CBC hosts of 2008 Olympic Games (with NBC vs. CBC discussion)

[hugh]

CBC, the official Canadian broadcaster of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, today unveiled the broadcast hosts that will be providing Canadians with coverage of games. The list includes: Ron MacLean, Ian Hanomansing, Scott Russell and Diana Swain.

The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will run from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008, with the opening ceremony broadcast from the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing.

All HD baby!

[hugh]

* Ron MacLean, who has hosted eight Olympic Games on CBC and made his Olympic debut during the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, Korea will host the network's primetime package from 6 p.m. to midnight eastern time.

* Ian Hanomansing, host of the six o'clock news in Vancouver will follow Ron MacLean as the host of Olympic Pacific Prime. (9 p.m. to 12 a.m. PT/ 12 a.m. to 3 a.m. ET). Hanomansing has been with CBC News since 1986 and has covered four Olympic Games - Atlanta (1996), Nagano (1998), Salt Lake City (2002) and Turin (2006) - and reported from Prague when Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Games.

* CBC Sports' Scott Russell and CBC News' Diana Swain team up to host Olympic Morning (6 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET / 3 a.m. to 9 a.m. PT). A 20-year CBC Sports veteran, Russell has covered eight Olympic Games and was the late-night host of the Olympic Summer Games in Athens in August 2004. Diana Swain joins for her first Olympic hosting role.

[skeena1]

Ian Hanomansing will be great...smooth as silk and a big sports fan. Nice move, CBC.

[Leaf Fan]

Maybe I'll finally get that OTA antenna

[hugh]

I am looking forward to the games. I think the CBC does a great job with the Olympics and with everything in HD, I plan on spending a lot of time with CBC (and NBC) in August!

[Neild]

We can always hope CBC doesn't bungle it like they have in previous Olympics.

It was depressing having to go to NBC to get half decent coverage.

Lest we forget CBC's last attempt at HD coverage for the Olympics:0

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...light=olympics

It will be curious to see if any lessons have been learned. They have swept the leadership up since then.

[spensar]

Ian will be good, Ron MacLean MUST be banned from making any Don Cherry references.

[billy416]

not to say i was a fan of him, but it will be different not having brian williams doing the olympics for cbc. i can picture him in my head at a desk, moving pieces of paper around with his hands as he talks. of course with tsn/ctv nailing the rights for following olympics he will be back soon.

[hugh]

I never watch the hosts much strictly the events but I really don't understand the CBC bashing. I have found the CBC broadcasts to be as good as anything put on by the Americans.

I admit the Americans sometimes have some razzle dazzle that the Canadians don't but I find the Canadian broadcasts show more athletes from other countries including Canada so I get a better perspective on the event.

Having said that I flip back and forth between the American and Canadian broadcasts.

Regarding American hosts, I used to like Bob Costas but now I am pretty sick of him. He seems to be a bit of a parody of himself.

[reidw]

Sad to say this but I don't think any of us will be watching the Olympics on Aug. 11. Unless the situation in Tibet improves fast there is going to be a boycott of the games by the "western" countries.

[hugh]

Please lets not get off-topic with boycott discussion. Feel free to discuss in the News forum but NOT this thread.

[reidw]

My apologies.

Ron MacLean - Makes sense.
Ian Hanomansing - He's good at the news but has he ever done sports?
Scott Russell - Never have cared much for him. Strikes me as lightweight. Boring personality
Diana Swain - Why?

[Jaymeister]

One thing that CBC always has over NBC, especially when the Olympics are overseas, is that CBC will show the big events live. NBC might show some sports live on their cable outlets, but the showcase events are always packaged for prime time with commentary done in post-production and enough time to cram in features about American athletes and all of the life trageides they went through. CBC shows the big events both live and again in prime time.

[reidw]

Originally Posted by Jaymeister

One thing that CBC always has over NBC, especially when the Olympics are overseas, is that CBC will show the big events live. NBC might show some sports live on their cable outlets, but the showcase events are always packaged for prime time with commentary done in post-production and enough time to cram in features about American athletes and all of the life trageides they went through. CBC shows the big events both live and again in prime time.

I used to think that the CBC had the better approach but over time my views have changed a bit. This is television after all and what makes for good TV is a good story line with a human interest. NBC gives you that. CBC just presents the event as just something that is happening. Which is better? I'm still not sure.

[Jaymeister]

I used to think that the CBC had the better approach but over time my views have changed a bit. This is television after all and what makes for good TV is a good story line with a human interest. NBC gives you that. CBC just presents the event as just something that is happening. Which is better? I'm still not sure.

I have no problem with making a good TV "story" for the prime time viewers who are either casual or non-sports fans. But for those who are interested in the competition itself, NBC does a disservice to its viewers by not allowing them to see the events live during the day. They can just as easily show it live and then put on the enhanced show later on.