The Good

James Duthie — Duthie has proven throughout the Olympics he can do more than just his regular shtick of moderating the assorted jocks and goons TSN assembles for its hockey coverage. Duthie was natural, eloquent and, at times, humourous while serving as the co-host of Olympic Daytime. Early on in the games when Duthie mistakenly introduced a speed skating event as a women’s hockey game, he deadpanned “That was one of the strangest women’s hockey games I’ve ever seen,” when the feed came back to CTV studios.

Brian Williams ­— At his 13th Olympic games, Williams has proven he is timeless. Williams’ interviews were as legendary as ever, as we saw in several informative and telling question and answer sessions. His talks with Brian Burke and Joannie Rochette — two figures experiencing unbelievable grief — were highlights of CTV’s coverage. Williams was able to induce the pair to open up to audiences about the unimaginable tragedies occurring in their lives.

The helmet cam — The view from Daron Rahlves’ helmet as he spiralled out of control on the second jump of the men’s ski cross was absolutely phenomenal. Watching the skier’s gaze shifting through focusing on the jump, preparing for the landing, slowly turning up toward the sky as his skis entered the frame above him and the inevitable thud when he it the ground was unlike any shot we’ve ever seen at an Olympics. It gave a great perspective on the speed, amplitude and inherent danger of the sport.

The Bad

Jamie Campbell — I would tell Campbell not to quit his day job, but he was already fired by the Blue Jays where he served as play-by-play man from 2005-2009. The problem with Campbell is that he comes across as knowing absolutely nothing about the sports he covers. Surely he could have done a bit of research ahead of calling the snowboard halfpipe and freestyle skiing competitions instead of relying heavily on his colour analysts. Instead, Campbell was extraordinarily unprepared, not knowing many of the names of the tricks the athletes were performing. Plus his incessant cheerleading for Maëlle Ricker during the women’s snowboard cross — “Make it home, Maëlle! Make it home!” — was a tad much. Leave the cheering to the fans.

Lisa LaFlamme — It’s hard to criticize LaFlamme — whose day job is the National Affairs Correspondent for the CTV National News — because she was so far out of her element at these games. However, the Olympic Daytime co-host’s unfamiliarity and blinding ignorance with anything sport-related became increasingly evident throughout a series of jumbled intros, softball interviews and canned banter. LaFlamme’s unguarded bias and boosterism was also extremely irritating, even by CTV’s standards.

The Ugly

Michael Landsberg — Why are you here? Landsberg was a decent Sports Desk host about a decade ago who found a niche in moderating the sports discussion program Off The Record. Why CTV would take him out of the familiar confines of his OTR set, where he can talk about professional wrestling and fighting in hockey till the cows come home, and transplant him to Whistler to interview drunk Canadian fans is beyond comprehension.

Much Music’s Olympic Coverage — We get it, CTV. You own a whole whack of stations. But there was really no need to invite all of them to Vancouver. Especially Much Music, whose juvenile teenage audience doesn’t know the difference between Kevin Martin and Ricky Martin. Hosting your coverage from a bar is one thing — doing half-naked body shots in a hot tub mere moments after the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili is another. It doesn’t matter what demographic your station appeals to — that was classless.