Summer of Sports '24: An Appreciation for the Best in the Biz

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

All Photos: My Own, from both Thanksgiving 2014 and DC Snapchat

For most of the time on here over the past ten years, DCBLOG has dedicated time, resources and effort to cover the world of MTV Reality TV, and becoming a gold standard in covering The Challenge and so many other shows that I watch as both an avid fan as well as one who's covered it for the passion project that you're seeing here. But one of the key aspects of how I've gotten to cover this world for this long is actually something that comes from a surprise source... so much so, it is actually one of the small handful of content I am most comfortable in along with those guilty pleasures -- one that was been on my mind for two weeks we got to experience this summer, and for which gave us that good feeling inside of watching the world's very best.

Sports represents one of my four biggest passions (along with music, Las Vegas and our primary beat - for which a new season of it just began), and one that's been embedded in my blood since I was a kid growing up as a '90s kid. In this case, the facet of how things operate on this site doesn't come from a particular favorite pro team -- not even the Bay Area teams that I passionately follow, but from of all things -- a company that covers the action at the venues as both an observer and as a giant in its field. And here, they also happen to share the same vision and philosophy that I have with these posts: creating quality work and telling great stories like those they got to tell from that event.

And for one who would only read a book provided that it would fall into any of the big four subjects above, last year I discovered that I could buy those same books I love to read in an eBook form and not have to worry about filling up the library in my room as much. There, the first digital book I've ever purchased was from the man who helped create a dynasty in sports media... and where his influence was felt on the only time in my life that I spent at least part of the one holiday every year where the feeling of family is most prevalent. And that's only the start to an appreciation for the best in the sports media biz -- one that's taken a full decade for this story to marinate until its publication ten years later.

Summer of Sports '24 - Inside The Biggest TV Event of All

BY DC CUEVA 

■ linktr.ee/dc408dxtr

If you know me personally or through social media, it's no secret that for these two weeks or so you'll have to get used to me being crazy about that one event I look forward to more than any other in the sports world. For 17 days every two years, fans, viewers and an entire world come together to watch the excitement, human drama and the spectacle that is the Olympic Games... and we are at the halfway point of its latest version in Paris, France amidst so much anticipation for what could be the most memorable Olympiad ever -- one that has had the world buzzing since it began even before the Opening Ceremony.

A tweet years ago by longtime TV medical correspondent, Bay Area native Dr. Nancy Schneiderman sums it up: "More people watch The Olympics in the US than the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL combined. Amazing." From a broader standpoint, it's the only sports event with an equal viewership ratio split of 50-50 among both genders, and both the Summer & Winter Games are one of three major sporting events on U.S. television (the Kentucky Derby the other) to regularly have a larger ratio of viewers among women than men. And considering the enormous interest in women's sports in the past year being coupled with so many storylines coming in, a record viewing audience is anticipated for Paris 2024.

Like many other sporting properties - unlike most other TV programming, The Olympics is one that brings families & friends together: both those who are avid sports fans like myself, and those casual viewers who might not know everything about sports but are suddenly thrust into it all just by the pure spectacle. This includes those who might not be into football & historically preferred Downton Abbey or the Puppy Bowl than the game (but who were drawn in by the romance of the world's biggest pop star and a tight end), but are into gymnastics, figure skating and the athletes' most inspiring stories. In fact, the Olympics typically is the only event that come close to the NFL as far as TV ratings & viewership go in the fragmented television landscape... and no matter the country, Olympic broadcast rights are among the most-coveted anywhere in the media world.

But when you go inside the broadcast operations either inside the International Broadcast Center or at the respective venues, there's so much more to what viewers see on television, on radio, on their computer and on their mobile device. It's the finished product to as much as seven years' worth of planning, four years of preparation and hard work by thousands of people working for both the host broadcaster, Olympic Broadcasting Services, and the respective rights holding broadcasters from countries around the world. Their mission: capture the power, strength, speed, skill and spirit of competition at its best; tell the stories of athletes who most might not know but out of nowhere become the most well-known people in the world; and to provide viewers the best seat in the house, thanks to the most complex and dynamic broadcast operation anywhere.

Summer of Sports Winter Edition: My Olympic Obsession

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Last year -- just as it was in 2015, DCBLOG devoted a series of posts to covering the world of sports to coincide with last summer's pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympic Games. In addition to covering the finale of Season 2 of MTV's The Challenge All-Stars this weekend -- during this month of February and continuing into the month of March as well, we're offering a special Winter Edition of "Summer of Sports" to cover not only the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics, but also Super Bowl LVI which takes place this weekend in Los Angeles following the expanded 17-game NFL regular season and historic conference playoffs, as well as the traditional slate of big sports events of the year's first quarter.

If you know me from the social sphere, then it's likely that you know that I have four principal passions of mine: MTV reality TV shows, music, Las Vegas and sports. And on the topic of the ladder, the consequences of the past couple years has been able to produce a packed schedule of sporting events: more overlap among the four major sports leagues, international soccer, golf and so much more.

But if you've been following me on @DC408Dxtr in the past seven months or so, then you know that the main event is ongoing... and it's the one event than I look forward to more than any other: the Olympic Games. What we're seeing right now is taking place in a shorter turnaround than it has been in three decades: two Olympics being held within the space of a calendar year -- once the norm when both the Summer and Winter Games were held in the same year until a '90s scheduling change separated them and have made the Olympics a more frequent happening taking place every two years.

For this sports fan who loves so many of the kinds of sports that don't get the mainstream exposure, Olympics time means that I get to become a super-fan whenever the calendar hits summer or winter in an even-numbered year -- or in this case, last July 20th followed by February 2nd over a week ago. Whatever the case -- and aside from few exceptions like working on this blog and getting sleep, over the past decade or so I have altered my schedule for the one and only thing that I consider getting to binge watch when I go into full Olympic mode. Both Tokyo and Beijing represent the latest installment of this obsession I have with the world's greatest sporting spectacle.