Wide World of Sports
August 12th, 2008 | by Thomas Belknap |I’ve been watching the Olympics intently, as I do every four years, and I keep coming back to the same conclusion: no one cares anymore.
Oh, we tune in to the Olympics every two years, Winter and Summer. There’s at least one advertising darling around which all the coverage and commercials revolve. A lot of money is spent on elaborate sets and coverage to give the impression that the entire games are being covered.
But when’s the last time you saw the triathalon or fencing competitions televised as anything other than a summary? Mostly, NBC is showing gymnastics, water sports (meaning diving and swimming, not guys peeing on each other), track and field races, beach volleyball and basketball. This mirrors the same coverage you can expect on non-Olympic years. Everything else is relegated to the “also featured” slots generally reserved for pre-bumper slots of little import.
I miss ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Remember being able to watch track and field or downhill skiing any given weekend those sports were in season? Remember actually knowing some of the personalities featured in the Olympic Games before they got there? Yeah, I do. And it was awesome.
Don’t get me wrong: I dig football in the fall and winter, love watching baseball in the summer. But there are so many other sports that lots of people like that just don’t get coverage. I could make a strong argument for the notion that our nation might be a lot less fat if only we allowed kids to think there were ways to be physically fit that don’t involve football, baseball or hockey.
