I’ve suffered through the first weekend of the Olympics on NBC, and I must say that it doesn’t get much worse than this.

First, the opening ceremonies, with Bob Costas and Katie Couric, were horrible. I like Bob Costas a lot. He seems to be one of the more level-headed sportscasters in the business. I love when he calls baseball games. When there’s action to call or news to cover, Bob is the man. The opening ceremonies are neither news nor are they action. Bob was walking all over this thing.

To make things worse, I hate Katie Couric. Anyone who considers her a journalist doesn’t understand the meaning of the word. She’s not that bright and contributes very little to an event like the opening ceremonies. It was one little cute comment after another. Nothing seemed to make sense in the context of what was happening. One second it’s a factoid about an athlete. The next, it’s a somber reminder about the threat or terrorism. And the next, it’s a discussion about the Greek reaction to American foreign policy.

Here’s an idea — how about you just let the event unfold and quit your yammering? Seriously, do I need all the commentary? Take a lesson from C-SPAN — for events like this, less is more. Use some on-screen graphics to identify who’s who, and make the occasional remark if there’s some confusion about what’s happening on-screen. Otherwise, shut up.

As far as the coverage of the actual games themselves, NBC has come a long way from the days of the red, white, and blue PPV channels, but in 2004, there has to be a better way to cover the games.

Matt Haughey suggests a very forward-thinking approach to distributing the games, which is a great idea, but gives both NBC and viewers too much credit.

One of the long-held criticisms of Olympics coverage has been the necessity to tape-delay those events that will attract the largest audiences. After all, TV is built on a revenue model that requires large audiences to watch commercials. I understand that. For the big-ticket events, go ahead and tape-delay. But for everything else, why not just run it as live as possible? You’ve got like 4 cable networks worth of coverage for these events. Why can’t MSNBC and CNBC and USA and Bravo tag team the coverage, running huge blocks at a time of unfiltered events? Right now, it’s impossible to figure out what events are on at different times. I’m stuck watching four-hour blocks that include five or six different events with no clear direction.

I also hear the HDTV coverage is abyssmal. Maybe by 2008 they’ll figure this whole thing out.