As the Winter Games have historically been a ratings challenge to engaging a robust US audience, the sharp decline in viewership for Thursday’s opening ceremonies on the Korean Peninsula, was an expected development that in some cases was embraced.
The plunge in the numbers can be attributed directly to the frosty diplomatic climate between North Korea and South Korea and the US, as well as the disturbing legacy established during the 2014 Sochi games, which unveiled an abundance of corruption, doping, fraudulent cost overruns in the billions, and the ineffectual governing methods of the International Olympic Committee.
Of course, the true victims in this Dennis Rodmanesque drone infused chaotic middling production of disingenuous political battle for prestige, are the amateur competitors, who in certain and brutal cases better return home with a medal or else…
Though rumors swirling around the Olympic village claiming that Kim Jong Un’s minions and athletes were brandishing sleek body hugging uniforms, which feature the regime’s colors highlighted by a red aerodynamic and stark ballistic missile shape on the left shoulder could not be substantiated, the proximity of the demilitarized zone, a mere 55 miles to the North of Pyeongchang, has cast a sobering and despondent shadow on the festive and celebratory mood of the mountain resort town. This baleful tension has only been enhanced by frigid weather conditions as temperatures, like the broadcast ratings, have fallen to record lows.
Deadline.com shares a complete dissection of just how detached American audiences to the selection of events, which includes the riveting competitive edge of ice dancing, and the dare-devil speed and intrigue of cross-country skiing. Add the underwhelming mixture the hypocrisy of a wretched politicized duct tape attempt at temporarily unifying the Korean Peninsula, and Bob Costas’s toupee transforming into a biological substance, and the stage is set for an epic Cinderella downfall, as the clock strikes midnight the next day.
Read the Deadline.com article here.
