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Daily Results from Friday, September 22
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 Highlights and Lowlights
- "You've got to admit it's getting better, it's getting better all the time (it couldn't get much worse)"--The Beatles The Fab Four were decades in front of their time, because they described perfectly the improvements NBC has shown over two of the past three days. Once again Friday they hit the three hour mark in events coverage, while showing less fluff than the previous day. In all likelihood, this had to do with the debut of track and field events, traditionally a big seller to American audiences, but we're not complaining. About that, at least.
- In NBC's tribute to Comedy Central's "The Man Show," Friday night's coverage opens up with women on trampolines! Okay, the focus is a bit different, but who could resist the comparison? I would like to have seen a little more than they put on, but at least they were trying to show us a new event. Kudos.
- Ahmad Rashad used three minutes of our time interviewing C.J. Hunter, ex-shot-putting-champion husband to U.S. track star Marion Jones. I'll admit that I thought the interview itself was pretty good in and of itself, but how did this really further my Olympic experience? For example, in the 180 seconds spent interviewing Mr. Hunter, we could have watched Marion Jones run the 100 meters 18 times. Obviously this exaggerates things a bit, but the fact remains that each minute of an interview NBC insists on showing us is one more minute they can't show us an actual event.
- Jimmy Roberts got his "GM Presents Olympic Moments" segment out early today, doing his imitation of Bob Dylan while introducing us to some Australian slang. Hitting the streets ala Jay Leno, Roberts puzzled Australian visitors by asking them if they knew what vegemite was. He closed by giving Costas a flash-card quiz to test his knowledge of slang. If I thought for even a second that this hadn't been prescripted, I might have been slightly interested, but mainly it just inspired me to spend 240 seconds thinking about how much I value Hyundais over GMs. Either that or it made me wish that a boomer would would take that drongo Jimmy out back and give him a fair dinkum kick in the behind. Bugger!
- The "Sun America Sports Desk," which up until this point had been giving us actual news briefs on events, today wasted over five minutes of our time telling us how Alonzo Mourning flew back to his pregnant wife in the U.S. to watch the birth of their daughter. Have you noticed how stories like this are set up to be criticism-free? If you complain about fluff like this, you're percieved to be cold and heartless. Look, I wish nothing but happiness for Alonzo and his new daughter Myka Sydney (cute name), but you can squeeze a lot of track and field action into 32 minutes of fluff. The whole daughter story could have been played up during one of the Dream Team blowouts.
- In a different approach to fluff, NBC gave Marion Jones a camcorder and let her make her own Up-Close-And-Personal segment. Of course, it was edited by professionals, but that's besides the point. At least I can't complain this one was overproduced. I can still be upset that it took over three minutes of coverage away from track and field, however. In fact, in the time it took this story to run, Marion Jones could have run the 100 m 21 times!
- "Citius, Altius, Fortius presented by AT&T" had a soft-focus interview with former U.S. Olympic swim champ Janet Evans. Once again, nothing against Janet, but it's old news.
- In a judgement call on my part, I did not classify a minute-long segment on David O'Connor's horse as "fluff" in the equestrian event. The horse, which along with O'Connor won the gold medal for the U.S., had been injured and gone through rehab to get ready for the games. I realize that's not a whole lot different than a lot of the gymnast puff pieces I've grown to hate, but in context of the event, it seemed to flow a lot better. You may disagree. If it makes you feel better, you can subtract one minute from the "events" total and add it to "fluff." But I liked it, so it stays in here.
- Bob Costas is starting to hit his stride now. I think they're turning him loose in an effort to boost the sagging ratings. Good. Now if they'd just bag the fluff they'd be making some real progress.
- Pieter van den Hoogenband! Pieter van den Hoogenband! Pieter van den Hoogenband! He finished third behind two U.S. swimmers who tied for the gold in the 50 m Freestyle. Amazing. The people running the coverage at the swim venue deserve to have a spectacular end like this. They've done a great job. The diving just started. Hopefully, they'll do as good a job.
- The longest unsponsored fluff of the day reintroduced us to Australian swimmer Michael Klim, the man who played air guitar to taunt the American team earlier in the week. The second-to-last day of the swimming events seems to be an odd time to try to build a story. They've known about this guy all week and they're just getting around to him now? The story was longer than his race was. In fact, in the time it took this story to run, Marion Jones could have run the 100 m 24 times!
- Costas' interview at the end of the show with double-gold medalist Brooke Bennett got filed under "fluff." The interview wasn't bad but, once again, it's not an event.
- Another pretty good day, by comparsion. NBC has once again raised my expectations. Hopefully they won't dash them against the rocks again like they did on Thursday. Here's hoping.
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