When Good Opening Ceremonies Are Given To Bad People

NBC has faced intense scorn for their coverage of the Opening Ceremony last night. Not just from me. From pretty much everybody that had any knowledge of what the ceremony looked like uncut. Let's break it down into list form...

THE TEN WORST THINGS NBC DID LAST NIGHT

10. Repeated derision of any country not named the United States
9. The repeated reliance on mentioning how war-torn various nations are or have been instead of mentioning their athletes
8. Commenting on North Korea by mocking Kim Jong-Il's alleged 11-holes-in-one golf game after they have already caused a delay in competition after perceived political slights
7. Four-hour tape delay in the social-media era
6. Spoiling the cauldron lighting
5. Inserting Idi Amin into conversation as Uganda was marching, noting that Winston Churchill never met Amin
4. Speculating that the Maldives can fight rising sea levels by winning medals
3. Giving zero camera time to Barbados and Ukraine
2. Cutting of the athletes', coaches' and judges' oaths
1. Cutting of the London bombing memorial segment for a Michael Phelps interview

Dishonorable mention, in no particular order:

* Spoiling the industrial-era and National Health Service segments right as they were beginning, as well as the ending of the digital-era segment
* Referring to Borat as Kazakhstan marched
* Going to commercial in the middle of a segment
* Insisting on mentioning the deceased Omar Bongo as Gabon marched, over the 1-1 draw with Switzerland their men's soccer team had already achieved
* Making the Djibouti joke during a major world cultural event
* Making a big deal over the lack of a minute of silence for the victims of Munich
* Referring to San Marino as "sort of an island"
* 24 commercial breaks
* Repeated mangling of countries' names
* Making reference to the Falklands War as Argentina marched
* Cutting a shot of two women kissing as Saudi Arabia marched, even though they are the first female athletes to compete for that country
* Talking over virtually everything in the cultural segment save for when Rowan Atkinson made a fart joke

Now, as we did with Uzbekistan in Vancouver, we're going to honor the Barbados and Ukraine delegations here, as NBC failed to do. There are too many to show individually, but the BBC has compiled profiles of every athlete online (unlike NBC). This is Team Barbados. This is Team Ukraine.



In addition, for those American viewers who missed it, Deadspin has provided video of the tribute segment NBC cut so that Ryan Seacrest could interview Michael Phelps.