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Oops: NBC Airs ‘Today’ Promo for Gold Medal Performance Before the Event Aired

Jul 31, 2012  •  Post A Comment

NBC mistakenly aired a promo for "Today" about Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin winning her first gold medal — but the event hadn’t yet been televised, reports The New York Times’ Media Decoder.

“When you’re 17 years old and win your first gold medal, there’s nobody you’d rather share it with,” the promotion Monday for the "Today" segment began. The problem was that NBC hadn’t yet aired the actual race. Because the network is using a tape delay to save events for prime time, the race was slated to air Monday night, the story notes.

As previously reported, many NBC viewers are irked by the network’s insistence on using a tape delay, a system devised in the 1960s as a way to ensure that the most popular sports air in prime time.

"[N]o spoiler was quite as embarrassing as the ‘Today’ slip-up,” The Times piece reports. “The short commercial shown on Monday night promoted to viewers of Tuesday’s ‘Today’ that they would be given the exclusive ‘live from London’ — one of the few instances when ‘live’ actually means it in this Olympics.”

One Comment

  1. Please – Franklin was news everywhere.
    Tape delay has been standard for every Olympics, people are just whining in a no patience, gotta have it now society.

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