Entertainment

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • You have to sink a lot lower to embarrass NBC 1/15/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 NBC blows its coverage of Golden Globes By Rob Owen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Silver? Too shiny. Bronze? Overly generous. One thing's for certain: The Globes telecast on NBC was anything but Golden. What started out as NBC's exclusive right to broadcast the ceremony got chipped away over the past week. NBC was going to show just a press conference after nominated actors refused to turn out in a show of support for striking Hollywood writers. On Friday, after reported infighting between NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association that doles out the Globes, NBC lost its exclusivity. TV Guide Network, CNN and E! got to televise the press conference where winners were announced. In the competition to name the winners first, NBC's peacock got plucked. TV Guide Network, which carried the press conference live, named the winners first. CNN and E! operated on a delay, airing winners' names a few seconds later. NBC did not cover the actual press conference Sunday night, choosing to read the names of winners in the "Access Hollywood" studio several minutes after they were announced at The Beverly Hilton. (The time between the live announcement of winners and NBC's announcements grew longer as the hour went on because NBC paused for commercials; the cable networks did not.) What a disaster. What an embarrassment. What a telling sign that NBC chose to put its executives' bruised egos ahead of commonsense broadcasting. Anyone flipping through channels realized how irrelevant NBC was to the Globes. Why watch the Globes on NBC when you could learn who won sooner and with less fuss elsewhere? Watching cable networks also spared viewers from NBC's overproduced mess. Plus, the press conference -- including cheesy entertainment-reporter presenters from competitive outlets -- seemed more authentic to this lo-fi Globes. Viewers could hear just a couple dozen hands clapping for the winners. Even before the award announcements, the cable networks offered better coverage than NBC. Some might credit the network with trying to make the best out of a bad situation, but by calling in the news division to produce the alternative Globes telecast, NBC obliterated the wall between news and entertainment that's been chipped away at for years. What does it say when entertainment cable channels offer more context, more analysis than an NBC News production? The Globes on cable were over and done in an efficient 32 minutes. Maybe the ceremony should air this way every year.

1. I-5 crash injures Washington State Patrol trooper 2. Map of Everett in 1893 a gift to Northwest Neighborhood residents 3. Marysville 's Electric Lights Parade goes dark 4. Lynnwood couple’s fight ends in woman’s arrest 5. Mill Creek church uses tattoos to teach 6. Does today’s Huskies-Cougars Apple Cup or Sunday’s Seahawks-Rams NFL game merit your attention? 7. Fire rips through Everett paintball arena 8. Contest inspired by ‘Biggest Loser' helps Mill Creek neighbors 9. Everett building rules may be loosened 10. Brown paper bags for fans 2 - Top 10 Stories Most Talked about 3 - Top 10 Stories Most Emailed

• Ruling in the pool • Holiday Lightings & Santa Sightings • Archbishop Murphy takes title • A season of performing arts • Budget numbers have official fuming • Wildcats move on to 2A semifinals • Holiday Bazaars & Fairs Calendar • Edmonds’ Westgate Chapel serves up hospitality for holiday • Mavericks fall • Boeing will build, flight test and deliver 787s in South Carolina to spe ... • Snohomish County EDC promoting job growth in key industry clusters • $4 million grant to advance brain tumor research has Everett links • Providence medical center construction tops off its 12-story steel frame ... • Tulalip affordable housing project to be financed by KeyBank, Raymond Ja ... • Arlington's Lak of Ink has a growing following for Luke Kooyman's creati ... • Bank of the Northwest formed • Cascade Bank earns $1.6 million