I watched the replay on Peacock this morning and successfully avoided spoilers -- except that I could see that the telecast was less than 2:07 in length! I was watching the whole time wondering.. are they going to edit out part of the race? how on earth does the race end and they wrap up the broadcast that fast??
I watched the replay on Peacock this morning and successfully avoided spoilers -- except that I could see that the telecast was less than 2:07 in length! I was watching the whole time wondering.. are they going to edit out part of the race? how on earth does the race end and they wrap up the broadcast that fast??
I bet they could get away with broadcasting a full marathon in only 85 minutes if they transmit it at x 1.5 speed. Who would notice? And then maybe even play the commercials at 0.85 speed.
The marathon started here shortly before 11pm (coverage) and ended 1.30-ish. At 1.30am PST or 4.30EST, nobody much is watching, although marathon fans MIGHT BE. They missed an opportunity for interviews, to personalize the activity. That sort of debriefing would be relevant and meaningful: newsworthy. The end was abrupt. Missed opportunity.
Y'all sound like a bunch of grandparents that bought a subscription to USATF+ just to see your eight-year-old grandchild finish 158th at the JO Cross Country Nationals.
You really have to wonder, who makes the production decision, "Ok, we have hundreds of thousands of fans watching the marathon. Screw the finishers. Quick, get over to the Bulgarian guy doing the 170kg snatch. Yeah, that's what viewers want to see."
Come on now, you really think "hundreds of thousands of fans" are glued to their screens watching some skinny guys run down a street for 2 hours? I'll watch a marathon but I'm under no illusions about it being a popular spectator sport.
Quibble over the exact number of viewers in the middle of the night in America. Fine. But there is no quibbling that the audience for Bulgarian weight lifting at 4:10am ET, right as the marathoners were finishing, was zero.
I think the commentary was just fine, the cutting away was horrible
The commentary was not fine. It was downright awful. Carrie T talked about nothing relevant to the race. No idea what was going on behind the first 4 runners. No idea the UK runner (Cairess?) was making a late charge. No mention of Bekele. Only one passing reference to Kipchoge being 8 minutes back. No idea where Mantz and Young were. Etc
of course she made sure we knew the all the guys were hurting, giving 100%, needed the crowds, the atmosphere was great, etc.
No that was Kara again, not Carrie T. We need someone better. I don’t mind CarrieT. I can’t stand Kara. John Anderson would’ve been good, he at least seems to know and follow the sport.
While we're at it, the camera angles were abysmal. Who was the cinema studies major who decided that fully 30min of the broadcast should be slow-mo shots of feet? It was often unclear if the camera was on the chase pack, or a random group hundreds of yards back.
Hahaha….. The execs know one thing: Ratings. After the top ten finishers, switching to another sport makes sense.
Nobody wants to watch the hobby joggers trickle in. They should have IMMEDIATELY terminated transmission after the top 3 crossed the line. Like even if there was no other sport to show, the screen should have instantly gone black with no outro.
Correct - Non placing Stick Figures = ZERO ratings.
I woke up at 3am to watch the last hour+ thinking that they'd be showing the marathon (on over-the-air channel), but it was a f-ing replay of the previous night primetime Olympics recap coverage. I couldn't even watch a damn minute of coverage. Went back to bed and obviously won't bother trying to watch the women's race tonight. Can't even show the marathon at 2am EST... wtf?!