Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu with her gold medal after she won the Women’s 400m Individual Medley Final at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
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– Maggie Hendricks (@maggiehendricks) August 7, 2016.@DanHicksNBC thinks women aren’t responsible for their own gold medals, credits husbands. That was true this year, too, as some of the U.S.’ most high-profile stars had primetime slots: Swimmers like Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps won gold while gymnast Simone Biles dazzled viewers in gymnastics.
As frustrated fan Emily Donahue tweeted on Monday night, “is there a way to tell when gymnastics will actually be aired on TV?” “It’s been a little disturbing to some of the other swimmers who have observed it”, he said on-air, according to the AP. Live swimming is great, but semifinal races should be optional.
On Sunday, Hicks refused to walk back his comments.
When Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszú spoke to NBC’s Dan Hicks, he remarked Hosszú’s husband is “the guy responsible” for her success and it’s “impossible” to tell her story without giving him credit.
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu and her husband and coach Shane Tusup after a heat of the women’s 100m backstroke.
DOPING: Good for NBC swimming reporter Michele Tafoya to ask and American swimmer Lilly King to step forward with an honest answer on her feelings about competing against Russian swimmer Yulia Efimova, who had been banned for doping but the suspension put on hold while further studies are being conducted on the drug involved.
“It’s been a long journey for me”, she said. And besides, as the NY Times pointed out just last week, their relationship is hardly what you’d describe as “supportive”.
Many critics disagreed and also cringed when NBC’s Jim Watson said of the USA women’s gymnastics team members, speaking to each other on the sidelines, “They might as well be standing around at the mall”. That’s up from the 20.7 million viewers the network brought in on Saturday and the 26.5 million that the games’ opening ceremony – usually a huge draw – nabbed on Friday.
And the early ratings should give NBC bigwigs reason to worry as numbers have slipped dramatically from previous Olympics.
“It can be very, very harsh”, Hicks said on Saturday.
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