Jim Williams: Czarniak an NBC star on the rise
By: Jim Williams
Examiner Sports Columnist
August 21, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. — "Olympics on Oxygen" is hosted by Washington’s own Lindsay Czarniak of NBC4. The young sports anchor nabbed a host gig in only her second Olympic assignment for NBC. Czarniak is clearly a rising star at NBC; besides her role as a host on Oxygen she also is doing a number of features from Beijing for the network.
"Olympics on Oxygen" can be seen Monday-Friday nights from 6-8 p.m. the rest of this week.
As the host of the "Olympics on Oxygen" coverage, she sets up the heavy sale for the events on NBC primetime. Prominently featured are a summary of previous results of the U.S. Gymnastic team events. "Ring the Bella" with legendary gymnastics coach Bella Karoli and NBC analyst Mary Carillo showcases the news from the Olympic gymnastics camp and interviews the athletes. The goal here clearly is to hype the up coming events that viewers will see on the NBC prime time broadcast that follows this warm up on Oxygen.
"Olympics on Oxygen" provides a mechanism to move NBC’s coveted 18-49 year old female audience into their primetime coverage. It also happens to be entertaining and informative, enough so that it is worth watching whether you are a woman or a man.
NBC's Olympic broadcast highlights new HD technology
This Olympic Games will be known for two things. Michael Phelps and new NBC technology.
Speaking with NBC Executive Producer for the Olympics David Neal (via e-mail from Beijing), he shared his thoughts on the networks' Olympics coverage
"To me, the biggest technical innovation is the fact that these are the first-ever Olympics broadcast 100 percent in high definition," Neal wrote. "All 34 Olympic sports from all 37 Olympic venues throughout China are 100 percent in HD, it's really a remarkable evolution of the technology. So that's a terrific technology development for us and ultimately for the viewers as well.
"Our technical experts tell me that the benefit of being in HD will be felt all the way down the chain. So not only at the top of the delivery chain where people are watching in HD, but down to standard def and even all the way down to watching something on your hand-held phone. If you’re watching a 10-second clip of a replay of a race, the fact that the source material began in HD, the trickle-down effect benefits every delivery platform. So that's very exciting for us."
So NBC has had a golden Olympics — ratings-wise, sponsorship-wise and technology-wise.
Not a bad two weeks.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on dcexaminer.com.
