NBC Doing Nothing to Live for the Moment

I’ve been watching NBC all of my life--from Dave Garroway and J. Fred Muggs on “Today” to Johnny Carson and Jay Leno on the “Tonight Show,” from Huntley & Brinkley and John Chancellor to Tom Brokaw, from “Dragnet” and “Columbo” to “Law & Order,” from Curt Gowdy to Bob Costas, from “Laugh-In” to “Cheers,” “Seinfeld” and “Friends.”

Believe me, I have no problem with the peacock network. Except every other year when NBC televises an Olympics.

I am appalled by what I have not seen on television in Salt Lake City.

Now it’s possible I am in the minority. Most of you, no doubt, were braced for the coverage of the Winter Olympics because of the experience from the Summer Olympics two years ago in Australia. I, however, was not subjected to NBC’s coverage from Sydney because I was there, watching Australian television, which has an interesting definition for the word “live.” It means live.

Costas made a funny joke during the opening ceremony here Friday night about all the NBC-bashing in Australia. When the Australian team marched into the stadium during the parade of nations, he said, “I’ve been waiting a year-and-a-half to say this: It’s Australia and we’re live.”

That led me to believe that NBC had learned the error of its ways and would make an effort to televise as much of the Salt Lake City Games as possible, or at least the big-ticket events, live.

How naive of me.

I woke up Sunday morning to watch the men’s downhill, which, to many Europeans and Scandinavians, is the marquee event of the Winter Olympics, as significant as the men’s 100 meters is in the Summer Olympics to Americans. Even without Hermann Maier here, a whole bunch of Austrians were favored to win medals, but I thought perhaps Californian Daron Rahlves could pull an upset the way Bill Johnson and Tommy Moe had in previous Olympics.

It began at 10 a.m. MST.

I turned the channel to the local NBC affiliate, which was airing a travel show featuring the Houstonian Hotel in Texas.

That was OK because I knew that the network had farmed out some events to CNBC and MSNBC.

I turned to CNBC, which was airing an infomercial featuring Vanessa Williams selling an acne cream.

Last chance. I turned to MSNBC. I can’t complain about most of what I found there, a compelling interview with Yasser Arafat and the latest news from Israel and Afghanistan. Certainly, all of that takes precedence over the men’s downhill.

But I thought that I might at least learn the latest results from the Olympics by following the news scroll under the picture.

Instead, the scroll reported that U.S. athletes and Port Authority police officers and firefighters had carried the U.S. flag from the World Trade Center into the stadium during the opening ceremony and that Mike Eruzione and the 1980 U.S. hockey team had been chosen to light the caldron--36 hours before!--and that Italy’s Stefania Belmondo had won the Games’ first gold medal and that Shannon Bahrke had won the United States’ first medal--almost 24 hours before! There was nothing about the events taking place Sunday.

For that, I had to turn to ESPN, which, unlike NBC, is not paying hundreds of millions of dollars, or even a hundred cents, to bring you news of the Games.

Of course, ESPN, unlike NBC, is not going to make millions of dollars off the Games, either.

If you are an NBC stockholder, you will not be too agitated about any of this. Dick Ebersol, the network’s sports president, is a good businessman (the XFL notwithstanding). NBC made a lot of money in Australia and, if the first two days of ratings from here are an indication, will make a lot of money in Salt Lake City.

He also is considered a friend of the Olympic movement, having been awarded the Olympic Order a few years ago. But, although he would vehemently disagree, I think he sells the athletes short.

He wouldn’t dare tape-delay most sports events. You saw the NBA All-Star game Sunday on NBC when it happened. You will see the Daytona 500 next Sunday on NBC when it happens. You will see Notre Dame football games next fall on NBC when they happen.

You will see Olympic events on NBC whenever NBC thinks you should see them, polished and packaged like a variety show.

Isn’t it ironic that Ebersol made his bones at NBC with a show called “Saturday Night Live?”

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NBC finally began televising events Sunday at noon, although not the men’s downhill. The first segment, before the network broke away for the NBA All-Star game, lasted two hours. It ended with Hannah Storm telling us to tune in Sunday night to see how U.S. snowboarder Kelly Clark fared in the women’s halfpipe.

I felt bad for Storm because no one informed her that the women’s halfpipe had been finished for about an hour and that Clark had won. I guess Storm should have been watching Australian television.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at randy.harvey@latimes.com