Was The Who not part of the show proper? I kept waiting for them to show up, then NBC said it was over and aired a preview of some fall comedy they're promoting. I kept it on with the sound off. When I looked up from the computer later, suddenly there was The Who. It seemed to be some after party, which I failed to hear mentioned on NBC. WTF?
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/olympics-london-closing-ceremony-animal-practice-361210Olympics 2012: NBC Criticized
for Interrupting Closing Ceremony
to Preview 'Animal Practice'Surprised viewers also took the network to task
for editing out parts of the ceremony, including
performances by Muse and Ray Davies of the Kinks.by THR Staff
12:40 AM PDT 8/13/2012 
Some Olympics fans found yet another reason to be unhappy with
NBC on Sunday night.
The network edited out parts of the Closing Ceremony -- including performances by
Muse's
Matt Bellamy, Ray Davies of
The Kinks and a second song by
George Michael -- and then at 11 p.m. abruptly cut away to show a preview of the new comedy
Animal Practice. Before the commercial break, announcer
Bob Costas told viewers:
"That concludes the Closing Ceremony. We'll be back to wrap things up after this." After the break, he then revealed that the remainder of the ceremony, which the network billed as a "closing party," would actually air an hour later, following a sneak preview of
Animal Practice and local news.
"We'll be back from Olympic Stadium in about an hour for the London closing party, featuring
The Who," he said. "Stay tuned now for a full episode of
Animal Practice, a new NBC comedy, presented commercial-free."
The move surprised and frustrated some viewers, including
Glee star
Kevin McHale, who tweeted:
"DEAR NBC. Interrupting the Olympic closing ceremony for an hr to air a show about a fictional animal dr. before it ends is a disgrace. Shame on you." And the
Robot Chicken account noted,
"Doing a Twitter search for 'Animal Practice' right now is like tapping a keg of pure hate." While some people on Twitter praised the show, many others weren't happy about NBC's scheduling decision.
Tweeted
Ski Vegas,
"#NBCFail #AnimalPractice is now the most hated show in America before the first episode. Amazing." Added another named
Lawrence Escamilla:
"I may not be a The Who fan, but cutting them off to show terrible Animal Practice is just another thing to add to the #NBCfail list." NBC has been criticized throughout the Games for its decision to show the events on tape delay, sparking the creation of the Twitter hashtag
#NBCFail. The Animal Practice preview also came about an hour after DirecTV went dark in Los Angeles for a half-hour during the Closing Ceremony, meaning some subscribers missed several of the show's performances. The satcaster cited a technical issue at its broadcast center for the outage.
