I would strongly disagree that they weren't building to that game. Here is part of Jim McKay's introduction:
"It's very important tonight, I think, to tell you that from the time I went out of my hotel room at 11 o'clock this morning and walked down Main Street, there was a feeling of joy and anticipation and excitement in this town like nothing we had ever seen before at these Winter Olympics. It's just tremendous: it's as if the whole country has come to a county fair except that the whole world is here." They were going to air two things that night: the mens slalom and that game (trivia: ABC begged the IOC to swap the game with the FIN/SWE game that started at 8:45 to air it live, but the Russians refused.). Even though there was nothing technically on the line on that game, I don't think ABC wouldn't have aired the event in its entirety, though I think they'd have likely blown through the game in the start of the broadcast before going to skiing. It's important to remember the quasi-round robin format allowed for the possibility that the US could've lost that game and still medalled (it was even possible after they won that they could've *not* medalled had the Swedes tied the Soviets: everyone would've had 3 points and they've have gone to the tiebreaks). On Wed, Aug 10, 2016 at 5:04 AM JW <[email protected]> wrote: > > The immediate thought that came to my mind as I read this: "What would > ABC > > have done had the Miracle On Ice been a 10-3 Russian blowout (which was > the > > score of the exhibition game played less than two weeks earlier)?" > > Maybe shown a couple of highlights, including goals by the plucky college > kids. What they did show was tape-delayed, so it wasn't like ABC was > building their night around that game. Of course, they had the advantage of > their audience not having easy access to results, so as long as they kept > their cool in the studio, most viewers didn't know what had happened. (I > remember hearing on the radio that the US had scored to tie the game late > in the first period, but having forgotten while watching until I saw the > goal later.) > > Jumping back to today, Lester Holt mentioned that the Women's Gymnastics > had taken place without giving the result, while Scott Pelley sort of > apologized/spoiler-alerted before saying that the US women had won. > > And to PGage's overall point, which I agree with, I think NBC found and > refined an approach that worked well for them (and that Roone Arledge > pioneered at ABC), enabling them to sell time to Proctor and Gamble as well > as Anheuser-Busch. Although time and technology are overtaking that > approach, NBC is hanging on. > > -- > -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
