CBC shows it still has the touch when it comes to the Olympics

Four days into the Sochi Games, any thoughts that the CBC had lost its Olympic mojo after six years on the sidelines have disappeared.

The network that has been Canada's Olympic broadcaster seemingly forever is back in at the game and looking like it never missed a beat. Obviously, the people behind the CBC's Olympic productions didn't spend the past six years whimpering in a dark room while the CTV-Rogers consortium ran things.

But there's one thing that would improve the way CBC and its cable partners, TSN and Sportsnet, do things: Bring back Brian Williams. Yes, the man who has been mocked for his constant time-checks -- ``It's 4 p.m. in Sochi, which means it's 1 p.m. in Paris, 7 a.m. in Toronto and 5 a.m. in Saskatoon." -- is sorely missed.

But we'll get back to that later.

First, let's look at CBC's presentation of the Games. So far, so good.

It's hard to compare what happened four years ago in Vancouver to what's taking place in Sochi today. After all, those 2010 Games were in Canada and the consortium pulled out all the stops to present the Olympics in a way Canadians had never seen them before.

Everything was on television, the web and mobile devices. The Games were broadcast on an unprecedented number of channels, giving Canadians full access -- assuming they could afford all those channels.

It was a tough act to follow, but CBC has managed to keep pace with every moment of every competition available somewhere.

But it's not just about volume. While the consortium did a commendable job in Vancouver, it was breaking in an awful lot of announcers and analysts who had never done this kind of thing before. At times, mostly in the first week, it showed. And there was an awful lot of cheerleading going on in the broadcast booth the first few days. There was even some hugging of athletes.

That's where CBC has an advantage. The on-air faces are familiar to Olympics fans and are trusted and battle-tested. Hearing the likes of Steve Armitage, Scott Oake and Kurt Browning just seems right. There are a few rookies, some of whom have shown their inexperience, but there aren't many.

Cheerleading never enters the picture. Anyone caught hugging an athlete would be shot at dawn personally by Peter Mansbridge.

CBC has pretty much told the stories as they present themselves, avoiding the hype. The cameras stay on the competition instead of looking for sideshows.

When it does try something a little different, it usually works. Putting an iso camera on Marianne St-Gelais as her boyfriend, Charles Hamelin, won gold at the skating oval on Monday produced a great moment. Ditto with showing Frederic Bilodeau cheering on as his brother Alex won gold in the moguls.

On the other hand, the consortium had it all over CBC when it came to the studio show. The Vancouver studio had a great backdrop and looked spectacular. CBC's looks like it was designed by someone from the Soviet Department of Functional Architecture.

It also could give viewers a glimpse at some of the great athletes from around the world. The athlete features are great, but they're exclusively profiles of Canadians. For all the heat NBC takes for its Olympics presentation, it does a far better job of introducing viewers to Norwegians, Russians and, yes, Canadians.

Now back to Brian Williams.

While his incessant time checks could drive you crazy, I'd welcome him back with open arms just to get a sense of what time it is in Sochi and when and where events are being televised.

Overall, the CBC channels have done a good job of directing traffic. There's a great graphic that shows viewers exactly what's on which channel. But it doesn't appear frequently enough and announcers don't do a good enough job of directing viewers.

For example, the men's moguls qualifying rounds were on CBC Monday morning. When the second round ended and CBC went to women's hockey, there was no mention that the next round would be aired on Sportsnet One. I know of two people who missed the women's moguls final on Saturday because they said they weren't told what time the event was being run.

On Monday, CBC morning host Scott Russell told viewers that the medal ceremony for the team figure skating event would take place ``this evening." What time? Evening where?

Brian would have told us.