Jill and I tried to watch the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center on NBC last night--but didn't actually make it to the moment when they threw the switch.
The show began locally at 7 PM, with an hour that was obviously prepared for local stations and the network's owned-and-operated stations to run and sell advertising for. Then at 8, they changed over to the nationally broadcast show on the network. We were disappointed that the tree lighting didn't occur by 8, but when the network show began, we figured that they would do it by 9. But, no....the network show ran until 10 and tree didn't finally light until a few minutes before that hour.
Clearly, like the Thanksgiving parade last week, what was once a local kick-off to the holiday season, scheduled so that New Yorkers could see it and even bring their kids to see a little Christmas wonder in person, is now just a performance put on for the convenience of the TV network that has bought the broadcast rights. As we watched, we realized that the "audience" that was closest to the stage (and thus the tree) were invited guests (perhaps employees of Rock Center and NBC and their families), because they were all armed with the same light sticks and wearing identical Santa hats.
I pity any parent who went to Rock Center with children to see this: First of all, they could never have gotten close enough to really see anything...and they would have been standing in the cold and dark for three hours (actually longer--they probably would have needed to be there by mid-afternoon to get within even two blocks of the site) until well after the kids' bedtime.
Bah, humbug!
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