There was an awkward moment in the recent U.S. Figure Skating Championships just after defending champion Tonya Harding finished.
Harding skated into the area provided for the competitiors to await their scores. She sat there, tears welling in her eyes and eventually trickling down her cheek.
She knew a fall had all but eliminated her hopes for another title. But she wasn`t there alone. Besides her coach, Harding was accompanied by ABC Sports` Julie Moran, who tried to console her.
It was a classic example of why it`s called the ”kiss-and-cry” area. There will be such an area at the skating rink in Albertville. The skaters, however, will be attended only by their coaches. Those uncomfortable ”How do you feel?” interviews, CBS has decreed, will be done later, thanks to the time difference between live event and taped coverage.
”We decided out of sensitivity to the skaters not to bombard them at this breathless moment,” says Mark Harrington, CBS Sports Olympics vice president. ”The skaters appreciate it, and we think it can make for a better interview when we do catch up with them backstage, because they`ve had a chance to regain their composure.”
And no one`s happier than CBS analysts Scott Hamilton and Tracy Wilson, who have had to endure their moments on the other side of the microphones.
”I love it,” Hamilton, the 1984 gold medalist, says of the ban.
”That`s really the skaters` time. They`ve just done the most important performance of their life. Let them react to their marks, have some time to collect their thoughts, and then the interview afterwards will be a lot better.
”You`re not invading the skater`s time. You`ll let the audience bond better with the skater than if you just throw a microphone in front of his face and let him react.”
Wilson, a bronze medalist in `88 with her ice dancing partner Rob McCall, is even more adamant, primarily based on personal experience.
”As a reporter, you don`t get a good interview,” Wilson says. ”As a skater, I love doing interviews. But I remember specifically coming off the ice at the Olympics, being totally overwhelmed, sitting down trying to collect my thoughts and take everything in.
”Suddenly, someone`s asking me questions. And I couldn`t even think. It`s an intrusion. It`d be nice to sit and just take in the marks, talk to your coach, talk to your partner, then collect your thoughts, go backstage and then you`re ready for the microphone.”
Even though other nations are covering the Games, ”it`s our understanding no one is doing it,” says Rick Gentile, CBS Sports vice president for Olympic programming. ”It`s by non-discussed mutual consent. Everybody feels the best way to do this is to leave it alone.”
Hamilton says he feels they should have left it alone years ago.
”This `kiss-and-cry` area is always miked,” he says. ”You get some great conversations between the coach and skater. It lets you in on how they felt they did. Sometimes a skater will be so in a zone, they won`t even remember what their program was. They`ll look at their coach and say, `How was that? Was it OK?` ”
And they don`t want to hear, ”Well, how do you feel?”
– CBS airs the Daytona 500 Sunday, pitching almost as much technology at the stock-car race as it has in Albertville. Not only will there be the usual Racecams, but also a Roofcam mounted on Richard Petty`s car and Telemtry Graphics to provide electronic updates from the Racecam cars, such as speed, engine RPMs, braking and gear-shifting.
The race also marks the return of Ted Shaker, the CBS Sports executive producer shut out of the network`s Olympics coverage, to the front lines. He`ll be working as a pit producer on the telecast. ”Working the pits at Daytona ranks with the most fun I`ve ever had in television sports,” says Shaker, who started as a features associate producer for the race in 1979.
”If (Shaker) can`t handle it, we`ll fire him,” jokes Bob Stenner, the producer for the telecast. ”In any case, it`ll be interesting having your boss running the pits.”
– The appearance of Magic Johnson helped NBC capture a 12.8 national Nielsen rating and a 26 share for Sunday`s NBA All-Star Game, making it the fourth-highest rated NBA telecast. The rating, a 64 percent increase of last year`s 7.8, was seen by more than 35 million viewers, making it the most-watched All-Star contest. The game also bested CBS` Sunday afternoon Winter Olympics coverage, which averaged a 10.9/23, although the Olympics held their own in the last hour of competition. In Chicago, the All-Star Game had a whopping 23.4 rating with a 42 share, compared to 10.4/20 for the Olympics and 1.6/3 for ABC`s telecast of the De Paul-Marquette contest. . . . CBS`s prime- time Olympics coverage, through Wednesday night, is averaging a 19.1/29 rating, 3 percent higher than ABC`s prime-time performance for five nights of the 1988 Winter Games. CBS had guaranteed advertisers a 17 rating. In addition, between the Olympics and the other networks` sweeps programming, cable viewing has declined 11 percent in the same time frame.
– Martina Navratilova makes an appearance with host Tom Shaer at 9:30 a.m. Friday on WSCR Radio. . . . . . Dan Azzaro turns the ”Fan Talk” microphones over to the under-18 set on Sunday night`s show at 8 on WLS Radio. . . . ESPN`s ratings nearly tripled Monday night when the verdict was announced in the Mike Tyson rape trial, going from .9 for the Big Eight game it was covering to 2.9 for the ”SportsCenter” telecast. Charley Steiner, who covered the trial, hosts a one-hour ESPN special, ”Mike Tyson: The Lost Champion,” at 7 p.m. Sunday. . . . Tyson`s conviction not only will cost the former heavyweight champ money, but the fledgling pay-per-view TV industry as well. ”The $100 million potential (for a PPV bout) went away with Tyson,”
said Larry Gerbrandt of media analysts Paul Kagan Associates.
