Even CBS Is Waiting for Show to Begin

For CBS, the Nagano Games have become the No-Go Games.

It’s nice to have snow for a Winter Olympics, but this is ridiculous. Enough is enough.

Snow wiped out what was to be the marquee event for CBS’ show Monday night, the women’s giant slalom. And that pushed the men’s downhill back even further.

The men’s downhill, originally scheduled to be the highlight of Saturday night’s show, will now be on Wednesday night with any luck.

But the way things are going, don’t count on it.

Mother Nature has turned these Winter Olympics into a disaster for CBS--at least so far.

The network was left to feature snowboarding again Monday night. This is a sport that hardly gets get any television attention outside ESPN’s Winter X Games, but it has become a big prime-time attraction on CBS.

But it wasn’t much of one Monday night. Two problems: Two of four U.S. women fell and another was disqualified, and the heavy snow ruined the pictures. They almost seemed like something out of the 1950s--grainy and in black and white. There was little visibility and no beauty.

CBS managed to get a respectable 20.0 rating for Sunday night’s show. Can’t imagine the Monday night show getting anything close to that.

CBS was so desperate that, at the top of the 10 o’clock hour, it went to Michelle Kwan--practicing. What an Olympic moment--figure skating practice.

Kwan doesn’t start competing until a week from Wednesday.

It’s difficult to really criticize CBS’ coverage because there has been so little to cover. Sure, there are too many commercials, but what’s been the harm of that? We’re not missing anything.

Understated prime-time host Jim Nantz hasn’t gotten in the way, but, again, there is nothing to get in the way of.

Some of the commentators who wouldn’t normally get much air time have suddenly become stars.

For instance, Bonny Warner. Her assignment is luge. Well, luge has become pretty big too, and Warner has been quick to let viewers know what to look for.

You know, things like if a competitor is picking up his head or not. Glancing off a wall, now that’s a big no-no, as Warner pointed out.

Then there is someone who calls herself Kennedy--her name is Lisa Kennedy Montgomery. She was borrowed by CBS from MTV, and has been a total embarrassment. But CBS, thank goodness, hardly used her on the prime-time show Monday night.

CBS, in desperate need of an American hero, thought it might have one in speedskater Casey FritzPatrick of Verona, Wis., after he set an Olympic record in the 500 meters on the first of two nights of competition. But then two other skaters went faster than FritzPatrick.

CBS also appeared to catch a break when the men’s Alpine combined went on as scheduled. But then Matt Grosjean of Aliso Viejo, who was third in the slalom after the first run, lost his footing during the second and was eliminated.

You wonder just what else can go wrong for CBS.

Meanwhile, TNT is left with CBS’ leftovers. With a bare cupboard to begin with, that leaves TNT’s plate pretty empty.

If you’re up for the Slovakia-Kazakshstan men’s first-round hockey game played Tuesday night in Nagano, you’ll want to check out TNT today. That game is sure to get lots of air time, since TNT doesn’t have much else to show.

Actually, TNT does have some advantages over CBS. For its daytime coverage that runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the West Coast, the network goes on the air at 3 a.m. in Japan and stays on until 8 a.m.

TNT viewers are getting Jim Lampley live, even here. It’s not like when Nantz tells viewers “we are live.” When Nantz says that, he’s not talking to the Pacific and Mountain time zones.

Anyway, because TNT goes on the air after all the events are over, it knows exactly what it has and can format its show accordingly.

But when there are no events, at least none that matter, what do you do?

You show a hockey game no one cares about in full, then you cue up the cooking show.