Olympic Magic Gone As NBC Dug Hole All Way 2 China

NBC’s Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremony scored a record low viewership. Maybe it’s because the “games” have been hyped, politicized & commercialized to hell … or maybe it’s because they JUST PLAIN BORE the world in our Internet Age.

Only 16 million souls watched the tortuously long opening gambit, down 43% from the past games, and despite being aired over NBC’s multiple streaming platforms and networks. Sorry, but even sports fanatics have trouble dealing with the smarmy & often manipulative hard-luck “features” and commentary from broadcasters and athletes trying to drum up interest. And, China’s challenged human rights record as well as its Big Brother approach to security at the games can turn even well-deserved praised fodder for critics claiming it’s “another Communist propaganda piece.” Could President Biden’s “diplomatic boycott” of the games have been a prescient warning that not that many folks were going to watch (it or him) in the first place?

Let’s face it. Who needs The Games when government-imposed Covid lockdowns already taught millions to “enjoy your life without any fun in it ... take an opioid Made in China instead?” Too many Olympic events also seem more like “games” than “sport” and can have more sub-categories than a proposed bill in Congress. This is no longer 1960 let alone 2000. NBC may be stuck with letting “boring” work its magic for it.

Davd Soul