On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 8:29 AM, Bob in Jersey <[email protected]>wrote:
> I had passed on reporting Kelly "Lynch him in a back alley" Tilghman's > exact status until seeing this piece. > I literally did not recognize her as the same person from the Golf Channel for the first few days of the Olympics - she looks and even sounds a lot different. I have most seen 8 studio hosts this Olympics on the NBC Family of networks (Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Dan Patrick, Michele Beadle, Mary Carillo, Liam McHugh, Willie Geist and Kelly Tilghman - I think that is most of not all of the hosts on NBC, MSNBC and the Sports Channel; there are other hosts on CNBC (no doubt Fred Groggin) and Bravo (for the tennis, not sure who this was). I would rank order them in terms of how good a job they have done as follows: Costas, Beadle, Patrick, Tilghman, McHugh/Geist (in a tie, and often I can't tell them apart anyway), Carillo and Michaels. Beadle, who in the past has often worn out her welcome with me, has surprised me with her ability to maximize her positives and minimize her negatives. I have probably seen more of her work than anyone else, and she has probably had one of the more difficult jobs, dealing with lots of live events. I think she is in London though, so at least she is not up all night while working. Patrick is good, but I think underused - though perhaps I just don't watch as much the hours that he is on. He should be anchoring a premium live show that broadcasts the high interest events during the day that NBC will later be packaging in primetime - oh wait, they don't have that show. Tilghman is competent and profesional (but see below). McHugh and Geist are new to me; their personas are mildy obnoxious, and they seem to be trying too hard to be casual, but they are not as bad as I might have thought. Shockingly, Mary Carillo, who for a long time was the shining star of NBC Olympics coverage, and I think often under and poorly used, has been horrible this time around. She does a lot of sappy human interest stuff, and in the studio she sounds like her denture adhesive has lost its sticky. Maybe the weird hours have gotten to her? Al Michaels has been a disaster. Al is 67, but he often comes across as if he is 87, and about as with it as Grandpa Simpson. If NBC was going to leave anyone at home to comment from the comfort of their bedroom, it seems like it should have been Al. Tilghman had both a low and a high point today. I am watching MSNC, recorded starting at 6:00 PT today. Earlier in the show she showed a photograph of two Team USA basketball players posing in the starting blocks, I guess showing their Team USA unity at the track and field. Kelly identified them as Kobe Bryant and Kevin Love; it obviously was Kobe, but even more obviously not Kevin Love (I am already foggy on who it was, but am pretty sure it was James Harden). Kelly is a golfer of course, so I cut her some slack, even though if there is one USA athlete who stands out distinctively from his teammates at these Olympics, it has got to be Kevin Love (maybe tied with Cullen Jones on the Swim Team). I have not watched much more than an hour past that, perhaps she comes back and corrects herself later. To the good, and much more important in my eyes, when talking about the upcoming women's soccer coverage Kelly not only made it obvious that the expert she was talking to in NY was doing commentary on the games in Great Britain, she actually showed video of the analyst crowded into a little sound booth, looking at a video monitor while she called a game. This is the kind of transparency that goes a very long way, in many cases all the way, towards solving the problems NBC gets itself into with its delayed and off-site coverage. I would actually like to see them cut to shots of the analysts in these booths, watching the same video that we see at home during the games themselves (it is not clear to me if they have access to some additional video feeds that we don't have at home - the shots this morning did not look like it). -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
