2004 Olympians in the Spotlight!

Tune up your TV on Thursday, July 1, 2004, for the NBC Today Show! Kevin Han and Howard Bach, USA Badminton’s 2004 Olympians, will be on the show playing Matt Lauer, Katie Couric, and Al Roker. Time slot is 8:30 AM but not sure what time zone that will be, so check your local listings.



Also, Howard Bach is in the June 28 issue of People magazine as one of the "50 hottest bachelors."

wow, when nbc said they are going spotlight badminton, i didnt know they are gonna start so soon :) Anyone saw it or taped it?
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NBC Embarrassed by Saddam Court Appearance

Thu Jul 1, 5:27 PM ET

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - NBC's "Today" show was embarrassed Thursday when it aired Katie Couric batting a badminton shuttlecock while its rivals showed the first footage of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s court appearance.

"We made a mistake," said executive producer Tom Touchet. "In retrospect, I'd do it completely differently."

The first footage of Iraq (news - web sites)'s former leader since his capture by the U.S. seven months ago came into newsrooms shortly after 8:30 a.m. EDT. ABC's "Good Morning America," CBS' "The Early Show" and the cable news networks all showed the pictures immediately.


NBC stuck with feature stories on a Robert Redford movie and badminton, showing Saddam at the 9 a.m. newscast that opens the third hour of "Today."


Touchet gave no further explanation of the error. "Today" changed the West Coast feed of the broadcast to lead with the Saddam pictures.


Meanwhile, ABC scored a coup when anchor Peter Jennings attended Saddam's court hearing. CBS' Dan Rather reported on the appearance from an outside location.


NBC's Tom Brokaw, who had traveled to Iraq for this week's handover of sovereignty, left Iraq for the United States before the hearing because he was told only a pool reporter would be allowed in, NBC News spokeswoman Allison Gollust said.


If Brokaw was allowed — like Jennings — "maybe we would have done it differently," she said.


ABC said Jennings was permitted in by Salem Chalabi, director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Jennings had specifically asked for permission in an interview with Chalabi earlier this week, a spokeswoman said.


CNN's Christiane Amanpour was also in the court hearing. Like Jennings, she received permission from Chalabi, the network said.


John Burns of The New York Times was the pool reporter, in charge of reporting details from the inside to fellow journalists who are not allowed in.


It was a good week for Jennings and Amanpour: both also attended Monday's surprise ceremony where Iraq reclaimed sovereignty.


Sadiq Rahim, working for the widely circulated Iraqi newspaper Azzaman, was called a day before to attend the trial but was refused entry minutes before the start of the hearing, said Ahmed Abdul-Majeed, the paper's editor in chief.


"It is a surprising situation which pleads a logical interpretation," Abdul-Majeed said.


British television stations gave heavy coverage to Saddam's court appearance. Most used it as their lead story, and some conducted an analysis with linguists and body language experts to examine Saddam's words and demeanor.

Neat!

Bach/Han were on Fox Sports Network the other night, rallying with some of the hosts of "The Best Damn Sports Show Period", and gave a brief interview about immigrating to the US and working at the Home Depot to supplement their incomes

Can you guys post it when it comes on next time? >_< I never get a chance to see these "rare" moments.

Neat!

Bach/Han were on Fox Sports Network the other night, rallying with some of the hosts of "The Best Damn Sports Show Period", and gave a brief interview about immigrating to the US and working at the Home Depot to supplement their incomes

Is that the show Tom Arnold hosts? Did any of those guys know anything about badminton?

Working at Home Depot...For the customers' sakes, I hope they know more about home improvement products than most of the salespeople I have encountered there.

Working at Home Depot...For the customers' sakes, I hope they know more about home improvement products than most of the salespeople I have encountered there.

That's coz Home Depot has quite a good programme for athletes who competes Nationally and/or Internationally.

That's coz Home Depot has quite a good programme for athletes who competes Nationally and/or Internationally.

HD obviously has a very good programme...they employ nearly 180 olympians.

oh wow, I better start going to home depot more often and look for olympic badminton players.

Can you guys post it when it comes on next time? >_< I never get a chance to see these "rare" moments.

I haven't seen any of these badminton moments either. On the other hand, I've lost count of how many times I've seen clips of the Japanese guy winning the Independence Day hot dog eating contest. What a sport!