A memorable daytime soccer game for NBC
NEW YORK (AP) In a story Aug. 13 about NBC's coverage of the Olympics, The Associated Press, relying on information provided by a publicist, reported erroneously that the online subscription content service Fullscreen made a 10-episode sports docuseries, ''Keeping Score,'' on the U.S. women's soccer team. The series is only six episodes.
A corrected version of the story is below:
A memorable daytime soccer game for NBC
The U.S. women's soccer team's unexpected loss made for some memorable moments for NBC
By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - The non-stop nature of soccer helped and hindered NBC's Arlo White and Kate Markgraf in their coverage of the U.S. women's team, which lost to Sweden on penalty kicks Friday and was bounced from the Olympics.
''The USA are distraught,'' White said, describing the aftermath of Lisa Dahlkvist's deciding penalty.
He expertly built the tension throughout the broadcast and reflected the significance of the three-time defending Olympic champions and defending World Cup winners heading home without a medal. White and Markgraf caught a bit of soccer gamesmanship before the last penalty kick, when U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo changed gloves to make Dahlkvist wait a little while and think about her shot.
There were two huge moments right before the penalty kicks when the Americans and then the Swedes had goals disallowed on what appeared to be questionable offside calls.
Asked to take a stand on Lotta Schelin's disallowed goal for Sweden, Markgraf hedged. The ref's call appeared wrong, she said, ''but I do need to take another look at the play.''
She never got that chance. The soccer clock keeps ticking. When the extra time period ended shortly thereafter, NBC switched to a round of commercials and the controversial calls were not re-examined. Contrast that to an American football game, when there's enough downtime after a close call to see about a dozen replays.
One other thing: The soccer team's loss - and Solo's subsequent sour grapes remark that the Swedish team was ''a bunch of cowards'' - was the biggest Olympics story on Friday, at least from an American perspective. It deserved more than a minute's recap on NBC just before midnight.
POLAROID MOMENT: Superb prep work by NBC was on display shortly after Joseph Schooling of Singapore upset Michael Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly. The network flashed a picture of a 13-year-old Schooling meeting Phelps, his hero, in 2008 - amusing even a gracious Phelps. Phelps took a backseat to the other American swimmers on Thursday. Katie Ledecky cruised in the 800-meter freestyle, Maya Dirado stretched just far enough to win the 200-meter backstroke and, at the ripe old age of 35, Anthony Ervin won gold in the 50-meter freestyle, repeating his victory from the 2000 Olympics. In the intervening years, Ervin admitted to drifting. ''He was on my couch for awhile,'' said NBC analyst Rowdy Gaines.
WATER-LOGGED: Yes, it appears some NBC viewers won't be sorry to see the Olympic pool shut down. ''NBC Olympic slogan: every four years the world's greatest athletes gather to witness a 7-day swim meet,'' tweeted Allen Tyger, who describes himself as a college minister from Missouri.
QUOTE: ''Team USA played like it was a Thursday night in Milwaukee in February. Totally uninspired.'' -NBC basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla, describing the team's tight 94-91 victory over Serbia.
Milwaukee, are you listening?
MAN-BUN IS BACK: It was almost sadistic, NBC flashing yet another picture of Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu's histrionic husband, this team after she won silver behind Dirado. Were they trying to prove some kind of point after being criticized earlier in the games for giving Shane Tusup too much credit for Hosszu's victories? Another question: Has he changed his shirt since arriving in Rio?
BAD TIMING: The online subscription content service Fullscreen launched in April and made one of its big projects a six-episode sports docuseries, ''Keeping Score,'' showing the backstage life of the U.S. women's soccer team, partially from the perspective of Hope Solo. Oops. Only two episodes had been made available before the team's quarterfinal loss, capped by Solo's bad sportsmanship. Who's going to be interested now? ''You watched the game and know the outcome,'' said Ashley Kaplan, Fullscreen's head of content production. ''But you have no idea what happened in the hotel room afterwards.''
JONESIN': ''Saturday Night Live's'' Lisa Jones has made it to Rio de Janeiro. She was spotted at the Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross beach volleyball match.
RATINGS: NBC's Thursday prime time, which featured gold-medal performances from American gymnast Simone Biles, swimmer Simone Manuel and, of course, Phelps, reached 31.2 million, the Nielsen company said. That was the second highest viewership of the Rio de Janeiro Games so far, and ticked up to 33 million when online streaming and NBCSN's prime-time telecast are added in. NBC still hasn't topped its record-setting London Games from 2012, however, which had 36.8 million for the corresponding night.
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Follow David Bauder at twitter.com/dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder
