Touchy Utahns won't have Bob Costas to kick around during the closing ceremonies on Sunday. At least not as much as during the opening ceremonies.
Costas will not be at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Sunday night — he'll host the broadcast from the media center in the Salt Palace. Late-night host Dan Hicks and reporter Mary Carillo will work the ceremonies from on-site.
It's not like Costas was demoted or anything. And it's not like this is the first time he's been in the studio for the closing ceremonies. (He was in studio in 1992 in Barcelona; he was in the stadium in 1996 in Atlanta and 2000 in Sydney.)
But now Utahns looking to be offended will have to mostly look to Hicks and Carillo.
HURRAY FOR HOCKEY ON CABLE: Have I mentioned yet how great it is that NBC has diverted most of its hockey coverage to cable?
Not that I'm in favor of sports going to cable, thus depriving people who aren't wired in (or who don't have satellite systems) from seeing the events. But the fact is that without CNBC and MSNBC picking up the slack, nobody in America would be seeing most of these games.
We'd get the first U.S.-Russia men's game. We might even get the second. We'd get the men's and (maybe) the women's gold-medal games.
But we wouldn't get much of anything else. We'd miss great stuff like Belarus' surprising win over Sweden. Like the Canada-Finland women's semifinal.
And kudos to NBC Sports for not worrying about drawing viewers away from the broadcast network. Hockey fans tuned in on cable aren't watching the competing telecast on the broadcast network, but the folks at NBC are smart enough to realize that they're watching nonetheless.
(As simple and logical as that sounds, it's nearly revolutionary when it comes to how network executives think.)
And NBC has done a fine job of covering those games. Not too much chatter from the broadcast booth, plenty of analysis for the less-savvy fans (like yours truly) and great camera work.
Now, if only they hadn't relegated anchor Jim Lampley to the cheesiest looking set this side of your local high school's video department . . .
NHL, TAKE NOTE: Hopefully, the powers that be at the NHL are taking note of the Olympic hockey tournaments and will make some adjustments.
NHL hockey has never been much of a ratings draw. Maybe it would be if the games were quicker, without all the needless delays at face-offs and endless whistles.
COMING ON NBC: The folks at NBC Sports — who don't have baseball, NFL football, NHL hockey or, as of next season, NBA basketball — are already talking about the possibility of televising sports like snowboarding.
If it were me, I'd be looking closely at short-track speedskating. Is there a more exciting sport?
But if NBC does go with short-track, please get some announcers who can explain in a timely fashion what's going on and why. Viewers were let down once again in Apolo Anton Ohno's second appearance (when he won a gold in the 1,500-meter) when analyst Eric Flaim didn't see the foul called on the South Korean skater coming, expressed amazement at it and took waaaay too long to tell viewers what happened. And we had to wait until Bob Costas passed on information about the appeals process (or lack thereof) that an NBC researcher had looked up.
THEY'RE NOT JUST NECKLACES: Is it just me, or was it highly inappropriate for Katie Couric and Matt Lauer to be wearing Olympic medals when they signed on the air with "The Today Show" on Thursday?
Those medals are supposed to signify achievement, excellence, athletic prowess and sportsmanship. They're not trinkets to be worn as a joke by talk show hosts.
(Lauer was wearing Jim Shea's gold for skeleton; Couric never specified whose medals she had on.
THE RATING GAME: Day 13 brought more good ratings to NBC — a 19.5 rating and a 31 share. Not figure-skating numbers, but good nonetheless.
The ratings peaked at a 21.2/33 from 7:30-8 p.m. MT with a replay of American Jim Shea winning the gold in skeleton.
As always, Salt Lake City was the highest-rated local market with a 38.8/57.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com
