Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 23, 1992 TAG: 9202230038
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
THERE WERE PEAKS, VALLEYS IN CBS' GAMES COVERAGE
Financially, CBS struck gold during the Albertville Games. Critically, the network's telecast performance over more than 118 Winter Olympics hours, ending tonight, was much like that of the U.S. athletes.There were a few golds, some surprises, some disappointments and a few downhill runs and crashes.
The network guaranteed advertisers a 17.0 Nielsen rating in prime time. After the closing ceremonies that finish today's 7 1/2 hours of coverage, the network will finish at least 12 percent above that for its 8-11 p.m. shows. That's stunning in this age of low TV/sports ratings when viewers are leaving CBS, ABC and NBC for alternative entertainment.
Then again, the Olympics do provide something different for viewers. CBS also wisely constructed its schedule to attract women viewers. When you pay $243 million for U.S. telecast rights, you can get the local organizing committee to bend a bit. CBS built its schedule around figure skating, showing the sport in prime time on 10 of 16 nights.
In recent years, the International Olympic Committee has scheduled the Summer and Winter Games to span three weekends, giving U.S. TV networks those additional daytime hours. In Albertville, CBS' major obstacle was a six-hour time difference with the U.S. Eastern time zone.
The prime-time shows were packaged, but while the switching between sports may have held some viewers, it also brought a lack of drama and continuity to the shows. When CBS started with figure skating, viewers saw only two performances, then it was off to the Alpine slopes. Never mind that the performances were completed hours earlier.
It didn't help that prime-time hosts Paula Zahn and Tim McCarver had little off-the-cuff dialogue, and spent most of their camera time trading scripted remarks. McCarver, a superb baseball analyst, was obviously uncomfortable and without the wit that marks his work in the national pastime. Zahn's most notable effort was a hairstyle change part of the way through the Games.
CBS has very capable sports studio hosts in Jim Nantz, Greg Gumbel, Pat O'Brien and James Brown, but placed them in other time segments. Maybe a lessonwas learned for the '94 Lillehammer Games in Norway. Nantz and Andrea Joyce werea good weekend pairing, although Joyce has a tendency to scream at times. Gumbeland Harry Smith, who co-hosts "CBS This Morning" with Zahn, provided a comfortable eye-opener for morning viewers.
However, the morning show, from 7 to 9 a.m., was little more than a combination of highlights, features and cutaways that viewers regularly get on "This Morning." Although the mountains and arenas around the Savoie Valley were filled with live action (1-3 p.m. French time), viewers saw little. CBS was saving for prime-time. Couldn't the network have given early viewers more than three or four minutes of live action per day?
At the venues, CBS had some medal-winning efforts. On hockey, Mike Emrick, John Davidson and Mike Eruzione not only called and analyzed their sport, but also explained the nuances of the game and the Olympic pool system well, and repeatedly. Brad Nessler, Eric Heiden and Michael Barkann showed their mettle at the speed skating oval.
On the slopes, analysts Andy Mill and Christin Cooper were sometimes as tough as the unforgiving courses. Al Trautwig's packaged features and competition reports on the biathlon were touching and instructive. Sean McDonough picked inside stuff for viewers from his luge/bobsled analysts, particularly John Fee on the luge.
On figure skating, Verne Lundquist was a solid pro as expected, and former ice dancer Tracy Wilson starred in her analysis and features work. Scott Hamilton strengthened for the women's figure skating analysis after his weak work early in the Games, the subject of a skewering on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" a weekend ago.
Katarina Witt was window dressing.
The highlight of CBS' work, however, was in its camera work and producers and directors, particularly director Sandy Grossman on ice hockey and producer Michael Burks on men's Alpine skiing. Burks' camera positions on the slopes did as much to tell the story as any announcer could.
The features by CBS News personnel, primarily Charles Kuralt, gave the prime-time coverage some needed transitional pieces.
Turner's TNT paid CBS $20 million for 45 weekday hours of coverage and certainly got its money's worth. The cable network was limited to showing the figure skaters and hockey CBS didn't want, and went live with much more programming. Viewers watched, too. TNT's 1-6 p.m. rating for the two weeks was triple its usual audience.
Skating analyst Peter Carruthers was much better than Hamilton on CBS, and TNT didn't suffer at all by having its hosts, Nick Charles and Fred Hickman, in an Atlanta studio rather than on site.
CBS can't be blamed for a lack of spontaneity in its prime-time shows. That's the product of a six-hour time difference. And when CBS went live - as it was for two emotional hockey games, viewers saw Olympic drama at its best.
However, CBS shouldn't have promoted its morning show's live coverage when the only live action was a few minutes of competition and Smith, Gumbel and weatherman Mark McEwen standing in front of the camera.
As stiff as Zahn and McCarver were, the lack of morning glory on these CBS Olympics shows was the biggest disappointment to at least one viewer.