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Is Anybody Watching?
The Olympics seem to have lost the race... to reality TV.
Audience numbers in freefall? How an apprentice has trumped the Olympic master.
The trouble with achieving something is that someone invariably beats you at your own game. That's the case with the Olympics, but the race isn't to the medal podium.
Sports fans may still be watching, but the Olympics have gone quiet on the pop culture radar. The Games used to be the champion of reality TV, but now the new generation of reality TV athlete is faster, higher and stronger. In short, current reality TV has beaten the old Olympic pioneer at its own game.
I saw about 25 people socially this weekend, who ranged in age from 8 to 70, and who work as everything from elementary teacher, construction worker, film editor, drummer, cashier, to social worker. Plus I did errands around the city. At four different events, plus a dozen stores, not a single person mentioned the Olympics. The first I saw of it was when I walked down the street on Sunday and noticed a photo of the opening ceremonies on the cover of one newspaper.
Curious, I called a few people back to ask if they were watching but just hadn't mentioned it? Nope. Only one was -- a 62-year-old woman visiting from Australia. "I watch a lot of sports," she said almost giggling. "I just love to see those young people; they're so full of energy."' I called a few jock friends; they'd tuned in, but their non-athletic friends and relatives hadn't.
Not even the tabs care
I then checked the mainstream media. Sure, there were stories about the Olympics, but not to a level that almost precludes everything else -- as in previous years. People Magazine, a fascinatingly accurate cultural barometer, featured one Olympics-related story on its site: ranked fourth on Monday after Bernie Mac's death, the Brangelina twins, and Lisa Marie's baby bump was "Spectacle and Tragedy Open Beijing Olympics." Another headline promised photos of US athletes, but instead took me to a page that was "temporarily unavailable, moved or taken off People.com." And on Us Weekly, there was only one story: a small set of photos of Olympic hunks .
Bigger than 'The A-Team'
I have no TV viewership proof -- but none would be accurate given the changing demographics of TV ownership and the fact that the current Games are being held in a country where millions are buying their first TVs.
I have only this: when I was young, the Olympics were the holy grail of TV. On most nights, the fake-wood-panelled box with its round-cornered bubble screen sat silent and dark until the clock on the kitchen stove showed 7:00, then the few mom-sanctioned shows -- Little House on the Prairie, Knight Rider and The A-Team (anti-violence couldn't have been my mother's criteria), appeared as if by magic.
But during the Olympics, the TV was allowed on for several hours a day. We were even allowed to eat in front of it! Whether my excitement was entirely due to the competition or my knowledge that it was A Major Event is up for grabs. But I know it was the same in all my friends' houses.
The fact that it was the biggest international sports event meant that media could descend en masse and the best storytellers could weave their tales. Those tales often became personal ones about the athletes' journeys to the Games, his or her struggles and triumphs. Sucker that I am, I often teared-up at stories of the javelin player getting up before dawn and walking across the ice in Saskatchewan to go to practice, the figure skater who broke her ankle and never thought she'd walk again, the parent who worked three jobs to give their kid a chance.... Those kinds of personal narratives gave the Olympics mainstream instead of just sports-world appeal. And in other words, made the Olympics the first reality TV show competitions.
Those personal narratives are still part of the Olympic experience, but the Games just aren't as compelling. Since then, I think, there have been seismic cultural, political and entertainment shifts.
Sport as metaphor
When the Olympics were in their entertainment heyday, during the Cold War, more was at stake than a marketing exercise. Sports was a key forum in which capitalism and communism squared off. In the height of nuclear fear, it was safer to skate on the ice than launch a missile from under it.
A friend told me that in his mind, the biggest sports event in Canadian history was the 1972 hockey "game" between Canada and Russia. Broadcast even in school classrooms, there was much more at stake than whether a rubber puck would make contact with a string net; it was a clash of civilizations.
In the opening ceremony, with its many thousands of performers, China was announcing to the world that it has arrived. Its brand is defined by precision, spectacle and achievement. But China is now a more market-based economy and therefore less menacing. And anyway, China's announcement is more a marketing or branding statement than one about ideology or global politics.
To win mainstream audiences, sporting events need more at stake. A game between the U.S. and Iraq might draw mainstream crowds. But a marketing battle between different flavours of capitalism isn't a grand enough narrative to get the audience medal.
Why reality TV is getting perfect 10s
With that sublimated war-of-the-worlds narrative gone, the personal stories are more important than ever, and they're still part of the Olympic experience. But now, reality TV companies are doing it better with their own amateur competitions complete with interviews, judges and theme songs. Olympic fan that I was, I hate to say it, but they've snatched the entertainment gold.
Here's why I think reality TV has taken over:
Focus focus focus -- While the Games have diluted the product and overwhelmed the audiences with ever more events and characters (athletes), reality TV has created shows that hone in on just one focused, manageable area and provide deeper knowledge of each character.
Less hype -- It's amazing to claim reality TV pales in hype in any way, but four, eight or even 10 years of Olympic build-up mean by the time the show starts, it's overexposed and anti-climactic. Sure, reality TV starts with an overwhelming barrage of ads -- but only weeks before.
Less hypocrisy -- Reality TV never promises that it's the doggone truth and untouchably ethical. But the Olympics does, which makes its transgressions into scandals which take the spotlight off the competition. Such distractions don't plague American Idol or even The Hills: scandals there are part of the fun.
Charismatic tyrant producers are more interesting than the blazer brigade -- The Games' ruling bureaucrats with their endless committee meetings, regulations and slow-moving military operations aren't as compelling, dramatically, as the charismatic tyrants who produce reality shows. People like Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe create a more focused vision and more fireworks.
No kill-joy politics -- Seeing the smog in Beijing and reading reports of human rights violations, or thinking about how there will be more homeless people than athletes in Vancouver in 2010 mean that the Games' entertainment value, for me, is more than eclipsed by the ethical cost of holding them. I feel no such conflict when watching So You Think You Can Dance: no tax dollars are being diverted from starving children to pay for Cat Deeley's dresses. That leaves more brain and heart room to focus on the contestants.
So amateur -- And the contestants are what audience members need to relate to -- they're the product; they're the characters. In the Olympics, the competitors used to be "just like us," (sort of) but now, many are seasoned, career professionals. So You Think You Can Dance features, for example, total amateurs who've taught themselves hip hop and dream of changing their lives. Canadian Idol still lists the "actual" jobs of each contestant -- none are singers. I want to watch authentic, ordinary people – or as close as possible. I'm not going out on a limb to admit I don't feel any thrill of peer identification when I see Michael Phelps, the human-robot swimmer in the space-age suit as he breaks the world record by four seconds.
I flicked past several Olympic channels last night after watching HBO's Generation Kill, and was drawn in. I saw men compete in beach volleyball, then men playing court volleyball, then men's gymnastics. The announcer said one of the Chinese team members recently held a media conference to ask his girlfriend, also a Chinese gymnastic team member, to marry him. He'd written a song for her, which he sang in front of the cameras. Maybe the Olympics is learning from the soap opera of reality TV after all. But I can't say that would be the lesson I'd have hoped for.
Related Tyee stories:
- Olympics as 'Five Ring Circus'
Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games - More Homeless than Athletes in 2010
Can Vancouver's Olympic pride be saved? First in a series. - In China, an Expat Misses His Contraband Movies
Olympic clean-up puts pirate DVDs out to sea
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- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Canada's Economy, Deconstructed (by a 12 year-old)
- Who Mowed Down the Premier?
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
- Death in Remand: a Tyee Inquiry
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
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- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
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- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
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- Alberta Fills Pipes with Corrosive Denial
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- Does BC Stand for Ban Clotheslines?
- From Financial Advisor to Occupier
49
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Van Isle
3 years ago
Jeez, do ya think maybe
Jeez, do ya think maybe people are getting pissed-off with the whole hypocrisy of the event. I use to be an avid fan cuz of the wonderful accomplishments of the athletes; now, couldn't give a fiddlers fu*% or a tinkers damn about the whole sorry affair. The only reason that it happens is so that a few people on top like Jack Poole and Li Kai Shing make huge profits. I'm just wondering when the Olympic athletes are going to wake up and tell the IOC to get stuffed.
no1important
3 years ago
Now that they get paid for
Now that they get paid for medals and with all the drug use, I don't care anymore.
nightbloom
3 years ago
Olympic Renewal
Could it be that the second Olympic era has come and gone, and that it should be placed back on the shelf for a few milennia again?
G West
3 years ago
Appearances deceptive
I understand China faked the opening fireworks, substituted a stand-in for the floating tyro chanteuse because she wasn't pretty enough and fiddled with age restrictions for many of their own athletes. Pretty much what you'd expect from an authoritarian command economy - and not very different from the way the US Olympic authoritities have fiddled with the rules of dope testing for decades.
And they told us the East Germans were bad!
What's to be interested in - a bunch of highly-paid cheaters selling McDonal's hamburgers?
If, however, the daily dose of soma (what is it on average these days - 160 minutes/head?) has been met with reality TV I'm not sure that says much about the future of the human race either.
Sad.
Fiat lux
3 years ago
There was a time when I
There was a time when I would have given anything, and had as good chance, to take part in the Olympics and it certainly was a big event in most people's lives, waiting for it every four years.
The war and the refuge years have killed my chances to participate, and the professional performers of the Soviet bloc killed the games, as then the West had no choice but to permit their own professionals into the games.
No to mention the incredible security demands, which ruin the whole purpose and concept to begin with.
Now the Olympics have become just another big corporation, show biz racket. As we can see it in the preparations for our own participation in this idiocy, BC will be paying for for many years.
Now I wouldn't waste a single minute watching any of it on TV, our daily TV is now only 40 minutes of the 6 o'clock news, about 75% of it also garbage, and wouldn't cross the street with a paid ticket in my pocket to see any of the events.
When we look at the increased costs and huge energy inputs for the miniscule improvements in the performances in the past 50 years, we can also see the same effects in our daily lives in the racket now called "globally competitive market economics", ruining humanity and the Earth.
All forms of competition increase costs, until the systems run out of energy and burn out.
The phoney Olympic "games" and phoney economics are the prime examples. And both are pushed by the same special interest sector.
Ed Deak, Big Lake.
wacqueline
3 years ago
Power of the Dream, my ass
I like your points, Vanessa, about how families used to gather around the television and look forward to watching the Olympics. I remember doing that as a child too. Now, in my mid-twenties, I haven't had regular access to a TV since I moved out. Most of my friends are the same--few of us have cable but somehow, everyone watches The Wire. Anyway, I'd be curious to know if Olympic television viewership continues to be buttressed by young families watching the games--and if that, perhaps, was always the case. Certainly the eerily sanitized aesthetics of international sport on TV will pass the judgment of even the most moralistic parent interested in protecting their children from the ravages of mainstream pop culture.
Still, the Olympics are a global case of jock-and-nerd bullying that doesn't seem to go away, despite ideas of how progressive we're becoming as a society. The Olympics are not a new phenomenon in the world yet with every passing torch, the same social ills continue to get swept under the rug. How many people do we have to displace and rob of their livelihood until we realize that this self-aggrandizing culture of sport simply isn't working anymore?
If Olympic television viewership (and the surrounding hype) is indeed dropping, I'd hope it's due in part that to the fact that the lies, brutality, and inhumane practices associated with the Games are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Luke Skywalker
3 years ago
On the Flip Side of The Coin...
A poll from Angus Reid Strategies a few days ago:
In the online survey of a representative national sample, two-thirds of respondents (68%) say they will watch at least some of the Olympic events on television, with 23 per cent claiming they will watch as many as they can.
And as for Vancouver-Whistler 2010?
Four-in-five respondents (81%) say they are excited about the Winter Games being held in Canada, including 86 per cent of those aged 18-34.
http://www.angusreidstrategies.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&newsid=279
G West
3 years ago
Yep!
And if you held a poll and asked if people were going to watch Kevin Newman once in a while they'd probably respond in the affirmative too.
Notice all those empty seats in the stands...about which I hear bought and paid for john furlong is getting a little worried.
by the way, did you see our "dear leader" emoting on NBC?
Apparently he was moved by Beijing's 100 million+ phony opening ceremony.
Doesn't take much apparently.
time 2 wakeup
3 years ago
Olympic Sized Joke
This is the first time I have deliberately not watched the Olympics. The more I read about the corporate money involved in the entire process, the less appealing the whole event becomes. G West makes a good point about the faked events in the opening ceremonies - kinda makes you wonder what else is being faked??
I have a couple of good books to read, and a bicycle to ride - who needs the BS with the Olympic "games".
There are far more important things going on in Canada and the world than the olympic joke.
lynn
3 years ago
What would Zeus think?
We enjoyed watching the Olympic cycling. Both the men's and women's races were exciting to watch - the course from the heart of ancient Beijing, then meandering alongside the Great Wall was absolutely stunning to take in.
We haven't watched much of anything else.
Beach volleyball surely isn't made to be taken seriously. The men's water-polo was a hoot to watch....laughable in that it had a very serious play by play commentary going on but you couldn't see a thing but splish-splashes coming from the pool. Reminded me of that SNL skit on synchronized swimming with Harry Shearer and Martin Short.
The Olympics should have remained in Greece.
It's been turned into a marketplace of Olympian proportions.
bob the cat
3 years ago
my olympic watermelon
I guess my olympic moment had to be when the deputy mayor of Beijing presented a Chinese watermelon to Gordo at Gordos Olympic tourist pavilion. It was sidesplitting roll on the floor stuff...Gordo didn`t get it of course.
Later interviewed and asked about the hefty increases to his loyalists back at the palace Gordo said " They have the reponsibility of running a 92 BILLION DOLLARS CORPORATION " Actually I`m not sure of that number 92 Billion it may have been 32 Billion or 19 Billion..whatever it sure was a lot of Billions.
Does he mean the "Government" is a Corporation or B.C. is a corporation?
G West
3 years ago
bob
Are you hinting that the gord has been into the sauce again?
Lotsa billions...did you see him on NBC?
bob the cat
3 years ago
missed it
Unfortunately I missed the NBC coverage. Is it on You Tube? Did they give him a watermelon? Some raspberries? Hopefully he`ll be on Letterman...I hadn`t planned on voting at all next election but I gotta throw my support behind this guy he just gets better all the time. This stuff is so good its scary.
Didja see him and whats his name Harpo or whatever on stage in Victoria? Joan McIntyre jumping up and down clapping her hands with that ever present grin on her face as Gordo crammed a large chunk of cake into his maw..toooo much
G West
3 years ago
Yah
I saw the Victoria spectacle - sick making.
Gordo doesn't even try anymore - you'd have thought he'd be blaming the NDP for the big raise he gave Jessica McDonald so she can continue to hold his hand and answer his midnight phone calls.
He spent most of his time talking about how 'ispiring' he found the Olympics opening ceremony.
How is that the most utterly incompetent and clueless people end up in positions like his?
reader
3 years ago
Is Anybody Watching?
This is from the L.A. Times (Aug. 13):
"NBC estimates that 157 million viewers watched at least some of the coverage spread across its various TV, online or wireless platforms during the first four days in Beijing. An average of 30.4 million viewers watched nightly in prime time, according to Nielsen. That exceeds the audience for most airings of Fox's musical smash "American Idol" and is especially impressive considering that, thanks to out-of-town vacations and daylight stretching past 8 p.m. in some areas, fewer people watch television during the summer months than at other times of the year.
"NBC's Beijing Olympics website in just four days swept past the entire 2004 Athens Games in every key metric, including page views (291.1 million vs. 229.9 million)."
The Globe and Mail reports similar increases in Canada for both CBC and Radio-Canada.
Does that answer the Tyee's headline question? By the way, this is "research" that the Tyee's reporter could have done in about 20 seconds.
bob the cat
3 years ago
power
Yah thats the rub innit. I remember reading a really good piece many years ago when the Vancouver Sun tried to be a newspaper..on..maybe a review on a Henry Fairlie book about how those who should NOT have power are often those who most desire it..and often attain it...while those who should have power don`t really have any desire for it.
Bill Blum said recently " People don`t really care about big versus small government ..they want government thats on their side.
I haven`t watched much of these Olympics ( the Wal Mart Olympics my wife calls `em)
JIm
3 years ago
I'm watching, most people I
I'm watching, most people I know are. Granted I enjoy sports and don't view it as the scourge on society like most of the Tyee faithful do. It must be tough having to hate everything for political reasons.
Fii
3 years ago
Then you and most people you
[SNIDE COMMENT DIRECTED AT ANOTHER COMMENTER REMOVED. -MODERATOR.] I enjoy sports too, so I DO them. It's pretty much the best weather we're going to get all year right now- and you're inside watching tv? Now that is sad.
But hey, Kudos for not being political (and therefore [SNIDE COMMENT DIRECTED AT ANOTHER COMMENTER REMOVED. -MODERATOR.]
RickW
3 years ago
lynn
A variation on this theme -- have a permanant venue for summer olympics and winter olympics, preferably in neutral territory. It's a thought that has been around for any number of years, but I suppose the construction companies would be dead agin it........
However, cynicism aside, the successful bidder for any particular olympics would have the responsibility of "sprucing the place up", and adding facilities as venues change. In between times, the UN could allocate maintenance and security fees.
Then maybe for a change, we wouldn't have to hear about how the poor and disadvantaged inevitably get booted out, to make way for "the best olympics ever".
Maybe then the games could be once again enjoyed.
Skywalker
3 years ago
Reality TV vs. the Olympic games
That is really a no brainer. Sure some of the hypocrisy is a little hard to take but I would rather watch any event which takes some skill, even drug induced skill, than watch a bunch of has-been actors or wannabe actors act stupid in TV for the world to see. I'll even put up with the CBC coverage which is mostly chatter and not a lot of coverage of events than concern myself with the latest antic of some silly Hollywood celebrity. I have never watched reality TV except to find out what it is; which takes about 10 seconds while surfing channels, and I never will. They are so inane.
G West
3 years ago
Dunno Stan
Not to disagree, but have you 'watched' any of the NBC coverage?
From what I saw of their website, they seemed to be getting an awful lot of complaints about what they're billing as 'live' is actually about 24 hours old.
CBC at least tries to show some events as they actually happen.
Luke Skywalker
3 years ago
Jim...
It must be tough having to hate everything for political reasons.
Toooooo funny!
Reminds me of the old axiom.. [SNIDE COMMENT DIRECTED AT ANOTHER COMMENTER REMOVED. -MODERATOR.]
ME2
3 years ago
Reality TV ??
Thank you Jim and Skywalker. You've pretty well summed up my opinions on the above comments as well.
But then ( :-) )I have a downer to add to the others and that concerns CBC TV coverage.
The little time I've spent watching their coverage seems to consist of 1/2 hr of advertising, 25 minutes of talking heads, and 5 minutes of sports - which is likely to be a re-run.
I realise the neocons insist the CBC must be "profit-centered", and so complaining about the endless advertising is useless.
But if the idea of covering the Olympics is to let us see sports happen at their highest level of attainment, why waste our time with human interest stories? I submit there's plenty of time for that in the four years leading up to / following the games.
Just another example of this generation's obsession with style over substance, I think. Just a lame attempt at Reality TV for sure.
And a perfect example of where "The Medium is the Message".
Umslopogaas
3 years ago
Carbon
How much CO2 was added to the atmosphere to fly Suzuki's daughter to China to lecture us all on the environment?
Why didn't China have some meaningful sports events, like how many unarmed workers can you crush with a tank?
Next this whole exercise in bread and circuses will come to our shores in a year or two and bankrupt our province.
Bah humbug.
Frank
3 years ago
Olympics
Cheering? You're full of Olympic spirit Luke. I'm sure JIm appreciates it since its the first time he's ever had a fan.
To those of you watching the Olympics, has any Canadian won anything yet? I just want to make sure all the tax money they live on is being well spent.
Stump
3 years ago
sports lovers
It must be tough having to hate everything for political reasons.
Toooooo funny!
I guess some folks are easily amused.
As to the Tyee faithful hating sports, if you've hung around here awhile, you'd know there's plenty of hockey talk.
Some of us hate to see pretty things (like sports) being used to sell crap is all. Some of us can also separate the sizzle from the steak.
G West
3 years ago
Not yet Frank, not yet!
Best so far was a fourth by Mike Brown in the 200m breast stroke.
If you get a chance, watch Sherraine Schalm (epee) lose to, I think, either the Hungarian who eventually placed third or the Romanian who got the silver.
First of all she tells her opponent to fuck off with her exuberant celebrations and then completely loses it and apologizes to everyone, including all Canadians, for not having done better.
She ought to get some kind of an award for that performance.
ME2
3 years ago
And whose ox are we goring, anyway?
Sez Stump :
"As to the Tyee faithful hating sports, if you've hung around here awhile, you'd know there's plenty of hockey talk."
Hockey = Sports ? Have you lost your mind, Stump ? Every critique of the Olympics which appears above, if applied to professional Hockey, should be written in bold and shouted from the rooftops.
In the genre of ideologies trumping every vestige of reason, you guys have ust put the neocons to shame with THIS thread.
DJT
3 years ago
I wouldn't walk across the
I wouldn't walk across the street to watch the Olympics. As for Campbell's spot on NBC, it was very informative. I learned that rockslides only happen every two hundred years (stifle laughter here).
Bobby Peru
3 years ago
You don't understand
Countries, that is governments need events like the Olympics to justify their existence, their importance to fostering national unity. In the absence of wars of national reunification or apocalyptic wars between clearly defined good and evil, governments need the Olympics to prove national purpose.
And to justify massive infrastructure projects. That's never changed for any country.
Of course, the more authoritarian the country, the bigger the show. In China's case, you're seeing a very rich, authoritarian country showing off its coming out into the world.
Now, the format may appear aged, but the brand is so strong that govt's and TV networks will pay up every time. Reality TV may come and go, but the Olympics is a special vehicle run by people who know how to enrich themselves with a product facing little competition.
KD Brown
3 years ago
Waging Peace, Cynics Aside
I have always been a fan of the Olympics. They have always been history in action for me, with drama, excitement, thrills, personal stories that are engaging, brilliant underdogs, everything that I look for in sports competitions. Eddie the Eagle, the last truly amateur competitor - he was the UK ski jumping team in '88 in - get this - Calgary - remains a hero, as does Kathy Krainer, '76 Giant Slalom gold.
It is greatly disheartening to witness the political grandstanding of the big nations - the US, China - when they get the games to come to their countries. It is uncomfortable, to say the least, to see China able to use its police powers to sweep human rights and environmental abuses under a carpet emblazoned with the five circles of the Olympic emblem. Just watch the clips of the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Weird.
Perhaps Beijing is the last of the big Olympic venues. Maybe the world is actually on the verge of dealing with the fact of climate change. Maybe we can be clever, have a truly worldwide competition based on individual accomplishments in home countries. Maybe it is true that the modern world needs a new Olympic era.
But if it is to pass, aided by the corruption and cynicism of Vancouver in 2010 (at least, to read these pages), it will be sad indeed. For the world seems to be ever better at waging war. The Olympics are one of the few ways that we manage to wage peace.
We come together, as nations on a grand stage, to compete, to strive, to work together, to wage peace. The best Olympic moments are those in which competitors manage to be seen to work together, each an essential part of the other's victories and defeats.
Unfortunate to see China out to "beat" the US and other countries in a rush for medals. Unfortunate to see the reaction of athletes when they do win, that pumping the air and military yell into their own fist, as if to say, "I did it!" For every circumstance is a part of your life because of those around you. There is no truly individual accomplishment - we are actually creatures of cooperation, rather than competition. But the "survival of the fittest" doctrine that the military and some business leaders and many political leaders ascribe to has warped everything I fear.
Add to this the turning of the Games into yet another ratings war for media profits, and it is easy to be cynical. It is easy to condemn.
But just because the ideal is not reached, I am enough of a sucker to ideals that I still think that they are worth striving for. I hope that we CAN change the games into something actually worth paying attention to. Long Live Eddy the Eagle!
A last note: I sense that all those people in developing countries with new TV's just haven't cottoned on to the cynicism of us North Americans. Just keep an eye posted for the viewership figures of the Beijing Olympics - betcha they will be among the highest ever.
Fiat lux
3 years ago
China has about $3.trillion
China has about $3.trillion of worthless US dollars on stock, so they could afford to put on the biggest show ever to get rid of some of it, while they still can.
Which applies to the whole country and all others pursuing the same communist/capitalist market economy, collectivization racket.
Watch them coming over and buying up Canada and other countries, with governments stupid enough to accept that funny money.
I have friends who go to China, some of them several times a year, on professional business and what the see and say about conditions in the off-tourist, non showbiz areas is bloody awful.
As far "sports" are concerned, when somebody makes a living, and profits from any action, or profession, it is no longer any kind of sport, but business.
In other words, there ain't no "professional sports".
Ed Deak.
Skywalker
3 years ago
The opiate of the masses
I do however think that events like this distract the masses from the harder issues. Take Campbell's wage raise to his CEO's and the Russians in Georgia all happening when we are otherwise preoccupied. I don't have much time for rabid sports fans. Perhaps they are lacking something in their lives. I also have some discomfort at the Olympics being in China given their human rights record. Still I will watch a few events that are less likely to be subject to biased judging and national favoritism. Reality TV may, along with shows like Jerry Springer, be the opiate of morons but sports is still the new opiate of the masses.
Fiat lux
3 years ago
Or as the Roman politicians
Or as the Roman politicians already discovered:
PANEM ET CIRCENSES
Bread and circuses.
Ed Deak.
slim
3 years ago
TV Ratings: Seoul vs. Beijing
It will be interesting to compare the TV ratings of the Beijing Olympics compared to the 1988 games in Seoul, Korea. Both countries are perhaps one time-zone apart and on the other side of the world. Percentage wise, I'm guessing that less people are watching the Beijing games than Seoul's.
In 1988, many of us lived in a 13 channel TV world. The Olympics were guaranteed to be shown on one American, one English Canadian, and one French Canadian channel. Now the Olympics are two or three networks out of many. The games could just be another generic sporting event that could appear on any channel: CBC, CTV, TSN, Sportsnet, The Score, or OLN. I could be watching beach volleyball from Beijing or Miami. There is less focus on the Olympics as the ultimate sporting event.
Depending on the sport, gold, silver, and bronze medals have monetary values for the athletes in terms of future corporate endorsements. A bronze is no better than rust nowadays.
I will guess in the 2010 and 2012 Olympic games in Vancouver and London that the Olympic organizers will be begging top athletes to participate in the commercial extravaganza. Athletes will start seeing profits elsewhere. They`ll start competing at golfing events where winners and the runners-up receive monetary awards for their gold, silver, and rusty medals.
I don`t think sporting events are finished. Far from it. I just think that the veneer of Olympianism is peeling off the walls, and the commercial interests are being clearly exposed for everyone to see. No amount of billboards will be able to hide the pauperty of repression by commercial and dictatorial interests. The athletes will start realizing this and seek their fortunes elsewhere. The Vaudville Olympics are finito.
Stump
3 years ago
ME2
I'm sure you're right ME2. Hockey has lost it's way too. But that's beside the point. It was alleged the Tyee regulars don't like sports. The fact that the same folks talk about hockey (with some fervour) in these threads is proof they don't.
You can love sports w/out being enamoured of the car and beer-selling aspects of pro leagues. I know I do. Watching, or preferably taking part in, displays of physical prowess is good, clean fun.My closet wouldn't be so full of specialized shoes and boots for the variety of sports I participate in if I didn't care for physical forms of recreation.
Stump
3 years ago
please excuse my it's where
please excuse my it's where I meant its.
DPL
3 years ago
I'll go back to watching the
I'll go back to watching the Olympics when the million dollar professionals stop showing up, to play against those who arn't professional teams. Its supposed to be the best folks who train for years competing with others with similar backgrounds. BUT
I will watch the rowing for a number of reasons. A lot of the Canadian rowers train in our town, they go out of their way to encourage the younger kids just starting out. Drugs are impossible with rowers. As Buffy , the Lake Slayer said years ago, "Pick up three seconds in one month " and folks would notice pretty quickly. Buffy is rowing this week. One young woman worked in the fields at our family farm, rowed with my grandaugher at high school, then university, and together they won gold at Head of The Charles in Boston. No Canadian University crew of lighweights ever did that before. She is an alternate on the womans team right now. We watch the kids as the grew up and excell at the sport they love Nobody pays them to do their best. I could care less which paid professional in which sport wins.
working slog
3 years ago
Is Anybody Watching?
Readers Comments:
"This is from the L.A. Times (Aug. 13):
"NBC estimates that 157 million viewers watched at least some of the coverage spread across its various TV, online or wireless platforms during the first four days in Beijing. An average of 30.4 million viewers watched nightly in prime time, according to Nielsen. That exceeds the audience for most airings of Fox's musical smash "American Idol" and is especially impressive considering that, thanks to out-of-town vacations and daylight stretching past 8 p.m. in some areas, fewer people watch television during the summer months than at other times of the year.
"NBC's Beijing Olympics website in just four days swept past the entire 2004 Athens Games in every key metric, including page views (291.1 million vs. 229.9 million)."
The Globe and Mail reports similar increases in Canada for both CBC and Radio-Canada.
Does that answer the Tyee's headline question? By the way, this is "research" that the Tyee's reporter could have done in about 20 seconds."
So let's see, we've got presented by main stream U.S. media that have a definitive interest in pumping these numbers on behalf of their advertisers, we've got billions of Chinese patriots who are mindlessly watching because it is the first time they were able to and we have a breath takenly, competitive U.S. populace just looking for another reason to boast.
And you take these numbers as genuine interest in the Chinese Olympics and amateur sports. Wake up to the sheeple nation my friend.
I officaly stopped watching the Olympics for the first time in my
working slog
3 years ago
Is Anybody Watching?
Readers Comments:
"This is from the L.A. Times (Aug. 13):
"NBC estimates that 157 million viewers watched at least some of the coverage spread across its various TV, online or wireless platforms during the first four days in Beijing. An average of 30.4 million viewers watched nightly in prime time, according to Nielsen. That exceeds the audience for most airings of Fox's musical smash "American Idol" and is especially impressive considering that, thanks to out-of-town vacations and daylight stretching past 8 p.m. in some areas, fewer people watch television during the summer months than at other times of the year.
"NBC's Beijing Olympics website in just four days swept past the entire 2004 Athens Games in every key metric, including page views (291.1 million vs. 229.9 million)."
The Globe and Mail reports similar increases in Canada for both CBC and Radio-Canada.
Does that answer the Tyee's headline question? By the way, this is "research" that the Tyee's reporter could have done in about 20 seconds."
So let's see, we've got presented by main stream U.S. media that have a definitive interest in pumping these numbers on behalf of their advertisers, we've got billions of Chinese patriots who are mindlessly watching because it is the first time they were able to and we have a breath takenly, competitive U.S. populace just looking for another reason to boast.
And you take these numbers as genuine interest in the Chinese Olympics and amateur sports. Wake up to the sheeple nation my friend.
I offically stopped watching the Olympics for the first time in my
working slog
3 years ago
Is Anybody Watching?
Readers Comments:
"This is from the L.A. Times (Aug. 13):
"NBC estimates that 157 million viewers watched at least some of the coverage spread across its various TV, online or wireless platforms during the first four days in Beijing. An average of 30.4 million viewers watched nightly in prime time, according to Nielsen. That exceeds the audience for most airings of Fox's musical smash "American Idol" and is especially impressive considering that, thanks to out-of-town vacations and daylight stretching past 8 p.m. in some areas, fewer people watch television during the summer months than at other times of the year.
"NBC's Beijing Olympics website in just four days swept past the entire 2004 Athens Games in every key metric, including page views (291.1 million vs. 229.9 million)."
The Globe and Mail reports similar increases in Canada for both CBC and Radio-Canada.
Does that answer the Tyee's headline question? By the way, this is "research" that the Tyee's reporter could have done in about 20 seconds."
So let's see, we've got presented by main stream U.S. media that have a definitive interest in pumping these numbers on behalf of their advertisers, we've got billions of Chinese patriots who are mindlessly watching because it is the first time they were able to and we have a breath takenly, competitive U.S. populace just looking for another reason to boast.
And you take these numbers as genuine interest in the Chinese Olympics and amateur sports. Wake up to the sheeple nation my friend.
I officially stopped watching the Olympics for the first time in my life and I am in my 50's. The spirit and soul of the Olympics has been sold lock, stock and barrel and carries no interest to me at all anymore.
It is completely and totally bogus!
Frank
3 years ago
Why the Right-wing loves the Olympics
1. Smile a lot and tell everyone you're a "clean" jock
2. Hint you really really like the gov't and are happy to do photo ops.
3. Happily cash cheques from same government for most of your "working" life.
4. Every 4 years tell journalists its been a great experience.
5. The beer-swilling couch potatoes will love you and soon your smile will make you finance minister of BC even though you can't be bothered to read bills.
Wash-rinse-repeat ad nauseum
Frank
3 years ago
How to cure poverty in the 3rd world...
Our right-wing friends tell us that the Olympics aren't money pits, they actually create wealth.
So from now on let's have an Olympics every single year in a 3rd world city.
Within a few years cities from Nairobi to Calcutta will be rich beyond their wildest dreams.
And I'm already dreaming of the day when little Ethiopian children will have their own luge as an Olympic legacy.
Van Isle
3 years ago
Hey, did ya hear the latest;
Hey, did ya hear the latest; Gordo hitched a ride on Jack Poole's jet to Bejing. Hells bells, they're not even trying to hide it.
Frank
3 years ago
Campbell in Beijing
Is his wife with him?
ME2
3 years ago
Van Isle
Well, at least it wasn't "at gov't expense"?.....ha.
homelessinabbotsford
3 years ago
Focus on medals not performances Unhealthy Attitude
Canadians do not deserve the athletes they have representing them at the Beijing Olympics.
Anchors, reporters, (so called) sports reporters and far too many other Canadians should hang their heads and apologize for the disparaging statements and attitude heaped on our athletes during the first week of competition.
Watching the cloying behaviour of these same anchors, reporters, sports reporters and other fair-weather Canadians when the terrific performances being turned in by Canadian athletes finally broke through to the podium clearly demonstrated how warped our values have become.
While they were not winning medals our athletes were turning in personal bests and setting new Canadian records. What more can we ask of our athletes, indeed of anyone, than that they perform to the best of their abilities?
People complain about “the kids today” but what life lessons are we teaching them with this “it only counts if you win a medal” attitude?
I salute those who have won medals; it is great to see all their hard work and sacrifice rewarded.
I hail those who pursued their dreams to Beijing, who realistically had no chance of winning a medal and still turned in a personal best performance.
That is character. That is performance.
DJT
3 years ago
Nancy was pouring....
According to 24 Hours mag (Sean Holman, I think it was), his wife was there as well as the CEO of Cannacord, I believe it was, and some other developer mucky mucks. I bet the apple juice was flowin' on that flight!
Frank
3 years ago
Title still in front of focus groups
Its only entertainment. Olympians who work, support themselves and do their sport thing on the side won't be criticised from this corner even if they finish dead last.
But when you live in a cocoon, training, and your expenses are covered by someone else and the public is picking up the cost of putting on your games and whatever travel expenses you have then there's nothing laudable about it no matter where you finish.
What's character is not someone training every day at someone else's expense in the hopes of cashing in big if they win a medal, character is someone who takes responsibility for others, such as their family, while not receiving help or recognition. Yet we don't have an "athlete's living in poverty" problem in Canada, instead we have child poverty and homeless problems.
I see no reason to glorify those that want the focus of others to be on themselves as if they are somehow above the herd and shouldn't be bothered with things like work.