Geez they couldn't even show the run after his interview. Lame friggin network.

If it was not for Chuck and the Olympics I wouldn't even watch this network.

oh hey, the savior of USA speedskating Stephen Colbert interviews with Costas next

Yeah, I saw that and pretty much yelled WTF?:cuss:

Why is Stephen Colbert on the Olympics?

My memory is that he gave the US Speedskating team a ton of money; he essentially kept the team solvent.

In so doing, he was made an honorary member of the team and has some kind of financial interest in it as well.

Its a really cool and long story. Around October or so, he wanted to start doing bits on the coming olympics for the Colbert Report show on Comedy Central, and they were trying to brainstorm a way to figure out how to work it in so early months in advance.

Meanwhile, a huge mega-bank in Europe, which was the big sponser of USA speedskating, suddenly had an old-fashion run on the bank, went bankrupt, and could not make a $300,000 sponsership payment that was due to USA speedskating. 3 months before the olympics, too soon to find another sponser, left high and dry, seemingly totally screwed. The USOC was scrambling to try to make up the shortfall to make sure the team made it to Vancouver, but some corners would have to be cut, maybe another sport which would have otherwise gotten aid would suffer.

Colbert, who for some odd reason just happened to always love speedskating, saw the story and jumped all over it. The Colbert Report called USA Speedskating and offered, not a guarantee, but their best effort to get the Colbert nation (the fans of the show) to donate. The head of USA speedskating went on the show and they actually signed an official sponsership agreement on the air. The old bank patches were removed from the uniforms, replaced by these big goofy-looking "Colbert Nation" patches on the speedskating helmets and legs. (only in world cup events, the olympics doesnt allow these sponsership decals).

In 4 days, fans of the show donated $75,000. They started selling these red Colbert Nation caps with the USA speedskating logo on the back, with 70% of all proceeds going to USA speedskating. (I bought one, I have the red Colbert Nation/Speedskating cap on the desk now) In about 2 weeks, the fans of the show raised $300,000. By the start of the olympics, they raised over $350,000, more than the speedskaters lost from their bankrupt sponser. (They now need to find a new permanent sponser, this is just a one-year gag/band-aid/bailout to get them through the olympics)

Colbert took advantage of the whole incredible situation with all these hilarious bits of him "trying out" for various olympic teams. The USOC was obviously grateful enough to play along as he tried luge, bobsled, curling, and finally tried to race Shani Davis with a massive head-start 90% of the way to the finish line. (he still got smoked by Davis)

Sports Illustrated liked the whole amazing story so much, they put him on the cover of SI in one of their olympic preview issues. The speedskating team officially makes him a member of the team as the assistant sports psychologist. Now he basically can go to the olympics and obviously wants to film for his show, but there's a problem: NBC has exclusive rights.

NBC obviously cant say no to Colbert after all this, they would look like total bastards. So, Ebersol went on the Colbert Report, gave him an NBC sweater-vest, and invited him to film speed-skating for a week for his show in Vancouver, if he would agree to an interview with Costas (which we just saw)

The End.

I think I read that the biggest sponsorship offered before him was for less than $100,000 dollars. So that extra publicity turned into quite a windfall for the sport. Cool story, for sure.

And he didn't even die in a fire. LMAO

oh, I forgot to mention, while Colbert was doing this and drawing all this attention from his ultra-valuable (to advertisers) young adult audience, a few new sponsers wanted in on the action. I guess Speedskating may have gotten some money from Dr. Pepper, Verizon, and Budweiser.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-feat...ontext=teamusa

http://www.nbcolympics.com/mm/photo/...367502_m03.jpg

http://www.nbcolympics.com/mm/photo/...368626_m03.jpg

They are doing Colbert again? Sports NBC. SPORTS!!!!!

Halfpipe qualifiers are one right now. Don't know if they will actually show the finals though.

They probably will if you stay up late at night.

This is a sport where with all these kids doing weird dizzying flips you usually cant tell the difference between some guy doing a hard trick or an amazingly hard trick, they all look like mental cases to me. You only know that someone screwed up when they fall.

Except Shaun White. He was so clearly, obviously better than everyone else, a half-blind grandmother would say "why arent those other young men jumping as high as that red-head kid?"

Hell his straight jumps are almost more impressive than his tricks. The air he gets is unbelievable.:eek:

Shaun is the man...he is the jordan of half pipe

Halfpipe finals up next for those of us that missed it.

FYP

HOLY CRAP!!!

Women's downhill was fun to watch. Lot's of ladies eating da snow.

Yeah, what's the deal with these olympics? It seems like there have been lots and lots of spills and crashes.

Poor snow conditions.
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Lindsey Vonn was amazing last night. She won a Gold medal with a bad ankle on a hill that was eating skiers alive. Not only is she ridiculously talented, she's f**king smoking-hot. I would the hole... and the other hole, and the other hole, and then go back to the first one.

And, looking at Shaun White off the snow, I didn't get what the big deal was... until I watched him in action last night.

Americans are back on top of the medals, I think. Now it's time for curling on USA, although I'll have to flip back and forth to keep up on the Austin TX plane crash on CNN....

AND SHUSTER F**KS UP AGAIN, AND THE USA GOES TO 0-4 IN CURLING, ONCE AGAIN SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY!! ROFL

This guy's gonna be even more hated than Matt Cassel. :D

Switched to NBC. The Japanese snowboarding chick is hot. Wish they didn't have 'em all covered up though. How about bikini snowboarding?

Holy crap. Hot Japanese chick snowboarding, and I think they just said she's THIRTY-FIVE? Scha-wing!

I think Hannah Teter just flashed us her plumber's crack in midair. NTTAWWT, I'm just disappointed I'm not at home with the HDTV to pause and go back to see...

Snowboarding chicks are going down left and right, like the skiers were yesterday.

Schuster will be the face of choke for a while.

CNBC.

Women's Curling: USA vs. Denmark.

Danish curling chicks: fappalicious.

LMAO

http://withleather.uproxx.com/2010/0...mer#more-27173

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Did I hear the announcer say the two thin blond Danish curlers are sisters? Good Lord. fapfapfapfapfap....

I think we should all take up curling. We can't play any worse than the f**king men's and women's U.S. Olympic teams. They're now a combined 0-7.

Ooh, Japanese female curlers. Yum.

Now they've cut to Russia and Great Britain and, true to form, the curling chicks are smoking. Geez, I think I might have to find some curling rinks... Oh, well, time to stop drooling and switch from CNBC to NBC.

Watching more women's downhill, nice and sunny so I assume this is all tape-delay from earlier but luckily I'm apparently the only one in this thread so no one has said how it turns out. Vonn just had her run, it's amazing how effortless she makes it look even with the bad ankle. She's a decent-sized girl and apparently uses larger skis which help. The U.S. chick who finished second to her yesterday was in the lead until Vonn skiied... that must be disheartening, always being second-fiddle even when Vonn has a bum ankle.

Watching the German chick now, it's funny how hard they all make it look compared to Vonn. Their skis chatter, their legs bounce up and down...

Shaun White is just so damn likeable.

He somehow manages to keep that quirky charm while still coming across as thoughtful, intelligent and articulate.

Vonn strikes me as someone that might be a bit cosmopolitan and aloof. It seems like her teammates give her the appropriate amount of polite exuberance, but it doesn't seem like they really like her. Vonn hangs out with the German chick the whole time in what looks a kinda cliquish little group.

Mancuso is the opposite. It seems like her teammates really pull for her, she seems like she's more incorporated with the group.

And of course I could be absolutely wrong, just an observation.

I'm not sure if I've said this here before, but I really hope that ABC/ESPN win away the rights to the Olympics in the next round of bidding. NBC's coverage drives me crazy.

These results were all ruined for me long ago. Let someone who gives a shit about sports carry this.

Women's halfpipe F'ing blows.

It's like watching men's halfpipe if they only allowed 12 year olds compete.

Damn, women's halfpipe stinks right now. They really need to do the mens after the womens.

And for those not wanting to watch women's half pipe, turn on CNBC to watch Canada struggle with the Swiss.

No kidding.

Someone probably should've seen this coming.

It's like having Led Zeppelin open for a garage band.

Jonas Hiller made 3 incredible saves in the last 5 minutes that prevented this from being 5-2 at the end of regulation. Should never have got to a shootout, but Canada pulled through. Crosby FTW.

Despite all the chicks falling on the pipe worse than a desperate crack whore, the Americans managed to take silver and bronze.

Now it's men's figure skating. Schplendid!

http://bmj2k.files.wordpress.com/201...rd_simmons.jpg

Apparently that guy is about as badass as one can be figure skating.

I have no idea what the hell I just watched.

I've left the TV on NBC but have basically ignored it. Whenever I've looked up, it looked like a gay pride parade. NTTAWWT. But, personally, I just don't find male ice skating to be even remotely interesting. All the flaming outfits and hand moves and makeup.... Yeesh. Hell, even ballet dancers and Cirque du Soleil dudes have to have ridiculous muscle control and don't have to dress like ABBA tribute-band members...

Don't worry unless it made your taint tingle. :D

It is really weird how being a male figure skater means you must pick awful music and dress like a homosexual.

well, I dont know much about figure skating, but apparently from what the experts said, that was the absolute best Lysecek could do. They basically said he's simply not capable of doing better than that, it was the best skate of his career.

The only ability the defending olympic champ russian has on him is the quad jump, but our world champion did so well that Plushenko basically has to skate perfect to win gold.

Is it just me or is it hilarious that the Russian guy who rules at this has a mullet and a huge nose?

He's like a homo Triple H.

With a little Geddy Lee thrown in, too.

Takahashi coming up next to try to sneak into the gold medal, then we'll have comic relief with our flaming gay skater, then itll be the evil Russian with a mullet.

Theres a certain old school mentality i think in the figure skating community that you must perform a certain way.

I honestly think if they had a straight skater who bucked the system and tried more manly moves with rock music, he would be outcast.

Well, so much for that. Asian checkerboard cowboy is done

Didn't the USA have one of those back in the 90's? Actually I think we had two of them at the same time. Can't remember their names at all though.

Sounds like a good South Park skit.

They'd probably give you a really shitty score.

"Sorry, you're just not gay enough"? ROFL Is that reverse discrimination?

This guy looks like a homosexual fan of the Cure.

BEHOLD! The sheer, powerfully overwhelming gayness of Johnny Weir!

NTTAWWT

Oh, dear Lord, you're right.

It took me a couple of stares to determine if it was a flat-chested chick or a guy. Yikes.

Seriously Johnny Weir looks like a borderline transsexual that loves Robert Smith.

everything he wears is a total chick skating outfit, minus the skirt. Everything.

You know, if he went to Europe and got the lopitoffomy, he might not make a bad-lookin' chick. Kinda has that Anne Heche thing going on. ;)

ok, getting away from the "oh haha he's gay!" for a second, with Takahashi's big fall the bronze has fallen well into reach, so he removed the quad. Just needs a solid skate to medal.

Yes, exactly. That sort of thing is my main critisism of skating. Too much opinion.

Maybe a little Tilda Swinton thing going on there, too.

Yes, but that could be said of most of the judging in the Olympics. A lot of it is very subjective.

oh God, that rose crown

ROFL

Nice hat of roses.

That guy got hosed, even figure skating judges don't like the flamboyantly gay.

5th place. Should've left the quad in, apparently.

FALL you Russian bastard!

It amuses me that this mullet guy talks like he's a badass, you're a ****ing figure skater man.

I'd have to agree. As far as that kinda thing goes, he seemed to do a pretty good job and deserved a higher score.

Plus, he kinda had a nice ass.

Oh, crap, did I say that last part out loud? I was only thinking it. Never mind, move along, nothing to see here...

"You better watch it, man. I'll cut you." :::giving Mecca the stink-eye and threateningly raising one skated leg...:::

well, unless he screws up, that is probably the gold. Then, 4 more years till we have to care about this at all again.

I think it's kind of ridiculous when a guy that literally fell right on his face gets a higher score than a guy who doesn't.

I'm reading elsewhere that Johnny Weir apparently had a very easy program and never had a chance even if he did it absolutely perfect.