66.8%	23.8%	9.4%
Events	Ads	Fluff

The Wrap-Up

A week late as usual, because I needed the time to recover.

You wouldn't think that just watching TV would be exhausting. Usually people do that because they're exhausted and don't feel like doing anything else. But watching, recording times, and reporting on TV is more tiring than you'd think. Because of that, even though I always think I'll get right on this wrap-up page the day after the Olympics are over, I never actually do.

But now I'm all rested and ready to go. Bring on the Sochi games! Oh... wait. I've got a little time before that's going to happen. Let's concentrate on what just happened over the last two weeks.

First, let's look at this year's ratios compared to that of Olympics' past:

Now, this isn't a completely accurate comparison since I didn't keep track for four of the last five days of the London Games, but given that I heard Tom Brokaw went all fluffy on Saturday the 11th, maybe this works out in NBC's favor. And that's not good. After Beijing, I was beginning to wonder if it was even worth doing this site since the Fluff had trended downward for eight years. But now it seems as though NBC is regressing, and they've fluffed at their highest rate since the atrocious (for fluff) Sydney games. It looks like the Rockwood Olympic Watch might need to continue into the future.

The 2012 Rockwood Olympic Watch Medal Ceremony

The competition is over in the arenas, and now the scores are finalized for the coverage. Let's start with the good news:

* Good Bronze Medal. Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky. Missy, 17, and Katie, 15, are all that is good and bubbly about American swimming. They both won gold (Missy several times), both sang on the medal stand (which I love), and both are young enough to be dominant forces in international swimming for several Olympics to come. So, given that and the fact that I called Missy "America's Sweetheart" all through the games, why am I not ranking them higher? Read on.

* Good Silver Medal. Misty May-Treanor and Kristi Jennings Walsh. America's Sweetheart has her whole career in front of her. These ladies just concluded theirs, and what a career it was. They never lost in the Olympics. Never. They won every single match. And they were gracious, friendly (to the crowds, if not their opponents), and never cocky about it. The jokey fact that they play in bikinis shouldn't overshadow the fact that they are the dominant team in this sport. So what keeps them from gold?

* Good Gold Medal. Michael Phelps. After his first race in the London games, when he finished fourth and lost to Ryan Lochte, I was a doubter. And then look what happened. He now is the record-holder for most Olympics medals and most Olympic gold medals. How can someone who might just be the greatest Olympian ever not win this year's gold medal?

But not everything in the Olympics is good.

* Bad Bronze Medal. Field coverage. By this, I don't mean that the coverage of the field part of track and field is bad. Instead, I mean that it is lacking. I like track events, but I like the field competitions, too, and NBC only shows them to us in snippets. Dwight Stone is a great commentator and should get more of a chance to shine. Please, NBC, in Rio in 2016, give Tom Hammond a break and let Dwight Stone have a chance to narrate some of the field events live!

* Bad Silver Medal. Ryan Seacrest's social media coverage. Really, who cares? I don't have anything against Seacrest, but this whole segment was completely superfluous. If I really cared about social media, you know what I'd be doing? Yes! Interacting with social media! I don't need a report from NBC to tell me about it, I'd just do it. It's like fluff talking about fluff. Worthless! But as bad as it was, it wasn't the worst thing on NBC during these Olympic games...

* Bad Gold Medal. The US gymnast's "reality show" and Phillip Phillips' theme song. Notice that Missy Franklin is America's Sweetheart and not any of the US gymnasts that won gold. Why? Because the decision by NBC's producers to make the "Fierce Five" look like a reality show, complete with a title sequence and Phillips' song "Home", really just made all five girls look snotty. Every time McKayla told the camera how bad she wanted the gold medal, she sounded just like all of those snotty kids with no talent in the tryout shows of American Idol. You know, the ones who can't sing but think they deserve a shot in Hollywood because they want it sooooo bad. Wanting it means nothing. Talent is all that's rewarded at the Olympics. I'll cut the actual gymnasts some slack, because I'm sure they were encouraged by some producer to say such annoying things, but whoever thought this was a good idea should really be fired. It annoyed me to no end.

So that's it! One more Olympics under our belt. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed putting it all together. Now it's time to get some rest. After all, it's only 18 months until the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. See you then!