Excuse me here for a moment, but I need to let off some steam on OLN’s coverage of the Tour here in Canada. In previous years, it has been the same as in the States I think - live in the morning, recap at night (and then replay of live late, late at night, I think).
I would love to know who’s dumbass idea it was at OLN-Canada to decide not to show today’s live coverage of the Tour. Before we even got to this point with Lance, Jan and Vino all within seconds, it was obvious from the day the tour schedule was released that today’s stage was an important one.
So what the hell happened? We get Windsurfing and Fishing?!?!?! Like you couldn’t bump these programs for coverage of the most exciting (my view), and biggest sporting event in the world?
And why the @#&^ have they dumped the recap show? All we’re getting is the Live coverage in the morning and then a repeat of the Live coverage starting at 10:30. Fine for guys like me who’ll skip work or stay up till 1:30 am to catch a mountain top finish, but what about all of the people who have started to enjoy and experience the Tour in the last few years with the nightly recaps? A quick hit to let them know what’s happening and the highlights of the day. That was great for the casual fan and they’ve taken it off the air here in Canada.
So I don’t think they really have a choice. They can only show tape delay after the ABC coverage is aired. At least that’s how it was last Sunday, so I’m guessing it was the same story today.
I would have missed it anyhow as I was out riding.
Think for just one moment what would happen if you cancelled ALL the hunting shows for three weeks.
(And on the seventh day, the Lord picked up his Remington 7600 12 gauge over/under, shot hisself some deer, and it was good.)
I also think it is a bit strange that the one day with the potential to have the highest viewership is the day they have other programming. But at least we get to see most of the Tour.
Maybe they think all good cyclists are in church praying for Lance on Sunday mornings.
Well at least you guys got to share in our misery. I didn’t realize that this happened last Sunday as well because I was actually there on Alpe d’Huez - inches from LA and the gang (Pictures to follow)!
That still doesn’t explain the lack of the highlight show up here, though.
The schedule here for OLN in eastern Canada, does not seem to be the best. I mean who is going to be able to watch the Live show in the morning starting at 8 - 9. Everyone that I know is at work. And the re-broadcast of this is too late for most as well. Who has the energy to stay-up until after midnight for three weeks in a row!!
If it’s not working for me - a super-keener - I am sure that it is not working for 1000’s of others.
Funny, because OLN did a ton of advertising and promotion for this going into the Tour, you would think that they would put something in prime-time to capture the biggest audience possible. I suspect that if they scheduled the second show to start at 7, 8 or 9 PM they could have 2X the viewers or more.
Again this year I have had to resort to the various “live” coverage Web sites - VeloNews, Bicycling CyclingNews etc . … I will give OLN credit for the audio feed on their Web site so that at least I can listen to Phil & Paul. That’s cool, as I can switch that on for a few minutes every hour at work and catch some of that excitment.
