Sure Thing Prediction: NBC Guts Sochi Opening Ceremony

Before posting another update about the Olympic city experience, a word about NBC and a prediction for their Sochi coverage.

For the record, there are many aspects of NBC's Olympic coverage that I find O.K. Some of their feature reports and five-ringed vignettes are fun, and it is enjoyable to return from the Games experience to view their take on the action in an edited format. When there's time, it is fun to view select content at NBCOlympics.com.

With that said, I still cannot stomach archived John Tesh commentary from the times when they permitted him to dramatize figure skating or gymnastics. And there are other Olympic broadcasting ideas about which a strong opinion remains.

The part I definitely don't like, don't understand and will not likely ever concur with is the NBC Olympic producers' decision to alter the Olympic Opening Ceremony for U.S. broadcast, a terrible decision.

Here's NBC's recipe for "Olympic Opening Ceremony American Style" (their Salt Lake 2002 coverage is the only exception to this format) ...

1. Tape the full Olympic Opening Ceremony to "look live" with anchors/commentary
2. Lock producers/editors into editing bays at the NBC quadrant of the International Broadcast Center
3. Slice, dice, carve, mangle and blend on "grind" mode until just before 8 p.m. ET stateside air time
4. Serve up dramatically altered "American ready" version for the masses.

Readers of this blog may recall the London 2012 Opening Ceremony and revelations that entire segments of the event did not air in the USA. Boo! Hiss!

Why can't NBC quote from the Sochi organizing committee Opening Ceremony press kits (a minute-by-minute explanation of every scene in the ceremony meticulously prepared for broadcast reports to reference during the live event)? Why not put this factual document in the hands of Bob Costas and other hosts (Meredith Viera in London)? Would this help, perhaps, for stupid Americans to "get it" when something about the host nation is unveiled?

After catching up on just two days worth of TODAY Show segments from Sochi, with gleeful hosts poking fun at every opportunity and yuk-ing it up with xenophobic remarks about the host nation, I shutter to think how the executive producers already have their cut and gut sites set on Sochi's Opening Ceremony.

Will NBC cut to taped segments about record-setting security costs while American viewers miss out on a Russian history lesson presented on the field of play deemed "too Russian for USA viewers" [to understand]? Da!

Will NBC Olympic producers let the anchors bite their tongues during President Putin's appearance to officially open the Games? Nyet!

Will NBC harp on Torch Relay snafus in lieu of successes of one of the biggest flame caravans in Olympic history? Da!

Will the NBC Olympic broadcast cut to commercial with precision as the last few torchbearers are revealed and immediately after the cauldron ignites? Bероятно (probably).

The only thing that chaps my hide more than the editing is that the powers that be at NBC don't care that many people just want to see the real Opening Ceremony. At the IOC Conference on Women and Sport in February 2012, I posed questions about this topic to the media panel including one of NBC's top producers (the woman who later oversaw the London 2012 broadcast among the most, if not the most, senior producers for NBC Olympics). She sort of shrugged off my questions as if to say, "Meh! Will just do it our way" for ratings, for fun, or just because they can. "These are timing decisions," she said. How about these are business decisions?

What is your opinion on the NBC Olympic broadcast of the Opening Ceremony? Should they just air it intact, heavily edited or somewhere in the middle? Please look to the right column of this blog and cast your vote in the brief poll.

And enjoy watching the Olympics on NBC.

POLL: Which Canadian Musicians Will Rock the Olympic Opening Ceremony?

With just days to go until the Vancouver Olympic Opening Ceremony, folks are buzzing about who will perform and represent Canada on the big night Feb. 12.

I'd like to know who you think will perform, so please peruse the Olympic Rings And Other Things poll (on the right side of screen just below the "About Me" section) and click on as many names as you like.

If you know a Canadian musician who is not listed but you believe may perform, please email that name to me or post a comment (I might add names to the poll, but only Canadians).

Happy clicking!

Update: Dang it all! I thought that k.d. lang was on the poll, and only now realized she was left off by mistake. But I do think she should be on the poll (sorry, k.d. lang and fans) -- unfortunately, now that there are votes posted, she cannot be added. So noting her here in this update -- if you want to vote for her, please send me an e-mail.

Gaga for GRAMMY Awards (and Olympics)

Around the office we've been placing our bets on which Canadian icons -- with or without GRAMMY Awards (set to air tonight) -- might pop up as performers at the 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies at B.C. Place.

Of course, Olympic vet Celine Dion, who performed "The Power of the Dream" (the official song of the 1996 Olympic Torch Relay) at Atlanta's Olympic Opening Ceremony, tops the list for Feb. 12 festivities. I'm betting on some other Grammy winners, like Avril Lavigne (who played at Torino's 2006 Olympic Closing Ceremony), or Alanis Morissette (whose music was EVERYWHERE leading up to the 1996 Games).

And then there's dark horse candidates like Canadian icon Leonard Cohen, or a return Olympic performance by k.d. lang, who Canada introduced to the world at the 1988 Calgary Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Lady Gaga does not yet have an Olympic connection, but she's hot these days (but not Canadian). Ke$ha is on the charts, too, but again is sans Canadian roots.

My personal hope is that U2 will perform, given their worldwide appeal. But even if Bono eats Canadian bacon, it would be a stretch (my personal hope for 1996 was the R.E.M. of Georgia would perform in Atlanta, and it still is shocking and disappointing they didn't).

Who else should be on the short list for Feb. 12 appearances, song-wise? Who is going to sing the Canadian national anthem? Please share your thoughts as I need to learn more Canada stars while in town.

Fun With Nick & Jane

Georgia Tech's Ferst Center for the Arts (disclosure: an Edelman client) was the funniest place in Atlanta last night, with Mark Twain Prize (and Emmy, and Tony, and GRAMMY) winning comedienne Lily Tomlin playing to a standing room audience.

As a special treat (though not surprising), local star resident Jane Fonda -- Tomlin's co-star from one of the first Beta-tape home video cassettes I ever viewed: Nine To Five -- was in the audience. Jane was seated on the center aisle, on about row 15. My seat was on the front row (purchased online at 12:01 a.m. ET/12:01 p.m. Beijing time, as I was working in China during the on-sale moment, determined to have an excellent seat, and it was, as we could practically see Tomlin's nose hairs whenever she strolled stage left!).

During her 90 minutes of monologue, in-character sketches and even some pantomime and dancing, Tomlin delivered and outstanding array of laughs. Given this week's election news, perhaps Tomlin's best pseudo-impromptu line was her lamentations on how she is "now deeply worried about the future of comedy" in a post-W. presidency. She also described how graffiti in her hometown of Detroit sold thousands of cars:

"Teenagers used to spray paint that four-letter word that started with 'F' on bridges, and overnight the adults would repaint it to read 'BUICK'!"

Tomlin also touched on Hollywood, family and sexuality several times, noting that in her youth, family and society, "no one was gay -- they were only shy."

Following a sustained standing ovation, a couple hundred "VIP" ticket holders joined Tomlin and Fonda on stage for a delightfully informal meet-and-greet session. Everyone got as much time as they wanted to snap photos, ask questions or seek autographs from both stars.

For the sake of this blog, when it was my turn to chat with Tomlin, I decided to reprise my "reporter" role in an Olympic version of "The Chris Farley Show" and ask whether Lily had a favorite Olympic moment, athlete or experience (Tomlin is now the fifth celebrity to indulge my Olympic curiosity after Ennio Morricone, Kelly Clarkson, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and most recently Garrison Keillor).

Tomlin took a minute to think about it, and eventually replied (see the video) that she was amazed by the opening ceremonies in Athens and Beijing, in particular the giant LED "scroll" in the Bird's Nest. A bit later, off camera, Tomlin introduced the topic to her stage manager while we were exchanged e-mail information (Tomlin missed Fonda's departure from the event, and I offered Fonda's G-CAPP manager's e-mail to Tomlin & Co. -- thanks, Ms. Tomlin, for answering my questions and for signing my ticket).

Before she left the venue, I also asked Fonda whether she had ever seen Tomlin perform live on stage. The answer was, "No. No, not ever in Atlanta. And this venue [The Ferst Center and Atlanta] was a great place for this."

On the advice of Fonda's team from G-CAPP, I did not go down the Olympic path of questions, which I now regret. One of Fonda's G-CAPP colleagues said that she did not believe Jane had attended an Olympics, and unsure about the Goodwill Games with Fonda's then-husband Ted Turner.

Today, the morning after, the Web yielded that Fonda DID have at least one five-ringed connection as host of some sort of 1984 televised "Olympic Gala" (with Neil Diamond, The Beach Boys, James Stewart, Paul Hogan, Olivia Newton-John, Christoper Reeve, Dizzy Gillespie, Brooke Shields, Bruce Jenner, Peggy Flemming, John Houseman, Robert Wagner, Placido Domingo, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini, Barbara Walters, Andy Williams, Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jack Lemmon, Burt Lancaster and even Prince Charles and Princess Diana -- man, I need to find a tape of this) which presumably took place in Los Angeles before or during the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad.

Oh, well -- guess I'll have to ask Jane the next time we cross paths at the Midtown Whole Foods Market.

But back to Tomlin. Of several dozen celebrity introductions over the years, Tomlin was one of the most gracious, friendly and genuine. I appreciated her time to talk with so many people and her thoughtful answer to my questions -- some of the best 1x1 celebrity time since working with Benazir Bhutto's media tour at CNN. To paraphrase the interviewer Chris Farley, "That was AWESOME!"

And that's the truth.

It is SO --- ON!

A note to London: GOOD (freakin') LUCK!

It will be unspeakably difficult for the 2012 Summer Games city to top Beijing's mesmerizing Opening Ceremony, which just concluded locally. Unfortunately, a ticket for this blogger was not in the cards, but no worries -- the Canadians took in this Yankee and we had a fab night next to Tiananmen Square, where the stream of (SPOILER ALERT) citywide fireworks launched en route across the skyline all the way to the Bird's Nest at 8:08 on 8-8-08.

It's my understanding the entire metro Beijing area was under a blanket of fireworks by night's end (more than two dozen major sites ignited). At T-Square, the post-ceremony explosions continued outside B.C. Canada Pavilion with tens of thousands of Chinese nationals chanting "Chi-na! Chi-na!" in Mandarin and English.

I've not yet found words to describe my reactions and emotions about the Opening Ceremony presentation. It absolutely buries any past Opening, throwing out the shovel and dusting off the hands. Cheerleaders at Atlanta '96 -- huh? Flaming arrow in Barcelona '92 -- that was cute. Athens in '04 -- fah-get-a-bout-it! Tonight will be talked about in 25, 50, 100 years in the Olympic lexicon of "that's how you do Opening Ceremonies!"

I'll wait to post video so as not to spoil the show back on the East Coast (and so as not to get my Olympic credential revoked -- rules are rules!).

You are in for a treat -- savor and enjoy! The Games are ON!