If the Olympics gave out medals for apologies, NBC Sports would be in great shape at the 2018 Winter Games.
Over three days of coverage, the Peacock network has been busy apologizing, or trying to explain on-air gaffes and profanity by analysts and athletes, a tape delay for the first U.S gold medal and a "wardrobe malfunction" that rekindled network nightmares of Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl.
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It's early and NBC has plenty of time to right the ship as American Olympians such as Mikaela Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn, Shaun White, Shani Davis, Chloe Kim and Julie Marino take center stage. But the Olympic gods didn't do NBC any favors Sunday night when high winds forced the cancellation of Shiffrin's first televised event.
That fit right in with a weekend in which the network had to do plenty of backtracking:
NBC boots analyst. NBC was quick to cut ties with analyst Joshua Cooper Ramo, a protege of Henry Kissinger, after he said "every" Korean holds up Japan as an inspiring "example" during Friday night's opening ceremonies broadcast.
Critics were outraged. They noted the horrors of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910-45, including the Japanese army enslaving Korean females as "comfort women" for their troops. NBC quickly apologized. Anchor Carolyn Manno read a formal apology Saturday on NBCSN:
"During our coverage of the Parade of Nations on Friday we said it was notable that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the trip to Korea for the Olympics, 'representing Japan, a country which occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945 but every Korean will tell you that Japan is a cultural, technological and economic example that has been so important to their own transformation.' We understand the Korean people were insulted by these comments and we apologize."
This was Ramo's second Olympics for NBC, but after Friday's disaster he was one and done in South Korea. "His assignment has ended," said an NBC Sports spokesman Sunday night via e-mail.
Alrighty, then.
Tape delay strikes again. Snowboarder Red Gerard won the first U.S. gold medal of the 2018 Winter Olympics on Saturday. The 17-year old underdog from Colorado should have provided great TV action for what NBC promised would be the most "live" Olympics ever.
But NBC missed televising Gerard's gold-winning slopestyle event live because it was busy showing the money sport for every modern Winter Olympics: figure skating.
Instead, many sports fans learned about Gerard's achievement online before the tape-delayed event aired 15 minutes later on NBC. The network can't air two events at the same time, noted an NBC spokesman Sunday night. Besides, all events are streamed live at NBCOlympics.com, he added.
“When live events are occurring simultaneously, we obviously can only show one on NBC. We showed snowboarding on a slight delay last night after live figure skating. As we have done for every Games since London 2012, all competition is live streamed on our digital platforms for those who want to watch any sport live.”
To make matters worse, the excited Gerard uttered a profanity on-air, which NBC failed to bleep out for family viewers. "Apologies for the language. You understand the enthusiasm involved there," said NBC Olympic host Mike Tirico, according to Deadline.com.
Not another "wardrobe malfunction." Ice dancer Yura Min nearly gave NBC TV viewers more than they expected Sunday when the back of her glitzy costume came undone only seconds into her routine with partner Alexander Gamelin.
“I was like, ‘Oh, no!’” she told The Detroit Free Press. “If that comes undone, the whole thing could just pop off. I was terrified the entire program.”
Born and raised in California, Min was competing for South Korea when disaster struck on national TV. So she ad-libbed her routine, keeping her arms back to stop her top from slipping open.
Min handled it like a pro, tweeting a one-word apology Sunday: