Imagine you're a huge NFL football fan, but they don't televise any of the games. So all year long, you follow all the games and look forward to the Super Bowl like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. Then, they take that 3 hour game, condense it into a 30 minute highlight reel, 15 minutes of which is spent covering highly devoted fans with disabilities. And they televise it a month after the Super Bowl was actually played, so you already know who won. That would be disappointing, wouldn't it?
That's pretty much what NBC does with it's Ironman coverage every year. They take a championship event that takes just over 8 hours for the winner to complete, cover about 1 minute of the swim, 1 minute of the bike and 1 minute of the run and then spend the next 57 minutes on commercials and special interest stories about people with obstacles to overcome. I read the synopsis of the coverage for this year and three of the four special interest story people don't even finish the race. That's inspiring if you find lame inspirational.
This isn't a knock on Ironman Hawaii or on the fact that age group athletes in triathlon (disabled and non-disabled alike) get to line up next to professional athletes. That's amazing and cool. And I love inspirational stories as much as the next person and no doubt that factors into why I choose long distance triathlons. But NBC's annual schlockfest is almost unwatchable to me, an actual fan of the sport of triathlon.
But does NBC have to turn Ironman Hawaii into a cartoonish trainwreck of schlock, complete with music recycled from the Olympics?
I appreciate that what NBC is actually broadcasting is a freak show called Ironman Hawaii. But are the formerly obese, people without limbs and cancer survivors really the only reason anyone is tuning into this program? Is the sport that I love really that boring?
It is interesting that someone without a leg is attempting the race-that merits about 30 seconds. But I'd like to hear some analysis about what bikes the top athletes are riding, how are the race conditions? What are the rankings? Who are the dark horses? Up and coming Iron athletes? What's interesting about this particular Ironman? What happened during the season? How are the best athletes getting ready for this race, not just the worst? This is the championship of this sport, after all!
NBC has to create a broader interest and make it accessible so it attracts watchers, so they can sell ads. I get it. Actual triathlon fans are probably a tiny percentage of viewers. They do the same thing with Olympic coverage. You get to see five or six events with two or three athletes having their events shown and the rest is special interest/obstacle overcoming stories with somber soundtracks and a happy/tragic ending.
I would love to see a four or five hour version of the Ironman Kona, if not 12 or 13 (yes, I would love to see the finishers in the 12 hour and longer finishing times-those are the people who really have to dig to finish and inspire athletes like me). Maybe NBC could pull something together and show it at 3am. Less special interest, more actual race and race analysis.
Are people really as shallow and stupid as NBC seems to think they are? Millions of people will watch a 3 hour NASCAR race and the half time show of the Super Bowl, so I guess the answer is a resounding yes. More's the pity.
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