You may have seen me on TV, I may have put you on TV. Either way, welcome. "A man with experience is not at the mercy of a man with an opinion –unless that man is wicked smart with experience."
There was a quite an internet kerfuffle the other day after a New Orleans news anchor had no clue who she was interviewing. Wait, she did have a slight clue, in that the guy she was interviewing live on television had just won the Rock N’ Roll New Orleans Half-Marathon. What she failed to realize is that he is also WORLD FAMOUS for winning TWO OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS at the London Olympics last summer.
Yep, you remember Mo Farah, right? He was all over the media around the world after his incredible story and two thrilling medal wins.
Well, watch as LaTonya Norton, an anchor for the New Orleans TV station WDSU, interviews Farah and asks, “Have you run before?”. He’s very gracious with his answer. He could have pulled out the whoopin’ stick and said, “Yeah…I won two Olympic Gold Medals last summer in London. Ever heard of London? Ever heard of the Olympics? I’ve got your half-marathon, you’re French Quarter and your beignets right here anchor lady-person!!”
But he didn’t. In fact, after Norton received a helluva backlash, Farah tweeted out to his more than 780,000 followers :
“Just wanna say to everyone being nasty to LaTonya Norton please stop!! She made a mistake like we all do!! She didn’t mean anything by it!”
Once, live on the air, I made an embarrassing mistake. Actually, I’ve made my share of mistake, but early in my career as a sports anchor, I called soon to be baseball Hall of Fame member, Mike Schmidt –Mike Shit. It was a minor mis-pronunciation.
When I was hosting a live show in NY for Fox back in the 90s, the next story was deleted from the prompter and went to a tease that I had not seen and I read it as, “Coming Up, The Great Lettuce…” when it was supposed to be, “Coming Up, The Great Lutece…” Lutece was, at the time, an incredibly famous New York City restaurant. It had been around for 34 years when I butchered the name! My New York friends loved me for that one.
About six or seven years ago at Elton John’s Annual Oscar Party, I ran into actor James Woods. I had just seen Woods and his very young, statuesque and beautiful fiance a number of weeks earlier at the Golden Globe Awards. At the Globes, he announced to me and the world that they had just become engaged. They were so happy.
Fast-forward to the Oscars and Elton’s party a few weeks later and I run into them. So, naturally I say hello and congratulate them again on their engagement. As I start to say the word “congratulations” I notice his eyes narrow and he shakes his head ever so slightly as if to tell me, “nope…don’t say that.” Now, in a nano-second, I think he may be shaking his head at someone else. Remember, this is a huge Oscar party. It’s noisy. Tons of partiers. Plus, people in Hollywood are always looking past you when they talk to you to see if there is someone better coming along. It happens.
Well, this wasn’t the case.
I then proceeded to ask, “So, when is the big date?” When I finished that sentence, I could tell something was amiss. His fiance looked uncomfortable. Hmm…she was so charming at the Globes. Woods looked at me and said, “Tony, you’re a funny guy.”
I’m like, “I’m a funny guy?” while my brain is whirring trying to figure what the hell just happened.
Thinking he didn’t quite hear me, I asked about the wedding date again.
Apparently, he heard me the first time. They both did. Ooops!
“Gotta go Tony. Nice talkin’ to ya’ pal” Woods said as he grabbed his fiance’s hand and abruptly left.
I turned to my producer and said, “What the hell was that?”
My producer didn’t know either.
Suddenly, as I turned around, I noticed someone eager to talk with me. It was a publicist.
Turns out, that WASN’T James Woods’ fiance. The engagement and relationship was no more. I shit you not, the two women looked exactly the same. They could have been sisters. Turns out they weren’t related. The only thing they had in common was James Woods. I was shocked and actually felt a little foolish.
I went up to Woods when his gal wasn’t around and said, “Man, sorry about that, but they look teh same to me.”
He was gracious and said, “I could tell you didn’t know. It’s ok.”
So, the net-net is that s#!* happens. All the time. Thankfully his fiance hadn’t won two Olympic gold medals!
Much has been made about NBC’s coverage of the 2012 Olympics. There are articles on both sides of the debate: love it or hate it. I fall in the middle, with a ‘brilliant’ clause which I’ll explain later. However, if Twitter is your barometer, then you would believe most everyone despised the Peacock’s presentation of the Games.
But Twitter is a dangerous, slippery-slope to use as ‘thee’ gauge of public sentiment. Sure, it’s spot-on at times. However, it is not the one-size-fits-all instrument to accurately calculate every single topic in the social zeitgeist.
I believe what NBC did is bigger than the London Olympics. I know what you’re thinking, “Really?” and I feel ya’ on that one, but stick with me.
I’ve been involved with network broadcasts of some sort or another for most of my 25 years on television as an on-camera talent n’ host and producer. I’ve seen behind the scenes at the Olympics, Super Bowls, four World Series, the Pope’s historic mass in Central Park, too many Oscars to count…you get the picture. I’ve been in front of the camera at all of them, too.
All of those pale in comparison to THIS Olympics broadcast by NBC. What NBC accomplished, not in prime-time, cuz that was old school Olympics broadcasting, but on-line/live streaming/social is groundbreaking AND will change, from now on, how you are presented content. Espesh live content. Most networks couldn’t figure it out for years, both cable and over the air. It was a ‘super-sized’ conundrum.
What NBC learned is what Conan learned once he left NBC (and what he was trying to convince NBC of when he nanoseconded the Tonight Show gig) and went to TBS. If you give your audience worthwhile content on-line AHEAD of that evening’s taped airing of it, THEY WILL STILL SIT DOWN AND WATCH that evening, already knowing the outcome.
If I heard Usain Bolt set a world record via twitter or a small highlight PUSHED to me via NBC, I’m tuning in at night to get the full-meal deal.
Conan found that out at Turner when they would PUSH content socially of something they were doing that night on his show and that turned into those recipients tuning in to watch.
In the live sports arena, live sports were not cannibalized. Every which way they were presented and re-presented worked.
Mary McNamara wrote a wonderful article in the LA TIMES today (which I’ve included here) where she says about NBC’s efforts “But the shortcomings of craft are not as important as the long-term implications of intent: to give the viewers the best of both worlds.”
Which I believe is what NBC did. (Save for questionable producer decisions in both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, ugh!)
However, the number one, most important element in all of this is still: QUALITY of content.
If I heard via Twitter or a video PUSH from NBC that Korea’s Kim Jang-Mi set a new world record as he won the Gold in Pistol Shooting, I probably wouldn’t sit to watch it at night.
However, seeing the USA Men’s Basketball team lock-arms as they step up to the podium to receive their Gold Medals in prime-time, even tho’ I saw it live hours earlier, was almost sweeter the second time ’round. I was notified of the live event via Twitter and I came back for more.
And now I want more, all the time, not just for 16-days every two years.
(LA Times Link: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-critics-notebook-olympics-20120813,0,7386914.story )
The United States Track n’ Field women are EN FUEGO!! Allyson Felix’s win tonight shows how, if you never give up on your dream (AND work incredibly hard), your dreams come TRUE.
Nice piece written by Tim Layden.
With all due respect to Cypress Hill, it’s definitely “Usain In The Membrane” — right?
Love watching Usain Bolt run the Men’s Olympic 200m Semi-Final. Why?
For a number of reasons.
First, it’s just incredible athleticism. Watching history every time I watch him.
Second, it’s great to watch a once-in-a-lifetime athlete toy with his competition.
Bolt watches himself as he runs. Yep. Notice how he looks up at the live screen in the stadium to watch where the rest of the field is relative to him.
Third, he starts slowing down…shutting down the ‘jets’ as it were, LONG before he gets to 100m. More like the 85m mark.
Just insane.
Let’s seem him win the 200m Gold, which will set even more Olympics history — the first man to win the 100m and 200m Gold in consecutive Olympics — and then head over to Manchester United and play a little soccer. Now that would b insane Usain!
If you’re like me, you’ve been glued to the tv/laptop watching the Olympics, especially the exciting swimming competition. A competition filled with some incredible, thrilling moments beamed by cameras at nearly every angle.
Well, now for shots we haven’t seen…stills under the pool water. Sure, we’ve seen shots from the live cameras down there, but not pics. Pics always tell and reveal something a little bit different than video.
