Wrapping up last night’s coverage—
- After multiple weather delays, Alpine Skiing is finally underway. Still having a number of crashes—seems like they didn’t have time to re-groom the course. The color commentator is rather monotonous—“Ithinkhehitanedgethereheusuallydoesmuchbetteronthistypeofcourse”. You don’t want your color guy to put people to sleep.
- I keep seeing an ad on the stream for Koch Industries, and it makes me cringe every time. Their motto is “Challenge Accepted”. I assume the challenge is “Betcha can’t buy the US Government!”
- I noticed we’re not seeing a lot of medal ceremonies in prime time—they showed Chloe Kim get on the stand, and then cut away. Is Kabletown teasing those for the end of the evening?
- Moving on to the next storyline—Shaun White. It’s a classic redemption story for the man who basically put half-pipe on the map. They teased his first run for at least an hour.
- I noticed the peacock is not referring to the post-local news portion as "Late Night", but "Prime Plus". Normally late night has more interviews and taped packages, but with the major time difference, some events are just hitting their stride as the East Coast hits late night. I think it actually works better.
Moving on to today--
- I’m convinced that Chloe Kim came out of a QISE marketing factory. She cranks out viral tweets like crazy, there’s the whole Korean angle—and she can master the half-pipe too. Expect to see a LOT of commercials from her very soon.
- The Today Show team’s hype level is at 11—everything is incredible, hilarious, touching. All I can think of how cold they must be—gives me a chill thinking about it.
- From the people who brought you Military Intelligence and Jumbo Shrimp--it's Cross-Country Sprint! I really think they're running out of variations. Maybe Cross-Country on One Foot?
- Watching the USA/OAR Women’s Hockey game. Once it became a blowout for the US, the commentators went into a LONG interview with an ex-player and current QISE official while the game continued.
- Prime Time begins with the oft-played into packages for Shaun White and Mikaela Shiffrin, and Tirico at the Fortress. They are saying Shiffrin and Women’s Slalom will go on as scheduled, although I just got a notification from my Pyeongchang app saying it’s delayed again due to weather. Who should I believe?
- In any case, events begin with Speed Skating. Shani Davis is featured, currently on the QISE Committee’s naughty list for declaring a flag bearer coin flip to be racist via Twitter. Watching Speed Skating is like watching NASCAR—it’s all about the crashes.
- Meanwhile, Pairs’ Figure Skating-Short Program is already underway via streaming. I guess Kabletown would rather broadcast speed skating than this, just because it’s not the top teams yet.
- Weather update—Women’s Slalom pushed back to later tonight. Is Kabletown pressuring the QISE Committee to hold it tonight?
- Onto Men’s Half-pipe Final aka the Shaun White coronation. Here’s a fun game: turn off the Half-Pipe sound and make up your own names for the tricks. “Wow—that’s a 1620 Frontside Half-caff Mochachino Didgeridoo!!!”
- Final weather update—Women’s Slalom pushed back to Friday.
More tomorrow.