NBC halts Olympics to promote animal show
The Who guitarist Pete Townsend, right, and singer Roger Daltrey perform during the Closing Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Monday, Aug. 13, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
This undated image released by NBC shows Justin Kirk portraying George Coleman in a scene from the pilot episode of "Animal Practice." Sneak peeks of NBC's new prime-time schedule will piggyback on network coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. The unveiling will begin with commercial-free sneak previews of NBC's new comedies "Go On" on Aug. 8, after the evening's Olympics coverage, and of "Animal Practice" on Aug. 12, following the Olympics' Closing Ceremonies. (AP Photo/NBC, Neil Jacobs)
NEW YORK >> Viewers were seeing red after NBC cut away from its coverage of the Olympics closing ceremony to hype a sitcom featuring a monkey.
After the previously scheduled preview of “Animal Practice” aired at 10 p.m. Sunday night, followed by local news, NBC returned at midnight to finish with an eight-minute medley by The Who.
Then host Bob Costas delivered an Olympics postscript before signing off after just 35 minutes in all.
Twitter lit up with complaints.
Disgruntled viewer Nina L. Diamond seemed to speak for many. She tweeted that, thanks to this kind of monkey business, NBC has made itself even less popular than Congress.
Meanwhile, viewers feeling duped might have noted a musical omission by The Who, which skipped this classic hit: “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
