List all the issues with NBC production this Olympics trials

I liked the MPHs, except sometimes they would show these slow MPHs early in a distance race and then take it away during kicks when it would've been more interesting

Intros were ridiculous. So many races where they only showed a couple people (often not the favorites!) pre-race

Honestly - did you really expect Snoop to know a damn thing about the steeplechase? I'm a huge track fan but I see beyond the "celebrity gimmick" everyone here is pointing out.

NBC paid Snoop & Terry Crews an appearance fee because they're universally liked, while having influence & appeal among 20-50 year-olds. Furthermore, the more clips you get of Snoop at the T&F Olympic trials, the more people browsing social media/Youtube might say "Oh what, Snoop's at the trials? That's dope," which then drives more interest in watching other clips, watching more highlights and hopefully gaining more fans for an individual athlete or the sport in general.

It's actually pretty smart in my opinion, whether it may seem like a waste of resources at first. You never see celebrities at T&F events, and the sport badly needs that corner of interest to help push it's mass appeal. Celebrities influence people, remember that. Everyone here would be impressed in someone like Matt Damon showed up to the USA's with his fam/friends, or if a few NBA players came through to check it out. USATF should cater to making track more of an outing, just like they've done with the NBA, NFL, MLB, MLS, NHL. I'm for all the gimmicks because contrary to the gatekeeper belief, it actually works. T&F has actual appeal - they need to actually push it. I'm ex D1 distance runner and it all starts with the sprinters, hurdlers - PERIOD. You have to prop them up and sell their personalities the way other sports do it. Noah is great for the sport. Prop up the creme de la creme.

Nothing to do with NBC broadcast as I was in person, but do we really need the announcer giving us play by play of every lead change and every move in every race? I mean, I'm there, I can see it, it's happening right in front of me.

If I were an athlete in the race, it would be very annoying to me as well.

And the comments in the field events as someone was getting ready for their attempt -(paraphrasing) "this is the last attempt for Joe Smith, if he blows this he's going home a loser"

stop these clowns from ruining our sport.

charity TV productions should be openly managed by TV experts on open public member ship forums.

then we know for certain years before how the shows will look and who will operate the show..

for example at charity meetings most of the inertia harnesses and portable cameras were manufactured before the camera men's parents were born.

very few use wireless cameras. owning a wireless is so expensive it is beyond the dreams of volunteer cameramen at meetings.

NBC needs a true play-by-play commentator (like they do in other sports
such as horse-racing, swimming, football, basketball, etc.). Someone like Mike
Tirico would be great. But compared to how track & field used to be covered in the USA many years ago, NBC is doing fine. But can they do even better? Absolutely! Here’s a
few ways they could improve:

Get rid of Kara Goucher.
“He knows...” A few seconds later: “He knows...” A few seconds later: “He
knows...” etc. etc. etc. She can be extremely annoying to say the least.
Plus, she often makes ridiculous comments during the races. Like when
she said that Elizabeth Leachman was running a very smart race in the 5,000-meter
heats by hanging back with all of the others who were running very slow,
instead of just running from the front (like she did in all of her HS races).
The ONLY chance that Leachman ever had to make it to the Finals was if she ran
hard right from the start and led the race. But to run with the pack in a very
slow race was terrible advice.

And no one ever mentioned how Karissa Schwizer foolishly allowed Weini
Kelati to pass her in the inside of lane one in the homestretch of the 10,000-meter
race. If Karissa hadn’t drifted out to the outside of lane one, Weini would
have had to go around both Karissa & Parker Valby (which would have
increased both Karissa’s & Parker’s chances of winning). But no one said a
word.

And to refer to Nikki Hiltz as “they” was utter nonsense. How about
calling her “Nikki.”

I would love to see KG replaced by Emma Coburn or Shannon Rowbury, or
just about anyone else (except Sanya Richards-Ross who is just as bad). And
yes, they need to replace SRR as well!

IN THE MEANTIME, I found an adequate solution: Just hold the remote in
your hand during the telecast and MUTE both KG and SRR every time they begin to
speak.

Well, at 7:30pm local time last night when it all was over I didn't know what to do with myself. I felt like I needed a halfway house!

That said, NBC did a great job. The OP made most of the major pain points. I definitely agree with needing a little more time to show the athletes at the start, quick look at their CVs, etc. I like a little help with the pace, i.e. what is the projected time. Most people didn't realize how fast that women's steeple was progressing. It really bothered me that the lower right corner did not display critical splits and lap times like you get with the Diamond League telecasts. I hope that they fix that for the Olympic Games.

Ato Bolden gets better every year, he's the king of calling the sprints. Someone made the point about Kara being relaxed. I agree. There was a meet a few weeks ago where Paul Swangard and Shannon Rowbury did the play by play. They were excellent, playful, and Paul was more relaxed than usual. I also discovered he was far more knowledgeable that he lets on in the usual more-formal NBC broadcasts.

Lewis Johnson does a great job. I know a lot of people would just as soon skip the post-race interviews but I believe Lewis is the man for this. He sometimes has to handle awkward situations where the athlete gets emotional/angry (think Sha'Carri 1.0, Fred Kerley) and he gets through it fine.

NBC does a good job making available the feeds to individual field events. I was able to watch the Women's PV Final end to end last night on Peacock and at one point I had two instances of Peacock going, one for the PV and another for the running events. This is the best way to watch the field events as you can see how things unfold.

Not showing the times for each heat. They would just show who qualified for the next round after all the heats.

Get rid of Goucher, please. What a motormouth! She just goes on, and on, and on. And purports to know exactly what the athletes are thinking and feeling all the time. Really, is she a mindreader?

Your comment on Marty Liquori is spot on. A master commentator! Wanna-be commentators should review and study his work. The best I've ever seen. Yea, and Centro could be good, but he does ramble on.

Can you just say "I don't like listening to women" instead of all the other stuff?

Not saying anything about the point totals or who needs to run what times for medals (like the live point tracker they had at NCAAs during the 800/1500) for the decathlon and heptathlon.

Kara Goucher

Get the Indycar production team to do track as well. They don't have nearly as many of these presentation issues, and manage to jam plenty of relevant data on the screen without making it distracting.

Replace the MPH display with mile pace. Nobody knows what X miles per hour means in terms of running, but even casual fans understand that 4:00 mile pace is fast.

Hire Nick Symmonds. He can make a bunch of hobby joggers racing in Crocs for a pack of gum seem interesting.

Kara is fine apart from the they thing. At least we don't have to endure the speed endurance woman anymore

Not showing the 400m splits was my biggest problem. That’s basic and I’m used to seeing that in every track race I’ve watched for 40 years.

I’d like to see results on the screen as soon as they had them. How did they miss that so often?

Yes, switching camera angles while runners were coming out of the turn and trying adjust your eyes to find who was who was very annoying.
In football, it would be like switching camera angles live with the ball in the air.
Use one main camera for the whole race and the other cameras for replays.

"What does this mean to you?"

"It means the world to me."

How many times do we have to hear this?

I think one element that hasn't been mentioned yet is the font size NBC had on the screen. I watch on a 50" TV from a normal distance and could not make out the "bubble time" during the heats without standing up and moving closer. It may not be an important matter for most people watching but I think that the bigger fans might pay attention to it.

Personally, but perhaps not of interest to others, would be the 400/800/1200 splits in the 1500. It's difficult for me to figure pace from the 300/700 splits. I guess 1100 is easy enough. Perhaps one bottom corner of the screen could be used for 400/800/1200 and the other for the finish line splits.

Phil Liggett is part of the same issue as their track coverage though. To someone not very familiar with the sport it may seem like good insight, but he makes a lot of baffling mistakes (like claiming Ineos was attacking the other day when they were clearly grabbing bottles) and says a lot of things that are just totally incorrect.

I like ato and things he's a great guy and good commentator (and I think he actually reads letsrun forums)

with that said, I'd love to see how a new crew does. Nick Symonds, rg3, some other ex sprinters. think we should try some newer blood to see how they do

Thinking that being loud equals excitement

Where are the Brit announcers when u need them

Not enough play by play by snoop

dog