You may recall that life used to be simple. Even watching the Olympics was a breeze.
We just watched the one network, which decided when and what we’d see. Most of the events had already happened, but we didn’t know the results. We thought we were happy.
Now that’s changed and the Winter Olympics (shown here from 2022), on Feb. 6-22, bring dizzying choices. There are four channels; there’s live and not. Even the opening ceremony airs three times.
Not to worry. We’ll offer the specifics for one category (figure skating) and an overview for the others. First, some background:
Things are simple enough when the Olympics are in our time zone. When they were in Canada or Atlanta, NBC could show much of it live.
But the time zones get tricky. Italy is six hours ahead of New York … and nine hours ahead of Los Angeles. Some early figure-skating rounds — even before the opening ceremony — will start at 4 a.m. Friday ET, 1 a.m. PT.
In the old days, networks would simply spare us the trouble. They would record everything live, then rearrange it for convenience. We watched the 1980 “miracle on ice” hockey game or the 1991 Nancy-Tonya-Oksana figure-skating, mostly unaware of the results hours earlier.
All of that began to fall apart with the rise of the internet, sports radio and more. Lately, NBC has compromised: It will show everything live — then repackage it all for prime time (8-11 p.m.), just like the old days. Also, its streaming service (Peacock) has multiple ways to see anything.
Complicating things are other sports events; NBC will be tied up with the Super Bowl preview and game (noon to about 10:30 p.m. ET Feb. 8) and with pro basketball’s All-Star weekend (5-8 p.m. ET, Feb. 14-15).
That’s where cable’s USA Network comes in handy. While NBC is in the middle of its Super Bowl preview, USA will have three finals in the team portion of figure-skating — pairs at 1:30 p.m. ET, women, 2:45; men, 3:55.
On other days, they’ll split. USA will have the early skaters (seeded at the bottom and unlikely to be up for medals), then NBC will finish.
Here are key details, first for figures and then for the rest. All times are ET and are subject to change:
FIGURE SKATING
— Friday (before the opening ceremony). The team portion begins, with skaters doing their short programs. It’s ice dancers at 4 a.m., pairs at 5:35 and women at 7:35, all on USA. NBC has the key parts at noon, 12:30 and 1 p.m.,
— Saturday: The men have their short program at 1:45 p.m.; the ice dancers have their finals at 4. Both are on NBC,
— Sunday: Now it’s the team-portion finals for the others, with medals awarded. Pairs are 1:30 p.m.; women, 2:45, men, 3:55. All are on USA, while NBC talks football.
— Monday: The non-team part begins with ice dancers at 1:20 p.m. on USA; NBC takes over from 2:40.to 5 p.m.
— Tuesday: Men’s short program — 12:30 p.m., USA; 1:45 to 5, NBC.
— Wednesday: Ice dancers have their free-dance finale and medals– 1:30 p.m., USA; 2:15 to 5, NBC.
— Friday (Feb. 13): Men’s finals and medals, 1 p.m., USA; 3-5 p.m., NBC.
— Feb. 15: Pairs short program, 1:45 p.m., USA; 3-5 p.m., NBC.
— Feb. 16: Pairs finals and medals, 2 p.m., USA; 3:55 to 5, NBC.
— Feb. 17: Women’s short program, 12:45, USA; 2:40-5, NBC.
— Feb. 19: Women’s finals and medals, 1-5 p.m., NBC.
— Feb. 21: Gala, when the skaters can go for fun and for show, without any rules or judges. It’s on NBC at 2:55 and 3:40.
IN GENERAL (NBC)
— On opening day (Friday, Feb. 6), it starts coverage at noon, has the opening ceremony live from 2-5 p.m., then repeats it from 8-11 p.m. and (after Jimmy Fallon) at 12:38 a.m.
— After that, it repackages each day, from 8-11 p.m., then has more at 11:30. (The exception is Sunday, when the repackaging starts after the Super Bowl, at about 10:30 p.m.)
— On weekdays, it has live coverage from noon to 5 p.m. (except Feb. 16, when it starts at 10 a.m.).
— The first weekend is live from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday; 7 a.m. to noon on Sunday. On the second weekend, things wind down. That’s 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21 and more on the 22nd, including the closing ceremony at 2:30 p.m., rerunning at 9.
OTHERS
— USA Network and Peacock are basically all-day. CNBC is 5-8 p.m. weekdays, 5-11 p.m. Sundays.
— The full Olympic schedule is at www.olympics.com; you can Google it for a specific sport.
— The NBC, USA and CNBC schedules are available on several sites, including TV Insider, TV Passport and tvguide.com/listings.