This may have already been mentioned (I haven’t read all of any of the threads), but if you think about what might inspire some of those couch potatoes who just MIGHT be watching the show…
Think of David Breen. Who inspired him to take up the challenge of Ironman? Not Faris. Not Natasha. It was John Blais, who finished in 16+ hours in 2005. One of those “human interest” stories. I think you’ll find many more couch potatoes motivated by the “human interest” than any of the top-10 results.
I enjoyed the show. Actually the commercial were quite good too.
The human interest stuff didn’t get me too emo. For some reason, watching the pre-start and swim start got me all weepy.
The swim also amazed me as I don’t think I have ever seen how fast the elite swimmers are actually going through the water.
it’s real easy to argue with that because it is completely wrong. how many triathletes do you think that there are in the us? 100,000? usat lists its membership at 70,000. if you include all the people who ever have done a triathlon, you probably get somewhere near 500,000. what do you think the show did in terms of ratings? my guess is 3 or 4, which would mean that several million people watched it. even if the show bombed and got a 1, that still is about 1,000,000 viewers. if every “triathlete” watched the show, triathletes still would only account for less than half of all the viewers. you have a very warped view of reality and how tiny triathlons are in the us. nbc clearly is targeting the channel surfers who stumble across it and then start watching it because that’s where the market is. i just grabbed a slice of pizza and the owner who knows nothing about triathlons asked me if i watched it because he did. he thought that it was completely crazy. that’s who nbc is targeting. it would be helpful if you did a little thinking before posting such outlandish claims as what was in your previous post.
he also liked the marlins employee. enough said.
Without looking at the demographics, I would bet my bottom dollar that triathletes represent less than 10% of the viewership. The triathlon population does not have the horsepower to sustain a 2 hour show on NBC, at any hour, let alone a Saturday afternoon. Because I Tevo’d the show, I fast forwarded thru the commercials. I will now fast forward thru the part I watched yesterday and watch the commercials. I bet very few are endemic ads. I think I remember one, Powerbar.
I know that triathlon is small when I know all but 2 or 3 people that were featureed as elites or special intrests.
While I understand why NBC does what it does with the Ironman broadcast, it turns off more than the triathletes. Talking to my friends that cycle and my friends that are “just” runners, they turned tOFF the coverage off 1/2 hour into it. They wanted to watch the race, not meet the “ordinary man” competitors. There are many joggers and cyclists in the world that do not care for the freak show portion.
Personally, I watch it anyway. I do not complain and am happy to have some coverage. I do wish NBC would have a race version to air or buy that had much more racing, less of what happened in previous races, and no more Rick and Dick. I met Rick and Dick in IMC in '86. Nice story, but 20 years old.
I also dedicate much of race day to ironmanlive coverage, for which I am extremely grateful. I remember in the early 80’s when I got results by calling the King K hotel on race night.
Talking to my friends that cycle and my friends that are “just” runners, they turned tOFF the coverage off 1/2 hour into it. They wanted to watch the race, not meet the “ordinary man” competitors. There are many joggers and cyclists in the world that do not care for the freak show portion.
Once again, I am unsure that the audience that the commercials are directed towards are traithletes, runners, etc…The the real athlete has slowtwitch.com, Ironmanlive.com etc. We are a very small segment of the population…
No, the guy won a lottery slot, was moved by the Blazeman’s story and situation, and thus decided to make his experience mean something more personal. He set out to help raise awareness about ALS and by NBC covering his story and Blazeman’s I believe they have. He had no connection to John other than he wanted to help in some way.
Really, why?
I asked Diesel not to get me started on that. He didn’t. I’m good.
Seriously, why did that piece bother you so much?
Here’s how the thinking seems to go in Triathlon Fantasy Island …
Triathletes want non-triathletes to be very impressed with an ironman finish.
Triathletes want non-triathletes to be big fans of Ironman racing.
Triathletes want non-triathletes to watch the race on TV, buy products or some other contribution that leads to bigger money for the pro racers.
Triathletes don’t want any of these non-triathletes to actually want to a race, because then the exclusivity of it will decrease, and well …
… the secret will be out that finishing an IM race isn’t the “climbing Mt. Everest” that it once seemed to be. That image is kind of hard to maintain when the overweight soccer-mom down the street finished IMWI.
Essentially, triathletes want treated like the stars of our major sports, where fans just cheer, but don’t really get to do the sport alongside the pros. That would be great, except triathlon as a sport doesn’t have enough fans, not even CLOSE to that amount of fans, to sustain it as a spectator sport. They’ll do away with the pro triathletes before they do away with te AG’ers and other hobby participants. There isn’t any money to be had for anyone with triathlon as a pro sport. All the money/attention is in the 1800 non-pro triathletes. The event is more hobby than sport. Not saying good or bad, just saying that’s how it is. There just isn’t the interest in non-triathlon participants for “the race” or “the sport”. They are interested in everyday people taking on the challenge.
To expect folks to be interested in a slow-moving, uneventful, 8-9 hour race featuring the combination of three events Americans have traditionally not been interested in is ridiculous. I’m getting tired of hearing complaints about it. I should stop reading these threads.
Maybe it won’t be long until college football changes its format and there’ll be bowl games on Dec 9 weekend, or World Series of Poker, and the show will be bumped to late night, off the air, or to some channel that only 0.00005% of the population has as part of their service. Then we’ll have something new to complain about. But, geez how much can folks complain that triathlon as a pro sport, isn’t popular in America? Like, duh.
You nailed it Paul, great comments. As one who has the unique and honorable position to witness close hand each and every finisher the broadcast brings it to life. If all the naysayers could stand in my shoes those 17 hours and encounter the passion on the course and finish line you would agree we are lucky to have NBC do what they do. Your words (as mine) when trying to account and relay what goes on in Kona to ones not there has no appeal and influence like the TV show. And I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me over the years saying the reason they are now in the sport of triathlon is becasue they saw Ironman on TV. I guarantee you that more than a handful of inactive people are now doing something physical today because of what they witnessed yesterday. It’s a credit to our sport and it’s a credit to how we cover it and show it to the world.
Mike Reilly
Mike,
You did a first class job, and I agree with you 100% how dificult it is to convey the essence of that day without being there. I was a volunteer working in the timing tent and watched you and the athletes up close ALL DAY ! 10/21/06 was an incredible day in my life. I am very grateful to Andy Anderson and Tek Mapon for allowing me the privilege of being there !
Zev B.
IMVoice/Mike…while some do Ironman because of what they see on TV, there are a group of us that do it so that we can hear you call out our names after 140.6 miles. Seriously, after doing 14 Ironmans, each time you have called out my name at the finish line makes me feel like an 18 year old again…and coming from a 41 year old family guy, that is a great “once a year” feeling.
Keep up the good work…and yes, the special interest stuff inspires some of us just as much as Norman pulling a 4:18 bike into T2!!!
Dev
A friend called me up during the broadcast, knowing that I am an Ironman, and he was crying. He said that he couldn’t believe the stories that were being shown and how touching they were.
He was blown away by the Hoyt’s(he should have seen previous broadcasts!) and what Dick does for Ricky.
He used to tell me that I was crazy for the training and racing that I do…He’s now a believer of the impact of Ironman.
I figured you’d like Rozelle’s comment when he heard Normann had a 7 minute lead… 
Great post and I agree with what you said!
From what i remember of the commercials, very, very few were not either Ford (major sponsor), Degree deodorant (another sponsor), or the Hawaiian Island tourism folks. It is very obvious why there isn’t more money in triathlon, when you can’t draw ANY other commercial sponsors to the biggest event on the triathlon calendar.
I think those commercials are part of the the package they get for being official sponsors. As has been said before, WTC buys the time from NBC and therefore controls the commercial spots. Same thing as Lifetime Triathlon when it is shown on NBC.
"However, I don’t think the NBC coverage really highlights just how hard it is to get to Kona. They make it look like anyone can show up and race at Kona. "
Not to knock the NBC coverage (too much), but I had the same impression. How many lottery slots were there?
The “Marco Polo” commercial still cracks me up.
I feel the same way
.