NBC Covers Mini Olympic’s in Charm City This Weekend

The nation gets to see over 33 hours of coverage on NBC and USA and the driving force and creative vision behind NBC’s coverage of the AST Dew Tour is producer Billy Matthews.  Matthews, who worked alongside veteran producer David Michaels on both the 1999 Summer and 2000 Winter Gravity Games as associate producer, was promoted to coordinating producer the following year.  A six-time Emmy Award winner, he has been nominated for 25 Emmy awards in his 15-year career at NBC.  The 1999-2001 Summer Gravity Games were nominated for Emmy awards in the Outstanding Edited Sports Special category.  

I spoke to Mathews about the extensive coverage that viewers will see: “It is very much like a mini Olympics. We will go from venue to venue all around the Camden complex. Each time we finish one sport our technical crew will un plug their cameras and move like a small army over to the next venue, with a three hard camera’s being moved by truck. Then they will plug in and away we will go. We are using extreme production tactics with some of the best tech people in the business. They know the sports and the participants that is why we can do such a great job covering these events. We have a world class team.”

Mathews on the use of participants being used as color announcers: “In some ways the Extreme sports athletes are like NASCAR drivers. They understand the importance of promoting the sports. So they will participate in a competition, then run over and serve as a color analyst about an event they were just in. It is the best access to the athletes you could have in sports TV.”

Things you need to know….

$2.5 MILLION PURSE:

More than 150 of the world’s greatest professional action sports athletes return for the third season of the AST Dew Tour to compete for the Dew Cup and a $2.5 million competitive purse – the largest in action sports – including a $1 million bonus pool based upon year-end standings.  2006 Dew Cup Champions Bucky Lasek (Skate Vert); Ryan Sheckler (Skate Park); Bestwick (BMX Vert); Daniel Dhers (BMX Park); Anthony Napolitan (BMX Dirt); and Nate Adams (FMX), return to defend their titles.

NBC SATURDAY: SKATE VERT, 4 PM ET

Olympic gold medalist White seeks to add to his 2006 Right Guard Open title with the 2007 Dew Cup, but first he must beat out other top riders such as Baltimore native and two-time Dew Tour champion Lasek, second-place Dew Cup finalist Sandro Dias and third place finisher Bob Burnquist. 

NBC SUNDAY: FMX, 4 PM ET

NBC’s Sunday coverage features the freestyle motocross finals. Reigning FMX Dew Cup Champion Adams seeks to dominate the field again in 2007, but will face tough competition from Mike Mason and Travis Pastrana, last year’s second and third-place finishers, respectively.