By Leonard Shapiro
Special to washingtonpost.com
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 11:40 AM

The days are grueling and the preparation has been typically intense, but Bob Costas, the main Olympic host for NBC's prime time coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, is having a fabulous time both on and off the air. He's also extremely gratified that so many millions are tuning in every night to watch.

"I'm holding up well and I'm really enjoying myself," Costas, handling his eighth Olympiad for NBC, said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Beijing, where he spent part of the day watching three innings of the U.S. baseball game, then wandering over to see the first half of the American Redeem Team's basketball blowout over Australia before heading back to the International Broadcasting Center to prepare for Wednesday night's prime time show.

"I love doing this, and I enjoy it even more when the broadcasting circumstances are the way they've been here. ... It's one of the more challenging ones I've done. But it's also easier in some ways because so much of it has been live. I think that plays to my instincts.

"You always play the hand you're dealt, and this has been a good hand for me. It allows genuine anticipation and genuine reaction. It puts a premium on ad-libbing and gives you a little more freedom. They've also had me at the venues, which adds to the texture of it, and they've brought in people like Mary Carillo and Cris Collinsworth to interact with me, and that's been a plus."

Despite a 12-hour time difference between Beijing and the Eastern time zone in the U.S., NBC's prime time ratings have been spectacular over the first 11 days of the event. The average has been a 17.2 -- the best mark for an Olympics outside the U.S. since '92 in Barcelona, which did an 18.4 in an era when cable coverage was minimal.

The Beijing Games are averaging 29.6 million viewers a night, 3.4 million more than the 2004 Games in Athens. NBC's prime time telecast so far has had a total audience of 200 million and is expected to become the most-watched Olympics in history and possibly the most-viewed event ever on American television.

Costas said there have been several factors involved in capturing the attention of the American prime time audience.

"First of all, I think there's an obvious interest in China as the setting," he said. "Along with that, there have been so many interesting American stories in swimming and gymnastics, and they were events that we were able to show live. Going into the Games, people already knew about (swimmers) Michael Phelps and Dara Torres and (gymnasts) Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, and those stories obviously paid off. We were able to show them live, and also beach volleyball live. I think it just made it feel different than other Games outside the U.S."

Costas reads four American newspapers shortly after he arrives at the International Broadcast Center every day at 5:30 a.m. to prepare for his prime time role, and he's fully aware that NBC has been criticized in some quarters for not focusing on controversial real-world issues away from the arenas and stadiums.

"I think we did touch on all the important China issues during the opening ceremonies, and we did it again when we had President Bush on the second day," he said. "The philosophy in prime time, especially during the first week, was that we were the only place to see these events and to see most of them live. We felt that Nightly News and other outlets can take care of those issues. But I also would hope that by the time the Games end, we will have addressed most or all of those issues, as well."

NBC also has made something of a philosophical change, reducing the number of up-close-and-personal features so prevalent in many Games in past years. There are fewer long-form, set pieces focusing on individual athletes and interrupting actual athletic contests, and Costas said he likes it that way.

"I agree with it," he said. "You want to have a certain pace to the presentation of the coverage. There has been a change in philosophy after 2000. We'll still do some background stories, but they are generally shorter and less melodramatic. Sometimes they're features I present from the studio or they're rolled into the coverage at the venues, but never at the expense of live action.

"Some of those stories in the past were just brilliant and also necessary to familiarize an American audience with some of the lesser known international stars and the more obscure American athletes. We're still trying to do that, but in a shorter form."

Costas said he's been preparing for his role at these Games for several years, reading up both on Chinese history and current political events, knowing "full well that about 95 percent of what you have in your head you probably won't be able to use. But you also never know what might come in handy. Even if you don't use most of it, it becomes a personal education; it's certainly added to my knowledge of the country and the people here."

With NBC owning the rights to the Games through 2012 in London, Costas, now 56, almost certainly will reprise his role for the Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010, as well as in London -- if not longer, if NBC remains the rightsholder.

Given the network's current ratings success, clearly there will be major competition for the future Olympic television franchise. The New York Times reported Tuesday that ESPN intends to make a major effort to acquire the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Games (site to be determined in 2009, with four finalists: Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo). The International Olympic Committee has not set a date yet when it will begin accepting bids for a package that likely will include 2014-2016. Fox also is expected to make a significant bid.

"I haven't really thought much about ESPN doing it," Costas said. "It makes complete sense to me they'd want to have it. They have the resources to do it, to acquire it and all the platforms to cover it. I would expect them to make a run at it. How appealing it is would obviously hinge on whether Chicago gets it in 2016. If it is Chicago, the value goes way, way up.

"By then, I would expect to be watching from my living room. I think I'm good through 2012, and then I guess we'll see what happens after that."