Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994 TAG: 9402210116
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
And, oh yes, flash! Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan didn't share a hug at practice! Nor did they rip each other's head off!
Now for a feature on reindeer and an interview with Donald Trump - right after these commercials ....
In its first week, the Winter Olympics have warmed CBS' heart. Or, at least, its Nielsen pocket-piece. But despite a U.S. prime-time audience averaging a spectacular 23.3 million TV households (up almost one-third from the tune-in for the 1992 Albertville Games), some viewers have been left cold.
The disgruntled include the nation's TV critics, many of whom have spent the week hurling verbal snowballs at the network.
(Before we start, CBS, you know the Olympics-coverage drill: "Don't listen if you don't want to hear this.")
"What's missing most of the time is the sports," wrote Marvin Kitman of Long Island's Newsday, adding that anchor Greg Gumbel "reminds me of a bear in hibernation."
"CBS has Olympic fever," noted The Washington Post's Tom Shales, "but sometimes with fever comes sweating, chills and delusions."
"Cliche-cluttered, commercial-contaminated, promo-packed, fluff-filled," summed up Shales' colleague, Leonard Shapiro. "A big tease," chimed in USA Today's Matt Roush.
It was easy to jeer at the sight of "CBS This Morning's" Paula Zahn, complete with hockey uniform and skates, trying to shoot a puck.
And at Connie Chung, Lillehammer-bound, who did an on-the-air, in-the-air interview with plane-mate Tonya Harding for "The CBS Evening News."
"In the name of serious journalism," responded The Wall Street Journal tongue-in-cheek, "shouldn't [Dan] Rather be dogging Nancy Kerrigan's heels?"
Of course, "CBS This Morning" covered live the non-confrontation between the two skaters Thursday.
Zahn was breathless at the non-event, while analyst Scott Hamilton tried in vain to restore some sense of proportion.
"With all the attention that's been put on this [rivalry], maybe we're gonna overanalzye it, who knows?" he gently suggested.
Soon, weatherman Mark McEwen was seen hawking burgers at the Lillehammer McDonald's.
But then, throughout the Olympics, selling is the big sport, cross-promotion the main event.
Even David Letterman has gotten in the act - or, more precisely, his mother, who has been reporting on the Olympics live for "Late Show."
CBS isn't the only place to watch the goings-on. Cable channel TNT jumps in each afternoon, mostly with recaps and the Olympics' not-ready-for-prime-time players.
But CBS keeps the good stuff, and mostly hoards it for prime time.
Viewers of "CBS This Morning" Friday were advised when speedskater Dan Jansen broke a 1,000-meter world record. But instead of showing it live, CBS kept the video of his gold-medal performance on ice until Friday night.
"We wanted to save this for the largest possible audience," said CBS spokesman Tom Goodman. "Funneling the entire audience into the evening arena, so to speak, really makes for a better program."
Another thing: By keeping Jansen's feat off the air Friday morning, CBS kept it off everybody else's air until 11 p.m. EST.
"No one else can use a single frame of the night's coverage until we're off the air," Goodman explained.
Half over now, with closing ceremonies next Sunday night, it's the season's biggest miniseries.
But with the action mostly prerecorded, edited, tweaked and broken up by features, the athletics takes a backseat to show business. Everything seems to take place not in Norway in February 1994, but in timeless cyberspace.
by CNB