Jim Bell, NBC’s executive producer for the Olympics, appeared on Chris Russo’s afternoon show on Mad Dog Radio Tuesday.
Here are the highlights.
On the strong ratings:
Bell: They are well above what we had expected. Those expectations were largely based on the Athens Olympics, which were the last European-based Olympics, which is a situation where you know you’re going to be taping things to air them in primetime because it’s obviously in the middle of the night [in Europe] during primetime in the United States. And in Beijing, as you know, we had just the incredible advantage of showing all those great swimming races and some of the gymnastics live because the time difference was so extreme. And so we thought if we can kind of keep it where we did in Athens that’s going to be a big win. Well, we’ve gone well beyond that and we’ve still got a long way to go here but the early results have just been hugely, hugely satisfying.
On tape delay in primetime:
Bell: When a company invests the kind of money that we have in the Olympics we have absolutely every right to protect that investment. It’s the video, it’s the sports, it’s those kinds of things. We’ve tried to utilize new technology to stream everything live, all the events live for the hard core sports fan. But the fact is, and the numbers would seem to bear this out, there’s still a huge audience out there of people who want to watch this stuff at a time when it is convenient for them, when there are mass audiences, when people can gather around and watch TV, and one of the last great family viewing events out there.
You’ve got a family, Chris, you know what it’s like. I’ve got young kids. One’s on the Xbox, the other’s on the iPad, the other’s on Facebook, you’re watching the Giants game. This is one thing you watch together. And if you kind of end up giving it away, some of the stuff, on TV you’re not protecting your investment and you’re not serving the audience and you’re not serving the affiliates and you’re not serving the advertisers.
******
Russo asked Bell about the report in today’s New York Daily News that NBC flew Hoda Kotb to London to take part in the Today show’s Olympic coverage because the network felt the show needed a ratings boost.
Bell: “Absolute nonsense. That’s a garbage story. Anybody who watches the show knows that we’ve been running a thing with Kathie Lee and Hoda for weeks talking about why Hoda should go to the Olympics. So I have no idea. It was pathetic reporting.”
Bell responded specifically to a source quoted in the Daily News who said, “they’re just shoehorning her into the show to help bring it alive. They called Hoda on Thursday begging her to go to London because they said it wasn’t working like they thought.”
Bell: “That’s a lie. That’s a flat-out, made-up lie. It’s a lie. Again, you look back, you go to Kathie Lee and Hod