It seemed like such a fabulous idea when NBC managed to have longtime ABC sportscaster Jim McKay "loaned" to the Peacock network for the 2002 Olympics.
McKay, after all, became the American voice of the Olympics in his many years at ABC. He won both a sports and a news Emmy for his coverage of the terrorist attack and killing of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Games. And it remains a magnanimous, wonderful gesture on the part of both NBC to ask and ABC (with whom the 80-year-old McKay has a lifetime contract) to agree to let him work here in Salt Lake City.
Maybe expectations were too high, but McKay's performance hasn't exactly added any lustre to his illustrious (and unassailable) career.
Providing the recorded opening comments on the night of the opening ceremonies, McKay was magnificent. But, frankly, I was worried about and embarrassed for McKay as he stuttered and stammered while trying to converse with Bob Costas and Katie Couric.
It's been better with McKay just sitting in the studio and conversing with Costas for a few minutes before introducing a taped piece in which he recalls some Olympic memory. (Except, of course, when they been sitting in front of that fake fire in the Salt Palace — something they seem to have gotten away from as the week has gone along.)
But McKay had some trouble once again trying to talk with NBC figure skating analyst Scott Hamilton.
I love Jim McKay. I just wish younger viewers had seen him at earlier Olympics.
WAY COOL: Sometimes technology can overwhelm content — but don't you love NBC's Simul-Cam? That's the gimmick that allows the network to replay a skier's run and overlay it with the run of the leader, thus showing how close the two were as if they were skiing the same course at the same time.
Whoa.
And that camera on the ski jump itself that gives us a view from beneath the athletes as they ski off the jump. I don't know that it actually adds much to our understanding of what's going on, but it, too, is way cool.
ONLY ON MTV: Here's what we learned from MTV's "Olympic Undercover" — missing out on a medal didn't hurt 19-year-old moguls skier Jeremy Bloom's love life.
"I'm just starting to get E-mails — girls sending me pictures with their phone numbers," he said. "And then I was skiing out of the finish line, a couple of girls just gave me something. I reached out my hand and it was their phone number with their name and said, 'Call me.' But I haven't called them yet."
ANSWER THE QUESTION: Perhaps NBC's speedskating analyst, Eric Flaim, should listen to figure skating analysts Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic and learn to say what he thinks. Earlier this week, Bob Costas tried to get Flaim to express an opinion as to whether Apolo Anton Ohno was or was not guilty of "fixing" a qualifying race. (The charge was later dropped.)
"I understand Apolo's point," Flaim said. "He was on the team at that point so he didn't really need to win the race."
Understand, this was one of NBC's own analysts who dodged a question from the NBC Olympics host. Pathetic.
THE RATING GAME: Compared to some earlier nights, NBC's numbers on Thursday night were down a bit, to a 17.6 rating and a 29 share. But to put that in some perspective, NBC's regular, blockbuster Thursday-night lineup — "Friends" through "ER" — is averaging a 12.7/19 this season.
And NBC's ratings on Thursday night were 2.1 points higher than ABC, CBS and Fox combined.
Not to sound like a broken record, but Salt Lake City led all local markets again, averaging a 41.1/62.
IT'S NO TONYA AND NANCY: Through the first week, Salt Lake's Olympics are the second-highest-rated since 1980 — but they're nowhere near the 1994 Games on CBS, which got a monstrous boost from the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan brouhaha.
The night the two competed in the short program, CBS did a whopping 48.5 rating — the third-highest-rated sports show of any kind ever on television. Two days later, the long program did a 44.1 rating. And they were on tape.
Skate-gate isn't going to prompt numbers anywhere near those.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com
