OK, the Opening Ceremony is over and there were a couple of soccer games on Wedneday and Thursday, but right about now is when the time to gorge yourself on Olympic sports on TV begins. In fact, it’s Midnight on Friday night and tomorrow’s events kick off in about an hour with some beach volleyball at 1 a.m.
As we pore over the six different NBC channels showing Olympic coverage and try to wrap our heads around the eight-hour time difference, it’s a challenge every day to put a useful TV listing in the paper.
There are two different approaches to watching these Olympics. One is easy, and one takes effort.
The easy way is to not watch any Olympics during the day and just tune in every night at 8 p.m. to NBC for their four-hour primetime block. If you are able not to check Twitter, other news channels or talk to your friends throughout the day, you will be rewarded at night with a perfectly packaged exciting block of everything cool that happened that day.
Let’s take Saturday for example. Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte battle for their first gold medal in real life at about 11:30 a.m. this morning. The world will know who won by noon. If you are able to avoid all those people and reports until 8 p.m., you’ll be able to watch it like it’s live.
For the rest of us, the ones that just have to know what happens up to the second, or to be very specific to my profession, who have to know what happens as fast as possible to put it in the paper and online, you can’t wait until 8 p.m. to midnight every night.
For people like that, we’ve included a full, specific TV listing from 6 a.m. the day of the paper to 6 a.m. the following day. That should enable you to wake up, know what’s on and also know what’s on in the middle of the night before you wake up and get your paper at 6 a.m. again the next morning.
Here are some other TV watching tips: The six networks that NBC uses are NBC, NBC-SN (formerly Versus), MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, and Telemundo. NBC-SN and MSNBC is the best channel for live action throughout the night and in the morning. CNBC is entirely dedicated to boxing and Bravo is entirely dedicated to tennis. Telemundo, does a day long trip through all the sports with a Spanish broadcast.
Hope this helps, and know that we are trying our best to make sure you don’t miss the event you want to see. Don’t forget you can watch everything live streaming whenever you want at NBColympics.com.
Here are the 12 events that will hand out medals today and below that is our 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. TV schedule.
Archery: Men’s team
Cycling: Men’s road race
Fencing: Women’s individual foil
Judo: Women’s 48 kilogram; men’s 60 kg
Shooting: Women’s 10-meter air rifle; men’s 10-meter air rifle
Swimming: Men’s 400 IM; men’s 400 freestyle; women’s 400 individual medley; women’s 400 freestyle relay
Weightlifting: Women’s 48 kilogram
Today’s TV
NBC 6-11 a.m.: Cycling 11-11:45 a.m.: Swimming — Phelps goes for first medal 11:45 a.m.-1:30 p.m.: U.S. women’s basketball vs. Croatia 1:30-2:30 p.m.: Swimming 2:30-3 p.m.: Rowing 3-5 p.m.: Women’s volleyball — U.S. vs. Korea 5-6 p.m.: Men’s beach volleyball — U.S. vs. S. Africa 8 p.m.-midnight: Primetime recap of day’s biggest stories
NBC-SN 6-6:30 a.m.: Women’s handball 6:30-8:15 a.m.: Women’s soccer — New Zealand vs. Brazil 8:15-9 a.m.: Table tennis — U.S. vs. Colombia 9-10:45 a.m.: Women’s soccer — U.S. vs. Colombia 10:45-11:45 a.m.: Equestrian 11:45-1:30 p.m.: Women’s soccer — France vs. North Korea 1:30-2:45 p.m.: Women’s handball — Norway vs. France 2:45-4 p.m.: Archery 4-5 p.m.: TBA
MSNBC 6-6:30 a.m.: Women’s table tennis — U.S. vs. Croatia 6:30-7:45 a.m.: Women’s fencing 7:45-8:30 a.m.: Women’s soccer — Canada vs. South Africa 8:30-9:15 a.m.: Men’s beach volleyball 9:15-11 a.m.: Women’s soccer — Great Britain vs. Cameroon 11-11:45 a.m.: Women’s table tennis — U.S. vs. Mexico 11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m.: Fencing 12:45-2 p.m.: Men’s badminton CNBC 6-8:30 a.m.: Men’s boxing 12:30-3 p.m.: Men’s boxing
BRAVO 6 a.m.-noon: Tennis — First-round matches
TELEMUNDO 8 a.m.-5 p.m.: Opening ceremony replay followed by mutliple sports
SUNDAY
NBC-SN 1-2 a.m.: Women’s beach volleyball — Italy vs. Russia 3-5 a.m.: Men’s basketball — Brazil vs. Austria 5-6 a.m.: Men’s beach volleyball
MSNBC 4-5:15 a.m.: Men’s volleyball — Russia vs. Germany 5:15-6 a.m.: Men’s handball — Croatia vs. South Korea
CNBC Midnight-1 a.m.: Boxing 5:30-6 a.m.: Boxing
BRAVO 4-6 a.m.: Tennis — first-round matches
TELEMUNDO 4-6 a.m.: Multiple sports