DY: In Just a Few Words (#50)

Construction on our home course begins next week.

I don’t know about you, but I was sad to see the Olympics end this summer, even though I thought the Games were a bit of a yawner - the lack of spectators and the ever present conversation about athletes testing positive for COVID didn’t help. I felt very sorry for the under-appreciated competitors and their families that couldn’t attend to watch them. And I felt sorry for NBC having shelled out multi billions of U.S. dollars to televise this event.

CNN reported TV viewership for the Tokyo Olympics was down 45% from Rio. I saw another source that said 49%. That’s not good if you’re NBC and the advertisers who paid a fortune to be featured on your network. Who knows? Maybe those numbers are conservative and the damage may be even more severe. Let me just be polite and say the 2020 (2021) Olympics lacked energy. Thank you, COVID. It certainly did not help that Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of New York and we often learned of results before we saw an event.

All this got me thinking that perhaps we should consider re-inventing an Olympics format that will be so exciting it will compel viewers to tune in. Maybe the International Olympics Committee can learn a thing or two from a TV show we have on at our house on Monday night. Do you ever watch American Ninja Warrior? That’s an NBC property that is really compelling, at least for my Golden Age wife who thought the Olympics were boring. She basically didn’t watch the Olympics, but get out of her way Monday night when the Ninjas do their thing. That’s her time, too.

I used to tell her she was a couch potato, but American Ninja Warrior has turned her life around. She now has a full-on training schedule, filled with sessions like “Cardio Drumming”, “Zumba” and just plain old “Cardio” - not to mention her aquatic training all summer at the pool. American Ninja Warrior may just be the TV equivalent of the Fountain of Youth. I can actually envision Karen flying through the air from apparatus to apparatus, knowing a single mistake could cause her to end up in the pool below. What an embarrassment that would be.

As the training schedule progresses, we may soon be setting up an American Ninja Warrior course - Seniors Division - in the lower level of our house. And, once Karen has worked her way through local and regional qualifying events, her American Ninja Warrior finals destination will be a short three-hour plane ride to Las Vegas where she can party like the animal she is - not a brutal 13 hours in the air to Tokyo to be quarantined in a hotel room with a glass of milk.

Bye-bye Olympics. Hello American Ninja Warrior. Thanks for re-energizing America’s senior citizens. I am up for being a Ninja. I’d get a lot more respect from my neighbors and golfing buddies.

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DY: In Just a Few Words is a blog that comes out when something needs to be said or every Tuesday - whichever comes first. Davis Young is a communications professional who adds 50+ years of experience and perspective to issues of the day. His emphasis in DY: In Just a Few Words will be humor (a touch of sarcasm here, a pinch of facetiousness there...). Once in a while, he will touch on something a bit more serious - but hopefully not too deep or depressing.

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