CBS coverage - pathetic announcing

[GeoffPietsch]

They fixated on A. and M. and Oregon all day on Saturday - and never seemed to notice that Florida had perhaps the best chance of beating Oregon. Even right before the 4x4, Dwight made much of A. and M.'s pile of points in the Triple Jump but failed to even mention the Florida kid getting 3rd - and 5 points - to put Florida ahead of A. and M.. And with a faster time in the prelims of the 4x4.

[nmzoo]

And CL was in fine form! Doesn't anybody tell these people how to pronouce names correctly? At least the favorites?

[jeremyp]

I made the mistake of watching them instead of the live feed. Their camera work in the 1500 (continually focusing on the Oregonian, and taking the focus off the great last 150m, twice) brought spittle to bear!!!

[Jacksf]

Carol Lewis is just terrible. She can never really articulate what she wants to say; and what she wants to say doesn't even make sense half the time.
I think Dwight is the best of their commentators.

[BisonHurdler]

Re: CBS coverage - pathetic announcing

They fixated on A. and M. and Oregon all day on Saturday - and never seemed to notice that Florida had perhaps the best chance of beating Oregon. Even right before the 4x4, Dwight made much of A. and M.'s pile of points in the Triple Jump but failed to even mention the Florida kid getting 3rd - and 5 points - to put Florida ahead of A. and M.. And with a faster time in the prelims of the 4x4.

Geoff, unfortunately it's the exact same formula every year with CBS. They focus primarily on the team scoring (which people may or may not care about to varying degrees). The cameramen are likely told to focus on specific athletes from potential winning teams (m1500 anyone?) and the announcers told to hype them up continually (Walt can verify whether they are specifically told this or not, but I have to assume it's the case). All too often in this meet you get the announcers harping on the several athletes from high-scoring teams, and an almost complete disregard for everyone else. Which is why you get plenty of "OH MY GOD _______ FROM [insert athlete from team with potential to win the team title] JUST GOT 3RD, GREAT JOB" with little/no mention of, say, 1/2/4/5/any other places.

I've resigned myself to the fact that NCAA track on CBS is great at focusing on many/all of the wrong things.


Edit: This phenomenon is also the reason that things like last week's Barringer Bungle by the announcers occurred.

[rasb]

Thanks to you CBS (and "The Score" in Canada) for your NCAA track & field coverage today. It was a rare and wonderful thing to see 2 hours of my favourite sport live on TV, and presented in a very enjoyable fashion. Of course, everyone is entitled to an opinion on what would be "perfect" for them, but all-in-all, very good job. Thanks again - much appreciated !

[Jack Slocombe]

Thanks to you CBS (and "The Score" in Canada) for your NCAA track & field coverage today. It was a rare and wonderful thing to see 2 hours of my favourite sport live on TV, and presented in a very enjoyable fashion. Of course, everyone is entitled to an opinion on what would be "perfect" for them, but all-in-all, very good job. Thanks again - much appreciated !

OK, CBS now has one accolade, so you can expect the same again next year. Damn Canadians, ruin it for everyone.

[rasb]

Thanks to you CBS (and "The Score" in Canada) for your NCAA track & field coverage today. It was a rare and wonderful thing to see 2 hours of my favourite sport live on TV, and presented in a very enjoyable fashion. Of course, everyone is entitled to an opinion on what would be "perfect" for them, but all-in-all, very good job. Thanks again - much appreciated !

OK, CBS now has one accolade, so you can expect the same again next year. Damn Canadians, ruin it for everyone.

I know, I know....we are too damned nice... But seriously, Jack, who would you rather have on your Northern Frontier? (not including Sarah)

[unclezadok]

The CBS coverage was no more awful this year than any year. Every year we get the phenomenon of focusing on an 8th place finisher in an event because his team is one of the three involved in the "team championship," while someone else in the event is breaking all kinds of records.

[Pego]

The usual Laugholympics, as they have done for a quarter of century (or longer). I give them a credit though for not waiting a few weeks before showing it. I can live with the announcers, the format is horrible.

[rasb]

What a bunch of whiners....serious whiners. Hopefully some CBS executive will pick up on this thread, and say f**k you, idiots. Let's see - he didn't talk about this, and he talked too much about that, and she made a mistake, and blah, blah, blah !!!
If you had a stopwatch, and 2 eyes, and a brain, and some experience in our sport, and thus were able to use the commentary today as an "overlay", then it was a very enjoyable couple of hours. Otherwise, you have a shitty attitude, and are part of the problem. Cover something else, CBS, these whiners aren't worth it....

[gh]

rasb; surely you know god created the internet especially for chronic whiners?!

[banked track]

I thought Carol Lewis would just limit herself to the sprints but now she has to comment on the Mid-D events. Right after the m800, she was saying how Wheating should have pushed the third 200. Yet, the post-race footage showed Wheating grabbing his calf because of the injury. Wheating was running as conservatively as he could and still maintain contact for the the final kick.

And her comment in w4 x 400 about how big lead on the anchor was sometimes not good was just stupid.

She is just an insult to knowledgeable track fans.

I did notice that NBC did not use her at the Reebok meet.

[BillVol]

What a bunch of whiners....serious whiners. Hopefully some CBS executive will pick up on this thread, and say f**k you, idiots. Let's see - he didn't talk about this, and he talked too much about that, and she made a mistake, and blah, blah, blah !!!
If you had a stopwatch, and 2 eyes, and a brain, and some experience in our sport, and thus were able to use the commentary today as an "overlay", then it was a very enjoyable couple of hours. Otherwise, you have a shitty attitude, and are part of the problem. Cover something else, CBS, these whiners aren't worth it....

rasb, you're settling and have very low standards. Geoff is dead on.

[polevaultpower]

I DVR'd the meet and fast forwarded most of it because I already knew the announcing would be stupid.

But I am really sick of the head-on camera shots in the PV and horizontal jumps.

These are events that have an intrinsic appeal to the general public. Someone flipping through the channels might pause and say "hey that's cool." I run beach vaults in the summer and we draw a huge crowd of passerbys. Some will sit there for over an hour and just watch, someone who would never in their life set foot inside a track stadium.

The head-on camera angle destroys this. The audience has no perspective of how far or high the athlete is jumping.

I can forgive the asinine commentary, but the head on camera angles... nope.