CHANNEL SURFING
THE GOOD: CBC did a solid job of reporting on two fronts yesterday. Brenda Irving gave viewers a quick report on the condition of Canadian Lauren Groves, who crashed and broke her arm during the women's triathlon. And at the track, Elliotte Friedman talked about the shocked reaction of the Chinese media when hurdler Liu Xiang withdrew from his heat. ... CBC track analyst Dave Moorcroft was ahead of the Xiang story, predicting he would not finish his heat after he limped during a false start. "That's the face of a guy who's panicking," he added. ... Rosey Edeh has been a welcome addition to the CBC, particularly in the studio. Her trackside reporting could improve, though. ... Image of the day: Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva psyching herself up for a record try.
THE BAD: One of yesterday's big stories was hurt by a lack of information. When the equestrian team event ended in a tie, CBC announcers Nancy Wetmore and Beth Underhill told viewers the gold medal would be decided by a jump-off. But they never explained exactly what that was, how it would work or how Canada faced a major disadvantage with only three riders. Both also referred to the Canadian team as "we" and "us" several times. ... CBC prime-time host Ron MacLean's interview with Canada's men's eight rowers Sunday night was a tad underwhelming. MacLean didn't seem prepared and was reduced to asking the rowers if they had any interesting stories and who their roommates were. At one point, I thought he was going to ask them to name their favourite colours. ... Most overworked cliché of the 2008 Games: "Rock star," used to describe a popular athlete.
THE UGLY: Here's why announcers should avoid big words. During yesterday's women's pole vault, CBC analyst Michael Smith told viewers the bar "stands precociously for a moment." We'll presume he meant "precariously."
Canadian medallists a huge boost for CBC
August 19, 2008
Comments on this story
Chris Zelkovich
There's nothing like a few medals to get the blood flowing, the national pride surging and the television ratings soaring.
After much nationwide rending of garments and gnashing of teeth over the fact Canada was trailing Togo in the medal count after almost a week's worth of sweating in Beijing, Canadians finally got interested in these Olympics when our athletes started showing up with medals around their necks.
CBC enjoyed a pretty good weekend thanks to a rash of medals, recording its biggest audiences of the Games. Audiences grew throughout the weekend and sparked interest not only in Canada's hopes but in the Games themselves.
The men's 100 metres drew 1.2 million viewers on Saturday morning.
The women's triathlon on Sunday night, an event that did not include Canadian medal hopes, had a peak audience of 2.3 million.
The biggest peak audience – 2.567 million – was for Ryan Cochrane's bronze-medal swim Saturday night, even though few expected him to win anything.
The medal-filled weekend boosted CBC's prime-time average to 1.3 million, 9 per cent ahead of the 2004 Athens Games and 1 per cent behind the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which were held in a similar time zone.
The prime-time average is well ahead of the 1,029,000 CBC promised advertisers, which will keep our tax dollars safe.
TSN's prime-time average of 148,000 is up 17 per cent over Athens and it hasn't had Michael Phelps, who was on NBC and CBC while TSN was airing mostly team sports.
Over at NBC, of course, such audiences are considered puny. Audiences there are averaging almost 30 million a night, up 14 per cent from Athens.
Considering the population difference, that would translate into about 3 million a night here, more than double CBC's average. But that doesn't necessarily mean Americans are more infatuated with gymnasts from Uzbekistan or archers from Mongolia than we are.
Again, it's all about the medals.
NBC owes a lot to Phelps, whose incredible performance here produced record ratings. His swim on Saturday gave NBC its largest Saturday night audience in 18 years.
However, these ratings may not hold.
There's no Phelps on the horizon for NBC and gymnastics, its other big draw, is done.
After the canoe-kayak folks have finished splashing around, there aren't many Canadian medals expected to keep CBC's streak going.
But the medals have created momentum and interest.
But who knows?
Maybe some synchronized swimmers might keep it going.
czelkov@thestar.ca
Toronto Star