Dear NBC
With all due respect, this really isn’t the Olympics you are showing. You are showing a whole bunch of sports in which Americans are competing. The only discipline in which you are showing any other nationality is ice skating.
The only time I have seen other athletes from any other country compete in this Olympic games is when they are playing against the US, or accidentally get in camera shot, or if they have some terrible misfortune.
How I long for BBC coverage (I even had a daydream that PBS would take BBC footage and show it all day every day). BBC coverage of any Olympics covered two channels all day. All the sports are covered, along with the back-stories of any athlete who was in any way remotely interesting – regardless of nationality – and without advertisements. Ahhhh.
I know everyone wants to see Americans win medals. Hell, even this Brit does. But sometimes other nationalities are good at sports too (even the kinda-sports like ice dance and curling). We can revel in all everyone’s victories, and despair at their failures, regardless of the color of their passport.
Competing in the Olympics is a human experience, not a national one. Everyone in the world can imagine the pride in representing their country, the work over years and years that contributes to that chance to step on that podium. The thickness in our throats as we hear our national anthem. We can all relate to it.
Please don’t deny us the opportunity to embrace and follow and wonder in awe at all the athletes participating in the Olympics, not just a tiny percentage of them. Please.
Very best wishes,
Suze.
PS – I might not ever forgive you for canceling Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip either…
