NBC presents Olympics cornucopia
How do you get to Pyeongchang? Practice, Practice, Practice!
Mike Tirico and Katie Couric host coverage of the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games from Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium (8 p.m., NBC). If you’ve never heard of Pyeongchang, South Korea, you’re not alone. A fairly obscure place located near the divided peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone, it is often mixed up with North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang.
Olympics coverage always represents a mastery of logistics, and the broadcast of every new games has to top the last. If “broadcast” is the right word. NBC will offer more than 2,400 hours of sports coverage. That’s 1,000 days of “bingeing” if you’ve got the time.
More than 1,800 hours will live-stream on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app across desktops, mobile devices, tablets and connected TVs. Note, you’ve got to “authenticate” your cable subscription to access this all-you-can-eat buffet of skiing, skating, snowboarding, hockey and curling.
The sheer abundance of coverage is representative of the television age we’ve entered. Time was, people quibbled about the games not being “live.” In the streaming age, viewers aren’t so concerned with the “now” of things, but the quantity of viewing opportunities.
To present its Olympics cornucopia, NBC will use more than 700 cameras and 89 commentators. To capture every moment of competition, NBC will use 2,200 terabytes of video disk storage, capable of filing away eight and a half years’ worth of events. And I thought people were crazy for keeping all of those videotapes of their kids’ soccer games.
UNDENIABLY FUNNY
An actor and comedian celebrates 30 years in the business with the stand-up special “Eddie Griffin: Undeniable” (10 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA). Along the way, he praises and impersonates his personal mentors and heroes, including Charlie Murphy, Bernie Mac, Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor.
Griffin (“Undercover Brother” and “John Q”) will appear in the forthcoming film “A Star Is Born” with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. TV fans may recall his co-starring role in the UPN sitcom “Malcolm & Eddie” that premiered way back in 1996.
JACKPOT REAL ESTATE
Is it just me, or do the most boring sentences begin with the phrase, “When I win the lottery …”? HGTV adds real-estate envy and voyeurism to the mix to present “My Lottery Dream Home” (9 p.m., TV-G), now entering its fourth season.
GEORGE AND DAVE
Streaming today on Netflix, the monthly talk show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman” invites George Clooney.
HIP-HOP MURDERS
Ice-T and Soledad O’Brien host an investigation into the unsolved murders of hip-hop legends on the two-hour special “Who Shot Biggie & Tupac?” (8 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-14) from last September. Not to be confused with A&E’s “Who Killed Tupac?” special from last November. Or “Tupac: A Hollywood Murder,” which Reelz aired last June.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› Linus pines for Miss Othmar in the 1975 special “Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-G), followed by the 2002 special “A Charlie Brown Valentine,” produced after the death of “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz in 2000.
› Rebecca’s practical phase proves short-lived on “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” (8 p.m., CW, TV-14).
› A juvenile panel saves the day on the season finale of “Child Support” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Enraged by his wife’s flirtatious behavior with others, a reformed bad boy becomes a “Bride Killa” (9 p.m., ID, TV-14).
› Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg and Paloma Faith appear on “The Graham Norton Show” (10 p.m., BBC America, TV-14).