The good news is the oversaturated Winter Olympics telecasts are over. The bad news is there`s only 720 days until the next ones.
(Can hardly wait, luge fans, can you?)
CBS, for instance, already has a jump on 1994 with its portable broadcast center set for storage somewhere in Europe for a year. TNT, on the other hand, will just put its kitschy set into mothballs.
One thing CBS officials can ponder, said Kevin O`Malley, Turner Sports executive vice president, is how to make Lillehammer, Norway, as attractive as, say, Courchevel, France.
”They`re going to have to dig harder for (feature) stories,” said O`Malley, whose TNT had few of those quirky pieces. ”Lillehammer is just a small farm town in Norway. It`s not a high-priced ski resort in France. They won`t have the gaslight streets, the French restaurants.”
Also, CBS can use the extra time to follow up on news stories, two of which were given short shrift over this last weekend: The boorish behavior of the U.S. hockey team after its loss to the hated Unifieds, and the accidental death of Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay.
What CBS will have, says Mark Harrington, is plenty of rest.
”We really learned how tough this is,” said the CBS Olympics vice president. ”People like (coordinating producer) Mike Pearl, who have done this before, were saying you have to prepare like a long-distance runner. It`s pretty tiring; it`s pretty exhausting. That`s been a real big lesson-we have to pace ourselves.”
The CBS pace began changing almost immediately at these Games. For instance, the prime-time show, once stodgy and boring!!!-became more light-hearted and boring!!!
”The evening show was an evolving one,” said Harrington. ”Our plan was to build a solid foundation at the beginning, to make sure we were delivering the events to the viewer. We were doing things (at the end) we weren`t doing” at the start. For instance, weekend host Jim Nantz finally got around to telling the results of earlier competition that would be shown in prime time without asking viewers to ”turn away” if they didn`t want to know the ending.
Rick Gentile, CBS Olympics programming boss, said the results Nantz gave Saturday afternoon differed from the previous two weekends because they ”were results U.S. audiences wouldn`t be concerned about,” like men`s slalom skiing and four-man bobsleds. Oh. Like U.S. audiences were more concerned about lugers and downhill racers. Fat chance.
Among the other changes seen were the look of hosts Paula Zahn (less formal) and Tim McCarver (donned eyeglasses) and the roles-more interviews and chit-chat. Zahn and McCarver, however, may not return in 1994 since, except for Katarina Witt, ”we haven`t signed up anybody for Lillehammer yet,” said Harrington. Zahn and McCarver do have CBS Sports President Neal Pilson in their corner, though.
Another story was the surprising ratings, which averaged nearly 19.1 through 15 nights after CBS promised advertisers only a 17 (and charged them accordingly). While there wasn`t much the network could do about the difference this year, you can bet your Nielsen box those spots will cost more at Lillehammer.
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”It shows the value of an Olympics as a big event,” says Harrington.
”Our numbers are comparable to a World Series. These events are larger than sports. It really exceeded all our expectations.”
”We`re a nation of event-watchers,” added O`Malley. ”A lot of people were brought to television by something special.”
For that reason, the network won`t change its priorities for `94. Pilson credited the network`s success to event scheduling, using the time difference to CBS` advantage, the heavy emphasis on venue coverage (which may be why we saw less and less of Zahn and McCarver as the Games went on and on) and the pre-Olympics promotion blitz.
”We have certainly improved,” said Pilson.
TNT also came out a big winner. While losing close to $20 million on the venture, Turner`s network kept expenses down to a minumum and still presented lively programs, largely through the work of hockey broadcasters Jiggs McDonald (despite his snafu during the Canada-Germany shootout) and Bill Clement. Not even using the world video feed.
”The difficulty is that everyone wants to have their own production,”
said O`Malley, looking ahead to `94. ”The world coverage will be the object of much more planning than it has been. The situation`s gotten way out of hand. In the future, you`ll see the world feed become more sophisticated, more like American television-more closeups, different replay angles.”
– CBS didn`t ask me, but here`s what I`d keep for the next Olympics: Pat O`Brien`s late-night show (in fact, I`d use O`Brien`s format for prime time); Katarina Witt (but, Kat, film a new diet Coke commercial); the wonderful features prepared by Alan Weisman`s unit and researched by Draggan
Mihailovich`s crew; Andrea Joyce (in fact, how about pairing her with O`Brien in prime time?); Verne Lundquist (a walking definition of a pro`s pro).
And here`s what I`d dump: The early show (the few live events didn`t warrant having Greg Gumbel and Harry Smith waste their time); the mid-day show (another waste of time); the excuse that John Madden`s bus would take too long to reach Europe (and have him bring his Telestrator); Screamin` Greg Lewis; the expensive sets and designer clothes; the jingoistic buildup of all athletes American.