The 2021 Summer Olympics came to a close on Sunday night. It was tumultuous from beginning to end for the event, as locals were vocal about their displeasure in the games continuing. There was even more disappointment at home as NBC had to deal with the face of the American team, Simon Biles, withdrawing from a few events due to mental fatigue. On top of it all, Peacock drew continuous ire for its serving as the vessel for the streaming options. Count Bill Simmons among those who were not happy.
“Peacock has been showing the basketball,” Simmons said. “They’re showing it at weird hours. After the games end, they don’t have replays of the game. You have to basically go on Twitter, search for the game and hope there’s a clip on there and then about seven hours later they’ll show a seven-minute recap of the game.”
Ratings for the Olympics were down between 30-50 percent depending on the night, with many obstacles coming into play. As Simmons mentioned, the time change caused for erratic start times compared with American sleep schedules.
Due to the rights of the games, other networks were unable to show highlights of the games for a given time, only pictures of the event. Results and winners were leaked across social media leading to a flurry of spoiler alerts. Simmons continued that he couldn’t fathom how even the Gold Medal-winning basketball teams could not find themselves in positions to be roundly watched back in the States.
“How can they f*** this up?” Simmons said. “How hard is this? There’s so many basketball fans, how do they mess this up?”