NBC And Vancouver 2010 – More Of The Same

February 12, 2010 – Starting tonight at 7:30 PM, NBC’s Dick Ebersol will lead his Olympic team into 17 days of coverage for which they paid something like $2.2 billion, but that includes the 2012 summer games and is an extension of a $2+ billion deal NBC locked up almost a decade ago. With so much at stake, NBC head Jeff Zucker, he of the Leno-O’Brien fiasco, is banking on his cronyism to deliver a solid broadcast and profits to NBC coffers.

As executive producer of these Olympics, Ebersol is the epitome of the past. It’s like there isn’t anyone else but Ebersol or his boy Don Ohlmeyer who can put this stuff together. Ohlmeyer now works for ABC/Disney/ESPN, so Ebersol will be on his own.

How hard can it be to pick producers, directors and on-air talent and then conduct a spending and egofest from within their broadcast center? If you got close enough to see them in action, you’d think the medals were meant for them and their talking heads. At 63, with Comcast coming in, it may be time to let the former Roone Arledge protege and chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics move on.

Meanwhile, we’ll get a familiar look at the Olympics with Tim Ryan, making everything sound like a lazy winter Saturday (zzzzzzzzzz)afternoon as he calls Alpine skiiing; Tom Hammond making Figure skating sound like a horse race; and third-rated golf host (behind NBC’s Jim Nantz and ABC’s Mike Tirico), Dan Hicks, calling Speed skating. There’s very little elite or creative in the NBC broadcaster lineup, even top hockey voice Mike Emrick was a slam dunk because he does the low-rated NHL package for NBC. In the studio, NBC leverages its football deal with Al “Do You Believe In Miracles?” Michaels doing his first Olympics in over 20 years as daytime host, to Bob Costas’ stale nighttime work. Newsman Lester Holt, high jumper Dwight Stones and never-will-be Jack Whitaker, Jimmy Roberts, are on the Sportsdesk to keep us updated on the breakneck pace of the action, which NBC intends to delay three hours for everyone on the Pacific coast to stay fresh. Homely Andrea Kremer (that’s a typo, meant to say ‘comely’) will chase speed skaters with her microphone as former target Dan Jansen provides color. To round out the group, Ebersol pulled Cris Collinsworth from his football crew and pulled Dick Button from the Ramble to be “correspondents.”

Expect plenty of plugs for Jay Leno and NBC’s “Parenthood,” a Ron Howard-Brian Grazer production of the semi popular movie. Also expect a struggle to gather audience, much overplayed news worthiness, a spike in Netflix rentals, and as much as a $200 million loss in revenue. Now there’s something Comcast can’t take to the bank.