NBC Didn't Think You Could Handle Zou Kai's Horizontal Bar Score Live or on Tape-Delay

NBC has been taking a beating online for refusing to show events live on television as they take place while they have been rewarded with record numbers during primetime, tape-delayed broadcasts of events that have been over for hours. People that sit home and blog for a living are the loudest critics while people with desk jobs wish those people would just shut up. There is never an argument the Olympics should be shown on tape-delay, just that it doesn’t affect that many people and NBC has the right to show the Olympics how they want.

The one thing you would probably want NBC to do is put on a decent tape-delayed broadcast. Unsurprisingly, they can’t even do that right. Last night they advertised a Today Show segment with gold medal winner Missy Franklin before they actually showed Missy Franklin winning the gold medal.

During the men’s gymnastics competition, they spent a good amount of time talking about what a difficult routine China’s Zou Kai was attempting on the horizontal bar. One of the commentators even said that Kai was attempting a horizontal bar routine with the highest possible score he had ever seen. Kai went on to pretty much nail his routine and NBC went to a commercial break without ever telling anyone his score. They came back from commercial and Zou Kai was never mentioned again.

It turns out that he scored a 16.400 on the horizontal bar. In order to find that out, you had to go on the Internet and look it up. That’s just what 80-year-old grandmothers in flyover states want to do right? NBC can’t even do a solid tape-delay broadcast. Zou Kai had the highest score of any gymnast in any event last night and NBC couldn’t even show the score. Not that it matters. America got to see Justin Bartha bouncing a baby on a couch instead and that’s what really matters to NBC.

Previously: NBC Olympic Coverage Critic Guy Adams Had Twitter Account Suspended
Previously: NBC Execs Think You Should Stop Whining About a Tape-Delay, and Live Stream Issues Are Your Fault
Previously: NBC Claims Opening Ceremony Was Too “Complex” to Stream Live