C(urling)NBC

I've spent a great deal of the last week and half watching the Olympic bonspiel. This year curling has been aired on the USA network, often live at either 5:00 AM (all times EST) or 8:00 AM, in the morning, and then a taped delayed match at 5:00 PM on CNBC, with sporadic extra matches on MSNBC.

I think I saw some of every match the US played, and so I watched more CNBC than I have, well probably since the 2002 Olympics, when I first saw curling. According to Stefan Fatsis on All Things Considered yesterday, I am not alone in this. The television ratings for the 5:00 PM curling on CNBC have been seven times that of whatever CNBC normally shows at that time slot! Why on earth do they not show more curling on CNBC?

Twice during the last week I have turned on my TV with it still on CNBC later in the evening after the curling was over to see this show Mad Money, which has been bumped from its normal 6:00 PM time slot until later for the Olympics. I had heard of this show and its crazy host Jim Cramer but had never seen it. It is pretty odd, with the yelling and the slamming of buttons to make the appropriate sound effects and the shameless plugging of his book by his callers, but I think what really caught my attention what how dynamic the show was. He paces around behind his desk telling us to buy, sell, or hold stocks, but more interesting is how the camera is never still. I don't know whether it's steadycam or it's on a crane, but it floats around this bald guy opines on which restraunt chains are hot stocks with animated bulls running across the screen. I don't plan on watching any more of it, but I must give it kudos for is cinematography.