NBC is flipping out for more gymnastics: The network and cable partner Universal Sports have inked a deal with USA Gymnastics to carry the sport's biggest events through 2012, the Associated Press reports.
The pact secures the fifth major Olympic sport for NBC, which also has broadcast rights to key events in swimming, skating, track and skiing. The U.S. gymnastics championships, featuring ...
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Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin is an expert on the gymnastic mats, but she'll be flexing her acting muscles next. The gymnast is set to appear as herself in a "substantial" way on an episode of Gossip Girl later this fall, her agent, Evan Morgenstein, confirmed to TVGuide.com.Morgenstein explained that the story behind Liukin's guest role on the CW series was almost as exciting as her win in the all-around competition in Beijing. Gossip producers contacted the 18-year-old after hearing her tell Ryan Seacrest on his radio program that the show is her favorite. That night, producers ran into her at an L.A. restaurant and set up a meeting to talk shop. The next thing she knew, Liukin was set to shoot on location in New York, most likely in mid-October. Her scenes are currently in development.Gossip's Upper East Side is just the latest TV landing pad for recent Olympians. The Secret Life of the American Teenager got Liukin's teammate, Shawn Johnson, as a guest star for its mid-seas...
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For its 23rd (!) season premiere, The Oprah Winfrey Show will be paid a visit by more than 150 U.S. Olympic team members.The guest list includes gold medalists such as Michael Phelps (who has become about as omnipresent as Eddie Cibrian on ABC), Nastia Liukin, volleyball queens Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, and hoops stars Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Lisa Leslie and Dwayne Wade (who always cracked me up on A Different World).As reported by the AP, the episode tapes Wednesday at Chicago's Millennium Park (to air Sept. 8) and is fancied as a both a "welcome home celebration" for the athletes as well as a showcase for the Windy City, which is among the candidates to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. By noon Saturday, the line of Oprah and Olympic athlete fans hoping to nab one of the 2,000 free tickets up for grabs stretched several blocks. — Matt Mitovich
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The other night, NBC ran a cute piece toward the end of its prime-time broadcast—which means it probably aired somewhere around midnight—about how people are battling sleep deprivation thanks to how late we’re all staying up to watch the Olympics each night. Somehow I was awake to watch it—although someone in the office told me they saw the piece repurposed at another time, so who knows when I saw it; it’s all a blur.The point being that when big Olympics events are live, as they were the first week of the games with Michael Phelps’ awesome miniseries-like laps of swimming history and the team gymnastics competitions, there’s an undeniable thrill watching them unfold in real time, no matter how late it goes. (I groaned one night last week upon realizing the women’s gymnastics weren’t starting until 11:10 pm/ET, but I stayed glued until well past 1 in the morning. No regrets.)But this week it’s a different story, and it boils down to ...
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It came down to the last event of womens gymnastics but Shawn Johnson finally is an Olympic champion The West Des Moines Iowa teen had a stellar balance beam routine to win the event ahead of her teammate all-around champ Nastia Liukin 1622516025 She looks like a kid on the best of Christmas mornings Al Trautwig said of her magical smile at the medal ceremony Johnson was one of the biggest gold-medal hopes coming into Beijing so it was a disappointment to win only three silvers team individual and floor exercise While some might consider this gold to be huge redemption for the reigning world champion she says shes proud of all her medals I would never trade one of my silvers for gold What I went through to get them is very special to me and really touched my heartOn the other end of the scale American mens gymnast Jonathan Horton was considered something of an underdog But after leading the US to team bronze he capped his Games T
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