Frustrated at Coverage

[Empowered]

I was so aggravated watching the coverage on NBC last night, even more than normal. I understand that they only feel the need to show us the athletes they want to talk about, but seriously when there are routines competing that we could be watching, why are we watching some camera man focused on Shawn Johnson waving for 2 minutes?

I tune in to watch GYMNASTICS. I want to see the new girls, the new routines. I don't want to hear Al and Tim discuss, for the gazillionth time, what Nastia did. Don't get me wrong, I loved Nastia but she's retired and yet how many times did they direct the color commentary back to what Nastia did?

And yes flash to Shawn once, show the Hall of Fame stuff, but the interviews on the floor while girls are competing? To me it seems disrespectful to the girls who have worked so hard to get to this event and then get thrown on the back burner because, oh look Shawn is waving again!

Also I would like to think the announcers across the board could take some time and actually learn about ALL the gymnasts. Some of the comments on the internet broadcast were downright goofy - "The veteran Felicia Hano?" She qualified as elite just this spring for heaven's sake. No I don't expect you to know intimate details about every kid, but basic information wouldn't kill them!

 

[bogwoppit]

Watch the USAG channel on youtube as they put all routines up there.

 

[Empowered]

I did, after I already knew the results. I'd rather watch a video of Shawn waving on YouTube at my leisure and see the event live!

 

[Empowered]

Just wanted to add that with the way they did this meet (like they did with Classics), there was only one routine going at a time and only 3 of the 4 events going. The field is just too small to do it any other way.

Had they done a little planning with the commercials and fluff placement, we could have all experienced the entire event live.

Not really surprised after all these years, just disappointed.

 

[Quadqueen]

I agree! I was there and was thinking that it would be ideal for TV, since there was only one routine at a time.

 

[ann1245]

The field is just too small to do it any other way.
With the field being so small, is it a competition? Just curious if they all will make the national team being there are so few.

 

[gasrgoose]

I have to agree. I would love to see as many of the routines as possible. There's so much to enjoy and learn from watching theses athletes.

How many people watching last night do they think haven't seen the side by side video of McKaylas vault and the man doing the same vault. I've seen it on TV probably 10 times and watched it online at least as many. That analogy was a year ago! But we have her the explanation over and over again. We know she's great and love to see her. But we don't have to see her coach massaging her shoulders and then standing for a minute when another girl is doing a routine on another event.

I'm curious how many routines did they show in the 2 hours of coverage? I might have to fast forward through TiVo and count.

 

[Empowered]

The field is just too small to do it any other way.
With the field being so small, is it a competition? Just curious if they all will make the national team being there are so few.

Will be interesting to see. Even factoring in all the injured seniors, the field of senior elites is pretty dang small this year.

Seems like there are about 87 juniors though! Wow is there some fantastic upcoming talent. Very cool to see.

 

[LilHawkMom]

I didn't get to watch the girls, but watched the boys as I have a son who is in gymnastics. We were so frustrated with the high bar camera person! It was up and down the whole routine! Talk about getting the home viewer dizzy and you couldn't really see the routine well. I noticed there were many tweets about that. I swear, is it too hard to find a camera person who knows how to film gymnastics? We also wished they others besides the well known names. For example Josh Dixon came in 4th in the prelims and he didn't get shown once.

 

[skschlag]

That seems to always happen. And, I hate when tehy do stay on one gymnast...before or after her routine, when we could be watching others.

 

[kittycatcat5]

I just watched it on YouTube from the usagymnastics channel or something, the video was labelled "live" but I watched it when it wasn't!
(I watched it on YouTube because I don't live in America)
I was really upset with the commentary I mean it wasn't very interesting...