I grew up in the 1970s and 80s. Back then we only had four channels, and if the president was on, you were screwed. Good luck finding out if Charo was the secret guest on Fantasy Island, or what happened to Arnold in the back room of the bicycle shop. Nope; you were a prisoner to the State of the Union address.

Because there was not a lot on television, the Olympics got big coverage and would spill out across all the channels. It would be all people talked about for weeks and American Gold medalists were made into instant celebrities. Over the years the mainstream channels have lost viewers in droves. We have entire generations of people now who have never gotten their news from watching it on live TV.

These younger folks don’t have a clue who the lead anchors are, or how long they have been in the news business. The concept of waiting until six o’clock to find out what happened that day seems so archaic that the idea does not even enter their minds.

I bring this up because as the mainstream channels enter their death throws, so follows the Olympics. They used to be able to take an athlete nobody has ever heard of and promote them to star-like levels in mere days, but the days of manufacturing Olympic celebrities are quickly coming to an end.