO-laced track-and-field events.

In the recent PBS special "The Real Olympics" that dissected ancient reality from modern mythology in a three-part series, it was revealed that the historical rewriters were at it again. Not only did money and bribes give the Olympic torch its sizzling flame, but athletes also took whatever potion they could find in pursuit of winning. Which, of course, made them a god.

OK, rules are different today. And if an athlete took banned substances or accepted bribes, they should be dealt with. But the cloud that's supposed to hang over Team USA as if they've committed some unheard-of moral sin? Please. The Olympics were founded in muck.

The real concern should be how to keep your job and still enjoy the unprecedented 1,210 hours of Olympic coverage NBC Universal networks is splitting on six channels, running 24 hours a day. (Just to compare, the network amassed 1,133 hours from the past five Olympics combined.)

This is going to take some planning. The television schedule is about 60 pages, beginning tomorrow with a live showing of Team USA versus Greece in women's soccer on MSNBC. The opening ceremony starts at 8 p.m. Friday on NBC. With a 10-hour time difference between Seattle and Athens, this will, of course, be taped.

For more regular "live" Olympics, you can plug into Canadian TV. CBUT carries the opening ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday.

Dividing its coverage into afternoon, primetime and overnight, NBC will provide the most footage at 226 hours. MSNBC will carry 133½ hours of mostly softball, soccer, and beach volleyball, and CNBC will air 111 hours of taekwondo and boxing, among other events. Bravo is scheduled for 122 hours of coverage, including tennis, equestrian and synchronized swimming, and USA Network is the cable home of live men's and women's basketball games and tennis finals in 49 hours of Olympics coverage.

Spanish-language station Telemundo will air 169½ hours of coverage.

Dish Network subscribers have the added perk of viewing all the stations on one picture-in-picture screen, then choosing what competition they'd like to see on a normal full screen.
 
"Athens will be the first Games in which U.S. television includes some coverage of every Olympic sport," Dick Ebersol, NBC Universal Sports chairman.

The hip wave of high-definition television will hit the Olympics as NBC offers delayed coverage of six sports — swimming, diving, gymnastics, track and field, medal rounds of basketball, and the men's soccer gold-medal final in 399 hours of production. The network has 124 HDTV affiliates with the possibility of covering 86 percent of the country.

You'll have to figure out what you'd like to view, how and when, but NBC's Olympics Web site does offer a cool navigational tool called O-Zone. Simply plug in your zip code, and you're directed to local affiliate KING (Channel 5,) to track local athletes. Also, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/olympics/ will report on all the Washingtonians at the Olympics.

So, now all that's needed is an IV pump full of coffee. Oh, and a little hope that more exposure doesn't mean more canned profiles and less live action.

Let the TV Games begin!

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com