Hi CTV,
I just wanted to let you know that you are ruining my Olympic experience. Your coverage is amateur and often confusing. Here are some points that would make my experience better.
1. Please ensure you have announcers that are qualified to actually announce. The figure skating commentary was just awful.
2. SHOW THE ENTIRETY OF THE MEDAL CEREMONIES!!! It was two days before I even SAW a medal. CBC always did a little peice on the medal itself. Showing what it looked like, how it was produced, etc.
3. Let us know when we are watching live coverage and when we are watching taped coverage. Perhaps ‘Taped Earlier” in the corner of the screen or something. I’m sure you can figure it out.
4. I was watching Men’s Moguls Qualifying, and you didn’t even have the times they completed their run on the screen, and your commentators didn’t comment on it! This is an important part of winning or losing!!! Please don’t ever miss something that is vital to scoring the event again. If it is part of the scoring, your announcers need to comment on it, and you need to have it (if possible) on the screen.
5. Videography and direction. You seem to have an annoying habit of changing camera angles at important parts of the run. Just be still! Less direction is often the best direction. Find someone that is experienced (More experienced) at directing live sports events. The luge coverage was terrible. Too many cut aways.
6. Tell me what I’m watching, and what I’m missing. Tell me about the other events that are going on. Help the viewer understand the Olympic Schedule. Do not use the words “Later Tonight”. Use the actual time the event is going to be on.
7. The TV personalities are terrible!! I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE SPORTS AND ATHLETES!! I don’t want to know that Nelly Furtato played; I don’t want to know what random athletes are tweeting, I don’t want to hear what the commentators are thinking, and I don’t care if some guy drapes himself in a flag or not, certainly not naked. Additionally, those two comedians on the couch, reading Tweets, are just embarassing. Thank GOD for your one saving grace, Lloyd Robertson!!!
I understand that you went to NBC to discover how they did the Olympics. Did you forget? We are Canadians!
CBC used to re-run pre-recorded events that weren’t shown live. That was a great idea. Then you could see stuff that you missed because you were working, or asleep, or watching another event live. CTV is all about the LIVE experience, which is a terrible. I like live tv, but instead of filling time when there are no events running with inane chatter and hot-tub parties, you should actually show events that have been recorded, or important events that some Canadians might have missed due to conflicting schedules. For more ideas on how to improve your coverage, please Google “CTV Olympic Coverage sucks”. Thank you for your time.
—Bring Back CBC Olympic Coverage, Signed a Die-hard Olympics Watcher.
This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2010.
THAT will teach you for changing the channel!
I agree with the OP on this one, the coverage blows harder than Paris Hilton!
I have a routine of watching Canada AM at 7 for a bit of news, business headlines, and weather. Now they are live (?) from Vancouver at 3 AM showing nothing, talking about fucking shit I don’t care about (like those two tools talking about tweets). The Olympics don’t stop news from happening; someone is still being shot, a fire breaks out, business dealings still go on, etc. If you can’t report on news, then at least show what happened between 10 and 2 AST when residents are asleep.
I agree—the CTV coverage is a pale imitation of the rich coverage traditionally provided by the CBC.
But, CBC didn’t get the bid, CTV did. I have no idea why, but I sure hope than next time around CBC puts together a kick-ass proposal to win it back.
IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THIS FUCKING SHIT, FINE, DO SO. BUT LEAVE US POOR SON A BITCHES ALONE WITH ALL THIS FUCKING OLYMPIC DRIVEL did you get that loud and clear. who fucking cares if c.t.v. is the shit channel.no fucking one,except maybe you. fuck me, i’m so sick of that shit, i wish the fucking talibahn would go there and blow it the fuck up. that would be about the only time i would then want to watch that crap. hell, i’d rather rent fucking sponge bob quare pants and watch it over and over ad nauseum, before i’d waste 5 minutes watching that other shit. i would even watch fucking curling, and i detest that more than a politition.
AND BY THE WAY, WRITING HERE DOES NOT GET TO C.T.V. NETWORK. THE COAST HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM. WRITE TO THEM DIRECT, AND SAVE US FROM YOUR STUPID SHIT, PLEASE.
LS stop trying to chase away the bitches. Posting here provides some kind of validation, which is usually a good thing for a bitch to have and the sole purpose for such a rant. Be a good bitch now and provide a CTV email address for the OP.
those two VJs from MTV make me want to punch something. Really, Eugene Levy, are you proud of your kid right now? He’s annoying and so is his partner.
ctv.ca
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH SPONGEBOB!?!?!?!?
only a high caliber show could get ‘the Hoff’ in their movie adaptation.
fuck you LS, just because you don’t like it does not mean it should be off the air…
olympics or otherwise.
and we CERTAINLY can bitch about anything we want.
you don’t want to hear about olympics bitches… STOP READING THE BITCH BOARD.
BUT ZZZ, BITCHGING ABOUT A BITCH IS THE PROPER THING TO DO, IS IT NOT. but with that,yeah, spongebob is deffinately better to watch. try playing the game of stackem sometime, it’s fucking wild.
http://spongebob.ytv.com/games.aspx
I’ve been disappointed by CTV’s presentation as well. Their American training shows through, too much BS and not enough coverage.
I always found that the CBC coverage was more akin to European coverage, but even that doesn’t have much clout anymore; the BBC coverage looks Americanized as well. I think it’s a problem across the globe.
That and Brian Williams is a massive, throbbing haemorrhoid that should be rubbed out of existence with some “Preparation Arrogant Sportscaster”.
I agree. On Sunday they had this flamboyant flamer announcer on CTV who obviously doesn’t have a clue about sports. He’d be better suited covering a fancy dog show, gay pride parade, or fashion runway. Get some real men commenting on the sports. The only flames that should be in the Olympics come from the torch.
meh, you have me on the bitch about a bitch…
as long as we’re both on the same page about spongebob I suppose we’re cool.
I agree CBC was a better fit for this kind of coverage. The Americans have excellent ideas about some aspects of TV, but sports coverage isn’t one of them.
The thing that is driving me nuts is that they will start talking about an athlete who is starting a race pairing with another athlete, but they show the athlete that they are NOT talking about so it leave the viewer confused…”I thought they said she was from the US? That’s a Japanese racing suit”.
I agree that CTV is not doing the best job right now. My biggest complaint is that they do not list what time a specific sport is on, only “tonight”. But wasn’t Sale and Pelletier doing the figure skating commentary? They’re Olympic and world champions, I think that more than qualifies them. But, whether or not they’re all that good at doing it is another story
I agree with almost everything the OP says except for their comment on the figure skating commentary.
Does winning a Gold medal in the 2002 Olympics in pairs not qualified enough for you?? I think Jamie Sale and David Peltier are doing a fabulous job aswell as Rod Black who has been doing comentary for Figure skating for the last 20 years on both CTV and TSN.
I haven’t seen the same quality of reporting that we, as Canadians have come to expect with the Olympic games, with CTV’s coverage. The CBC reporting was more complete.
I reallllly notice the drop in quality with CTV’s coverage too. I did notice, however, they enticed Brian Williams over from CBC…the most obnoxious sportscaster CBC HAD. Ugh.
In any event, Lloyd *is* a bright spot. He’s one sexy motherfucker.
Life Sucks…
I agree the Olympics is nothing but an overhyped waste of money…it may have had credibility in the past, but now it’s just a mess.
40 athlete’s SO FAR caught doping…and that doesn’t take into account the newest scheme: “gene doping” which is, as yet, undetectable.
IMO, there should be THREE Olympics; the ‘special’, the ‘normal’ and the newest one: “Olympics 3000!”.
In Olympics 3000!, anything goes – drugs, corruption, bribing judges, political posturing, embezzlement, cheating – kind of like now, but without the embarrasment of getting caught!
In fact, LS, I have a concept for an unbeatable hockey team you might agree with: Using gene therapy, it may well be possible to engineer a human being SO FUCKING LARGE and obese, that they would entirely fill the goal net….think about it!
Placed on their side, a 2000 lbs+ human could be stuffed face-first into the goal, with only some space around their head and legs, which would be easily blocked with over-sized gloves and pads.
Imagine the frustration of the opposing team, as shot after shot bounces harmless off our goalie’s huge arse!
Wooshhh, another blocked shot! BAMM! – deflected away!
With this big 2000 lb piece of lard stuck in goal, we’d be unbeatable. In fact, after scoring once, our guys could go back to the bench, or even to the dressing room and think about the truely IMPORTANT aspects of winning the gold…
…How will this effect my NHL contract!?
CTV took the super bowl from Global, the Olympics from CBC, the theme song from Hockey Night in Canada. They won’t be happy until they rule this country with an iron fist!
The weirdest part of their coverage is seeing Sportsnet and TSN people side by side. They’re usually competing for ratings.
Lloyd must be cryogenically frozen by now.
“Lloyd must be cryogenically frozen by now.”
Hahaha…he IS starting to resemble Boris Karloff in his last days…