(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The Who guitarist Pete Townsend, left, and singer Roger Daltrey perform during the Closing Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics late Sunday night.
By Frazier Moore
Viewers were incensed Sunday night when NBC cut away from the Olympics’ conclusion to air a sitcom featuring a monkey.
During 16 days from London, the sprawl of Olympics coverage was seemingly indomitable, running roughshod through the NBC schedule. Yet Sunday’s package of highlights from the closing ceremony deferred meekly to the preview of a new NBC comedy, “Animal Practice,” which then was followed by a half-hour of local news.
When taped Olympics coverage came to a grinding halt at 11 p.m. Eastern time, viewers were advised that the festivities would resume in one hour.
Accordingly, at midnight Ryan Seacrest greeted viewers who had chosen to stick it out.
“Welcome to the London closing party,” he chirped. “Now it’s time for the big finale.”
That would be a medley pounded out by The Who. Songs included such favorites as “Baba O’Riley” and “My Generation.” After all the build-up, The Who were on hand for just eight minutes.
Olympics host Bob Costas then delivered a rhapsodic postscript before declaring a wrap for NBC’s Olympics coverage at 12:35 a.m. For this, viewers had waited an extra hour on a work night.
And by then, many of them might have been wondering why the ceremony package couldn’t have aired intact, ending conveniently at 11:08 p.m. and only slightly delaying NBC’s monkey business.