Are we there yet?

Is that little sporting contest in Beijing over yet?

Can the Australian free-to-air networks who are not broadcasting the damn thing return to normal programming yet??

Can someone PLEASE explain to me why the Channel Nines and the Channel Tens of the world INSIST on thinking every single Australian superglue-sets their TV to the Olympics for their ENTIRE 16-day duration??

Question: Every single, god-forsaken four years when the Olympics rolls around, how often do we hear the whine of a large part of the population – a significant group of people who actually has no interest in the Games, who is happy to see the highlights on the news and who looks forward to some decent variety in their television viewing alternatives – lamenting the: length of the broadcast, the saturation coverage on major networks and the intense bore factor?

Answer: Constantly!

Question: Do forward-thinking, strategic, finger-on-the-pulse, inclusive, non-Olympic-broadcasters accept this and maintain their normal schedules accordingly, satisfied they are indeed doing a good deed tapping into the needs of their viewing public?

Answer: Hell, no!

This year in particular when certain people are making a deliberate choice to boycott the games on political/social conscience grounds, I would have thought this anti-Olympics group would have swelled more significantly in number…

It may be the summer Olympics, but non-sports fans are being left out in the cold.

It’s been a case of “The Olympics are on, nothing else is worth watching”.

That’s especially true of cerebral and thought-provoking offerings that have popped up as Olympics “competitors” like Dog the Bounty Hunter, WWF wresting Divas do tag team, the Dog Whisperer and the Man Who Lives With Bears.

And I’ll tell you something else.

As much as I enjoy So You Think You Can Dance, I don’t actually appreciate being bombarded with its brand of jingoistic booty-shaking THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW.

Jeez, guys, it’s feast or famine.

There have been repeats of Getaway (and Catriona was bad enough the first time around), repeats of Thank God You’re Here (zero surprises when contestants walk through the blue door) and repeats of any and every CSI ever made (if I see that one where the roller coaster goes off the tracks and they can’t figure out how a severed leg ended up in the boot of a car one more time – I will cut my own leg off!!)

And not only are we suddenly getting overrun with truly atrocious shows, our favourites have been put out to temporary pasture.

Neighbours is hanging in there, but the likes of Home and Away, Dexter, Heroes, Wipeout et al are all on temporary hiatus.

Channel Nine was particularly nasty. The premiere of its Hole in the Wall “human tetris” game show drew a remarkable 1.55 million viewers, but after just one taste, it was yanked off air with a promise of return after the goddamn Games.

Programming on non-Olympics networks has absolutely gone to pot.

All mouth-frothing aside, I am simply asking for the networks to stop generalising and to stop treating us all like fanatical sports nuts.

And, it must be said, this blog has come from a girl whose favourite three weekend things are footy, beer and Chicken Crimpies; who got goosebumps when Michael Bevan hit that four off the last ball to win that aweome one-dayer all those years ago and who regularly bursts into tears of pride at exceptional sporting achievements.

Call me crazy, but I just don’t want to be suffocated with the stuff, alright?

- REBECCA MARSHALL