Ryan Seacrest Stumbles at the Olympics

If NBC wanted people talking about London's Summer Olympics, consider that goal achieved.

Much of the talk inspired by NBC's coverage so far has been less than glowing. We're only a few days in, and a growing chorus of complaints are aimed at Ryan Seacrest, who seems to have tapped into the deep reservoir of disdain every annoyed sports fan has ever felt about any lightweight, extraneous sideline reporter.

If you think it's hard to get people to watch tape-delayed victories, try selling tape-delayed disappointments.

And for NBC, that's the problem. It has paid $1.18 billion fee to broadcast the Games. It can't make that money back by giving away big-draw events in the close-to-free world that is still the Internet.

Still, if you are going to gather us in prime time to see the Opening Ceremony, then you should show it to us once you have us. Which means not cutting away from a boisterously, Britishly odd opener that was setting new standards for strange, excising a musical tribute in the process, to go to Seacrest. And that certainly means not interrupting Saturday's coverage for a Seacrest interview with Phelps' family that was capped by Seacrest's proclamation that "It's fun to see them in their real lives, because they've got real lives."  — who knew?

Is someone trying to undercut him before he can even get started, or is Seacrest's news judgment truly that awful?