Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 26, 1994 TAG: 9402260044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Dan Rather and Connie Chung going fishing? For ratings? Dave's mom interviewing a canned ham? Greg Gumbel introducing a canned Olympics piece?
We've seen plenty of that over the past two weeks, perhaps the most surprising two-week run of prime-time viewing in U.S. TV history. CBS Sports promised advertisers a 19.7 nightly Nielsen ratings average, one point higher than the network delivered two years ago at the Albertville Games. It delivered much more, more than 40 percent more.
CBS had the "Skategate" saga to build an audience, but viewers watched for other reasons, too. It helped that Alaskan Tommy Moe skied for gold on the first night of competition. Long before Tonya Harding turned up as dead as Warren Harding in Wednesday night's technical program, CBS knew it had a success on its hands.
That isn't to say the network always handled well what was most often a beautiful package. Along with the wonderful pictures came a promotional blizzard and advertising avalanche. One-third of every prime-time hour was consumed by commercials. Viewers who survived that were most often rewarded with night-long waits for glamour events. Dan Jansen's singular gold-medal speedskate was aired 13 hours after it happened last Friday.
CBS paid $295 million for the U.S. telecast rights to the Lillehammer Games, and its decision to embargo the best events for prime time is understandable. On some occasions over the past two weeks, however, the network was downright deceitful in its coverage as it pertained to the news.
This particularly happened on weekend daytime shows. An example came late last Saturday afternoon, when Andrea Joyce was chatting with skating analyst Paul Wylie about the men's figure skating scheduled for the prime-time show that night. Joyce and Wylie discussed what viewers should be watching for later.
One problem: By the time Joyce and Wylie were talking, the men's competition was completed and the medals had been awarded. They knew who had won. If they didn't want to tell viewers, that's fine. That's the way "virtual reality" television works, and most viewers understand that. Being deceitful and acting like the event isn't finished - or hasn't even started - is another matter, and CBS too often was that at Lillehammer's canned film festival.
If viewers wanted to know the results of any event, they could get it by midday from CNN, ESPN, TNT, local news, network news, radio reports. By the time Nancy Kerrigan and Harding skated Wednesday, CBS had figured out that letting people know the score wouldn't hurt ordamage the drama or reduce the ratings.
What's the problem with CBS saving its best for prime time? That's when most viewers can watch. If CBS wants to hold the video of a particular event, that's OK. When it refuses to give the news, however, it is carrying "virtual reality" too far.
Most of the network's feature pieces were interesting and intriguing. It has been apparent in Lillehammer that CBS learned from its 1992 experience at the Albertville Games. In some cases, it has taken what it learned too far. In others, not far enough.
The prime-time studio in Albertville was a disaster. Hosts Tim McCarver and Paula Zahn displayed a little more chemistry than Kerrigan and Harding in recent weeks, but not much more. So, this time CBS went to a single host in Gumbel. Unsurprisingly, he's been superb. The problem is, he's much more capable and colorful than he's been allowed to display. He's been little more than a traffic cop among events.
Throughout the '94 Games, CBS announcers and anchors often have brought up the 1998 Nagano Games, the next Winter Olympics. CBS also will televise those Games. Let's hope the network will try and improve its 7-9 a.m. shows by then. That two-hour span - 1-3 p.m. in Lillehammer - was really prime-time for event coverage from Norway.
Instead, viewers saw Mark McEwen sledding, eating at McDonald's, talking about trolls. They saw Zahn skiing and trying to wear a hockey uniform. They saw Harry Smith gee-whizzing his way through segments. Zahn's knowledge of what she was trying to discuss in interviews was repeatedly shallow. Her past two Olympic performances have been worse than those of the U.S. hockey team.
At the venues, most of the CBS talent could take a bow. On figure skating, Verne Lundquist, Scott Hamilton and Tracy Wilson not only dealt strongly with controversy but also tried to explain what was inexplicable to most viewers - the judging and technical sides of the Games' glamour sport.
CBS' record ratings during a sweeps period seem to make another statement about U.S. television than the fact that figure skating ranks behind pro football as the most attractive telecast sport.
The Nielsen numbers from Albertville and - even more so - from Lillehammer say that channel-surfing viewers want to see something different. Audiences want to be entertained, and CBS did that from Norway. In most cases, telling viewers who won won't make the telecasts any less compelling.
Most people watching Wednesday night already knew Kerrigan was first and Harding was 10th. That didn't hurt the audience, did it? It may have helped build it. Next time in Nagano, CBS should remember that.
by CNB