CBC vs. NBC Rio coverage

Every Olympics has its share of winners and losers. At the 2016 Rio Summer Games, however, many seem to be in the broadcast booth.

It may be the rise of social media, but Games gaffes are almost as big a story in Rio as the medal counts. Angry tweets are flying faster than Usain Bolt.

Nobody has felt the wrath of the Twitter gods more than Elliotte Friedman. The "Hockey Night in Canada" broadcaster was a welcome voice during the first week's swimming competition, providing the same apt mix of facts and timely commentary that hockey fans cherish.

Last Thursday, however, Friedman was fried on Twitter after confusing U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps with pool rival Ryan Lochte during the 200-metre individual medley final. He quickly corrected himself and apologized on Twitter but received Trump-like traffic from American viewers who either happened to see the gaffe live on CBC or later caught it on the web.

Mistakes happen and they happen on both sides of the broadcast border. Canadians winced when an NBC commentator briefly identified our bronze medal sprinter Andre De Grasse as being from France (the commentator immediately corrected himself).

NBC is also frequently criticized for failing to carry more events live, especially for Games played more-or-less within the same time zones. CBC, for instance, was faster to show U.S. gymnastic sensation Simone Biles win gold in vault Sunday night than in her home country.

Canadian viewers get impatient too when our broadcasters don't get access to our athletes first following a big event. After De Grasse lunged for that bronze Sunday in the 100-metre sprint showcase, it was 20 minutes before Scott Oake got to the Toronto runner. The public broadcaster showed De Grasse talking to reporters from ESPN and others while Oake held off viewers with, "we'll be talking to him in 10 minutes."

Oake didn't waste time when he finally got to De Grasse, asking him to "take us through the greatest 9.91 seconds of your life." De Grasse saluted his mother Beverley, saying he always carries her inspiration "in my heart and take it to the track."

CBC does not have the resources of NBC, so their packaged, pre-event profiles — while generally pretty good — are not as elaborate. It's hard to compete with scenes of Bob Costas hanging with Usain Bolt in Jamaica, gushing that the World's Fastest Man oozed "showmanship," before cutting to a clip of U.S. President Barack Obama striking the famous Bolt finger-pointing pose.

And NBC's wood and stone set does look grander than the generic morning show partition CBC calls home base at Rio.

But despite smaller budgets, the CBC did shine during Sunday night's big event.

Prime-time host Scott Russell wears his years of Olympic coverage well. The veteran CBC sports host wisely allowed commentator and former gold medalist Donovan Bailey to seize the moment for the sprint. Russell and Bailey both ditched their reading glasses, leaned in and delivered great insight.

All the CBC on-field commentators shone as well during the big race, with Oake, Michael Smith and David Moorcroft setting the stage and working the race gaffe-free. At Rio, that in itself deserves some kind of a medal.

Other notes:

— NBC tends to over-cook their coverage, scanning the stands for celebrities — such as their own "Saturday Night Live" star and super fan Leslie Jones, who was cheering on the U.S. beach volleyball team from the sidelines Sunday evening.

— More offensive to Canadians of all ages seems to be NBC's American booster-ism. Does NBC, we sometimes ask, even know there are other countries in the hunt? The Americans did, however, put down their flags long enough to capture and comment on the pure, tearful joy the hometown Brazilian men's team capturing silver and bronze during Sunday's gymnastic competition.

— CBC seems to be trying to piggyback on the surge in social media with their Rio on the Edge clips, a sponsored segment featuring ski and snowboard specialists Philippe Marquis and Craig McMorris capturing Brazil on their phones. For this dad and taxpayer, however, Rio on the Edge has "how can we get the kids to watch" written all over it.

— Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.