Admittedly, the huge time difference made things tough for the executives at the peacock network but their arrogance made things even tougher for themselves. The fact that they didn't show a single minute of live coverage is an embarrassment. We hated trying to go throughout the day without reading the paper or listening to the radio fearful that we would hear the results of some even that we thought might be on t.v. that night. If watching taped action wasn't bad enough, what made it worse was how they would bounce back and forth between sports. Track, then swimming, then track.
Live television is great for a couple of reasons.
One, the outcome is unexpected and two, you know when each event will take place and thus know when to tune into watch it. If they are going to show taped events, at the very least, they should tell everyone in advance exactly which events will be shown and when. They way it was done this year was a joke as they selectively picked events to show. Thus when you were watching them you almost expected something extraordinary to happen otherwise NBC wouldn't be airing it as they were only showing the most compelling events. Thus even the most dramatic events lacked drama.