This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.
Putin snoozing, ratings cratering, and a token Uyghur to insult the intelligence of anyone still watching with at least two brain cells – this year’s 2022 Winter Olympics is shaping up to be an absolute disaster.
Viewership for Friday’s Opening Ceremony was a dismal 16 million, as NBC faces what Yahoo!sports‘ Dan Wetzel called a “cataclysmic loss” of audience – a record low exceeding the previous record of 20.1 million viewers for 1988’s Calgary games. It was 43% below the 2018 games’ opening ceremony in South Korea which had 28.3 million viewers.
It comes on the heels of Thursday’s ratings disaster that saw just 7.7 million people tune in, dramatically below same-night audiences of 2018 (16 million) and 2014 from Russia (20.02 million).
NBC said the 16 million is a “total audience delivery” and includes all of its networks and streaming. The television-only average audience was below 14 million for the day, per the preliminary data released by the network. -Yahoo!
As Deadline noted, just “8.7 million tuned in on NBC in primetime [to] see the pre-taped Mike Tirico and Savannah Guthrie-led coverage of the propaganda-heavy spectacle put on by Chinese President Xi Jinping and filmmaker Zhang Yimou.”
The Opening Ceremony was so boring that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to ‘rest his eyes’ during the Ukrainian team’s entrance.
Putin fell asleep during the opening ceremony of the Olympics. pic.twitter.com/Eplkr6QThd
— MRCTV (@mrctv) February 4, 2022
As Yahoo notes, however, ratings do tend to increase over the first week. That said, several countries are currently staging a “diplomatic boycott” of the Games over China’s treatment of Uyghurs, an ethnic minority group of Muslims who live in the northwest of the country.
While denying any abuse, China continues to deny the United Nations from sending human rights officials to observe the region.
Anti-Covid measures are also putting a damper on enthusiasm, making life inside its “closed-loop” a ‘near joyless experience for the athletes,’ according to the report.
It didn’t help that China used cross country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang – who China’s state-run media claimed has Uyghur heritage – was paraded out as one of the cauldron lighters during the Opening Ceremony, drawing sharp rebuke.
It was a disturbing and dispiriting moment, a young athlete and an iconic moment in every Olympics used as a propaganda prop to cover up a campaign of slavery, torture, forced abortions and internment in reeducation camps. It did nothing to build good feelings toward the competition.
As such, rather than a celebration, this feels, and looks, like a grind of hardship, isolation and suspicion. -Yahoo!
The hashtag #GenocideGames began trending in recent days.
UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said it was a stunt designed “by the Chinese to distract us from the real issue here… that Uyghurs are being tortured, and Uyghurs are the victims of human rights violations.”
UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on China featuring a Uyghur athlete in the opening ceremony of the Olympics: "This is an effort by the Chinese to distract us from the real issue here… that Uyghurs are being tortured, and Uyghurs are the victims of human rights violations" pic.twitter.com/ji2RgBVIvO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 6, 2022
Adding to China’s woes, US-born figure skater Zhu Yi, competing for china, fell hard during her first combination attempt on Saturday, and later stumbled on a triple loop attempt – resulting in the hashtag #ZhuYiFellOver, which had over 230 million views by Sunday afternoon before it was taken down by Chinese social media website, Weibo.
According to the report, China’s restrictions on the event has turned into a nightmare for NBC – which is paying $7.75 billion to the OIC to broadcast the Olympics through 2032.
NBC is doing almost all it can but its reporters and crews are stuck in the “closed loop.” That eliminates live shots with mountains or historic buildings as backdrops as well as stories about the culture, architecture and people of China that can make the Olympics about more than just sport.
Host Mike Tirico broadcast from a set designed like a mountain chalet, but that could have been in Breckenridge, not Beijing. And Tirico, the face of the broadcast, will be leaving in the coming days to anchor NBC’s coverage of the Super Bowl, which due to the lengthening of the NFL season has spilled into the Olympic calendar and further siphoned off interest and outside media coverage.
Meanwhile, most of NBC’s play-by-play broadcasters are calling the Games remotely from studios in Connecticut rather than risk China’s COVID policies. Yahoo!
As Just the News notes, a recent Morning Consult poll of 2,000 American adults found that 65% have a lack of interest in the events, 57% said they have no interest in athletes, and 40% said it was because China was hosting.
Putin is doing the same thing I would be doing-if I had to go, napping. I don’t watch because the Olympics are so boring, summer or winter ones, makes no difference. And I couldn’t care less who wins what. The worst part is listening to those broadcaster clowns give the play-by-play details. They try to make all the competitions sound exciting. If they only realized how phony they sound. I don’t know anyone who really gives a sh*t about the Olympics.
That’s how I feel about sports in general and not just the Olympics.
Oooooh, must have been hit by a DISASTEROID! 😮
I haven’t watched the Olympics for a number of years now, why ?, Because it is all bull manure now. the china and Russia are all packing the judges in their favor. It isn’t even interesting any more.
I am not watching, not counting medals or in any way are following the Olympics. It is senseless and now I am hearing that the athletes are being treated horrible. That can only be sad and then you have Germans getting hurt while competing, skaters falling and and and…. It’s a disaster and propaganda from beginning to the end. NO THANKS. I don’t really understand why the athletes are not just going home. It’s ridiculous. The same with the Australian Open – is he winner REALLY the BEST? ?♀️
Don’t know – since the Best was not permitted ?
I just want everything going back to January 1st, 2020 and we do it again but better and prepared ✌️
Looks like another complete shitshow to me . Can anyone really blame Putin for falling asleep? I’m surprised he even showed up.
Russia and China will be allies in the coming takedown of America.
They may not like each other all that much, but they have to show respect for each other for the present because of common interests.
I saw a video the other day of a bunch of olympic athletes getting off a bus in china and there were a bunch of chinese lined up watching them calling the black ones niqqers lol.
So the chinks were calling the blacks, niggers. Go figure. L MAO
Well, I myself like watching some of the Olympics. Especially that game they play on ice with all that stick action and maybe a few fights.
What’s it called?
Oh yeah, curling.
The most exciting part
of the Olympics is when
they’re over ~ yay!!!!!
The last I watched was Team USA beating the Russians. After that it just became pro sports. I also remember when East German women’s swimmers were kicked out for being biological men. I have no interest in watching men compete against women, it is unfair.
Let’s be clear about the Uyghers: they were the worst of the worst during the war on terror (remember that??!!). When we released them from Gitmo they had to be taken on dark flights strapped down good and hard all the way.
They have launched many terrorist attacks in China, killing many. I don’t blame the Chinese for cracking down hard on them: essentially they are doing to the Uyghers what we did to radical Muslims everywhere.
I do recall China being given the nod and the wink to take care of them so they are dong their bit for the war on terror.
As for the Olympics, they would MASSIVELY boost their ratings if they let the athletes set up Only Fans accounts and get busy with each other. A win-win if you ask me.
I don’t care about the Olympics. What a waste of tv air time. I’ll be glad when they’re over.
Beijing thought the Olympics would be great for their image but they will be the opposite. All these young athletes will return home with very negative impressions of China, the crappy food, the restrictions, and how boring and frustrating the experience was.
On the plus side the Chinese will have lots of naked images of top physical specimens for their genetics research and their super soldier programmes.
It just sucks to be NBC, doesnt it. No tears from me.