'XXIX Summer Olympics: Opening Ceremonies'
(8PM, NBC)
NBC is planning more than 3,000 hours of coverage of the XXIX Summer Olympics on the tube and Internet, and it all begins with tonight's opening ceremonies -- featuring more than 10,000 performers -- at the National Stadium in Beijing.

Everything, in fact, is souped up for these international games, from the amount of coverage and the quality of the technology NBC will use to capture it (mini HD cams will be strapped to athletes for up close and personal shots, for example) to new events (BMX racing and the women's steeplechase among them) and the line-up of superstars competing, including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade on the U.S. men's basketball team; U.S. swimmer Dara Torres, who's already won nine medals as she heads into her fifth Olympics; and American swimmer Michael Phelps, who earned six gold medals at the 2004 Games in Athens.

All in all, this is one stretch of reality programming worthy of your coach potato hours this summer.

I don't know about you, but I stopped really caring about the Summer Olympics when the Dream Team fell apart. It is long, often boring and flooded with too much commentary. SHUT UP! I just want to watch the athletes do their thing!

Well it turns out I must be the only one complaining, because NBC plans on covering 3,600 hours of Summer Games across multiple networks. That is literally 150 days of continuous coverage. Five months of non-stop Olympic action. Almost half a freakin' year of Olympics? That may be a bit too much.