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Daily Results from Thursday, September 28
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 Highlights and Lowlights
- As the criticism of NBC's coverage mounts, Bob Costas gets even more wacky, and the peacock network makes an attempt at a strong finish. Can they pull it off? Let's find out.
- First of all, we'd love to believe that it was The Rockwood 2000 Olympic Watch that forced NBC to have their second-lowest "fluff" count on Thursday night. In fact, we love that idea so much that we will take credit for it! Thursday night, NBC showed 20 fewer minutes of fluff, thanks exclusively to The Rockwood 2000 Olympic Watch. You heard it here first.
- Every time I hear "rhythmic gymnastics" I get the same kind of giggle I get when I hear the words "synchronized swimming." Yet despite that, I have to admit that there's something very compelling about it. These girls are good. And despite the temptation to classify it as "fluff," the fact is that it's an event and NBC covered it like one for once, so into the "events" column it goes. I do have to note that Costas got off a zinger at the rhythmic gymnasts expense, though, when he noted with a smirk that the gymnasts got exactly the same medal for their "work" that the decathletes received.
- The "Sun America News Desk" had two segments tonight. The first barely avoided fluff by being a very borderline report on the U.S. women's soccer game against Norway earlier that day. But ultimately it was more reporting the event and showing highlights than someone showing off their editing skills, so I let it go under "events."
- But Sun America should be ashamed of their second segment, where they used they now-much-hated Jimmy Roberts to interview Venus and Serena Williams on their gold-medal doubles-tennis victory. Even his interview style is smarmy. His questions were very near cliches and his attempts at humor seemed forced. Why couldn't Costas have done this interview? Shame on you, Sun America!
- Speaking of Jimmy Roberts, tonight's "GM presents Olympic Moments" made me feel guilty for not caring about the plight of the athletes from East Timor. Once again, Jimmy used his unique combination of syrupy platitudes and unverifiable statements to yank at our heartstrings until we hurt. Today, Jimmy made outrageous claims like "Australians never forget their friends," "Each East Timorese athlete has a story more horrible than the rest," and "My father invented the question mark." Oh, sorry... that last one was Dr. Evil. Anyway, in an attempt to make us "feel the pain" of the East Timorese athletes, Jimmy made a claim that couldn't possibly be substantiated when he said that the 110,000 people Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremonies weren't cheering for the home Australian team just walking in, but "more likely," they were cheering for the four East Timorese just in front of them. "More likely?!" I think it's much "more likely" that the people over 140 meters away on the other side of the stadium couldn't even see the tiny East Timor contingent with all the green-and-gold clad Aussies behind them. And as for Australians never forgetting their friends, that sure hasn't stopped them from cheering against the Americans every chance they get. GM, this was 270 seconds I spent shopping for Isuzus.
- "Citius, Altius, Fortius, by AT&T" was today narrated by Harry Smith, who actually talked about something relevantly historical, Bob Beamon's record long jump in Mexico City. It was a nice piece on Beamon, who still holds the Olympic record 32 years after his jump, but ultimately it still took away from the actual coverage of the event. We only got to see two of the competitors, the winner, and the Aussie runner-up. Who got the bronze? We'll never know from NBC's coverage.
- Bob Costas, trying to single-handedly save NBC's sinking ratings, pointed out after Konstantinos Kenteris of Greece won the men's 200-meter race that it had been literally two millennia since a Greek had won a sprint race, then added that the time of that race was unknown due to sundials not being accurate enough. Nice touch.
- Although I'm disappointed that the women's volleyball team couldn't pull off a win against the heavily-favored Russians, I was very happy that NBC decided to show us almost three out of five complete sets of the match. Best of all, we got to see it without "cutting away" to another taped sport.
- Jim Gray is doing a good job overcoming his "jerk reporter" past. His questions at both swimming and track and field have been direct without seeming overly antagonistic. And either all Olympic athletes are very gracious or Gray's questions allow them to seem that way. Particularly humble was Chris Huffins, the U.S. decathlete who finished third and said that was probably all he deserved.
- Costas followed Gray's Huffins interview by getting confused about whether he had just introduced that segment or whether he was about to introduce it. He then was self-deprecating enough to say that even he was getting confused by NBC's notorious time-delay. Good save.
- Only three days to go. What a relief! I'm really looking forward to getting back on a normal sleep schedule. Who would have thought that watching TV for five hours a night would be so taxing? See you tomorrow!
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