Live Olympic Coverage, Except When Michael Phelps Goes for Gold

I don’t know if I’m late to this party or what, but when I wanted to watch Michael Phelps’ last Olympic race, a relay, where the USA took gold, I expected it to be shown on the network that is covering the games live.  NBC has 4 channels that have shown Olympic events, and on Saturday, when Phelps and his team took to the water at 3:37pm (on a Saturday), I turned to NBC and NBC Sports Net to see which of them was showing the live Olympic event.
NBC was showing the end of a USA water polo match where they were down by 3 in the last two minutes.  Ok fine, USA is playing, I kind of figured that they would at least switch over or do a duel-screen set up since NBC is the main channel and this is an “event everyone is watching” but ok, fine.  They show the USA basketball games on NBCSN and sand volleyball so I’ll give that a shot.  I turn over and there are a bunch of rich white people with motorcycle helmets jumping horses over poles and water and bushes.  Mind you I turned to NBC at 3:30 so now this is about 3:33.  In the afternoon.  On a weekend.  Ok fine…horse jumping.  I’m sure they are going to switch over.  Any minute now.  Michael Phelps is swimming in his last event as the greatest Olympian in American and World history ever.  Any time now.  It’s 3:36 and then 3:38.  I switch back and forth, check out Bravo, they are showing real house gold digging skanks of NYC or LA or Omaha or whatever.  CNBC? MSNBC?  No sports, just the magic bullet and INSANTITY workout infomercial.  I go to twitter.  I ask about the station that is showing the relay.  I am getting updates from reporters there.  Phelps crushed it.  USA wins gold.  Not on tv.  Not on tv from a company who is broadcasting live Olympic events.  They purposely did not show the race so they could show it during primetime.  If you think I stuck around to see if they even mentioned it, you are dead wrong.  F*ck you NBC.  F*ck you with no lube.

At the start of the games, there were a lot of bitching about NBC and their tape-delay coverage.  I really didn’t see the big deal, since I am at work during the weekday, I can stream events here and there (which is a whole different problem), but since it’s during the work week, not many Americans get to sit at home and watch every event on tv.  That’s fine.  I assumed they aired the “main” events and then showed them at night, like a normal company would.  And even if they didn’t, I’m sure on the weekend, where a majority of the people are home to watch, they would show the big events live and then replay them at night.  NBC HAS BEEN DELIBERLTY NOT SHOWING THE EVENTS PEOPLE ARE MOST INTERESTED IN SO THEY CAN SHOW THEM (WITH THE RESULTS ALREADY KNOWN) LATER.  It’s like they are showing live bowl games, but when the Rose Bowl starts at 4:00, they not only don’t show the game, highlights or talk about the result, they show the Rose Bowl taped at 8:00 (when anybody who cares already knows that Oregon beat Wisconsin and Thomas had 200 yards and 3 tds).  They go out of their way to NOT show THE LAST EVENT IN MICHAEL PHELPS’ career so they can show it later that night.  On the weekend.  I am turning bright red as I type this.  How can this happen?

THE EVENT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.  YOU ARE SHOWING LIVE OLYMPIC EVENTS.  THEY ARE IN THE POOL RACING RIGHT NOW.  SHOW THE F*CKING MEET.  YOU ARE BROADCASTING LIVE OLYMPIC COVERAGE AND THE EVENT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.  I DON’T WANT TO SEE HORSES JUMP OVER POLES.  I DON’T WANT TO SEE THE USA LOSING IN WATER POLO BY 3 WITH 2 MINUTES LEFT.  SHOW THE LIVE EVENT HAPPENING RIGHT NOW OVER ONE OF YOUR FOUR CHANNELS.  How can this happen?  I have to go online on a Saturday, stream live ((which buffers every 30 seconds but the commercials about Dwight Howard loving basketball as long as it’s not for the Magic run seamlessly every 3 minutes) and missed Usain Bolt’s 100M dash), in order to watch Michael Phelps’ last race as an Olympian?  How can this happen?

I hope and pray, on September 1^st, when Notre Dame plays Navy in Ireland live at 9:00am, that NBC shows the game LIVE at 9:00am and not at 8:00pm that night.  F*ck you NBC.  F*ck you now and then again at 8:00.