NBC Will Close the Olympics with Some Nancy-Tonya Nostalgia
NBC will go nostalgic before the closing ceremony of the Sochi Olympic Games: the network will air a documentary about Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding at 7 p.m. this Sunday, part of a barrage of Nancy-Tonya programming that has surrounded the 20th anniversary of their Olympics.
NBC's program, Deadline reports, is hosted by Mary Carillo and will include interviews with both Kerrigan and Harding. In case you have forgotten, the Kerrigan-Harding affair became a national sensation when the two competed against each other at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer after an attack on Kerrigan's knee was ordered by Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly. Kerrigan, it probably should be mentioned, is working for NBC as an analyst, and it will be interesting to see whether that affects the tone of the documentary. (Interestingly enough, Kerrigan hasn't been a notable presence in NBC's Olympic coverage at all.)
Even 20 years out, just mentioning Harding-Kerrigan is bound to breed discussions as to whose side you were (or are) on, so the bent of coverage is relevant. ESPN's Kerrigan-Harding documentary "The Price of Gold," did not underplay the fact that Harding likely some role in the attack on Kerrigan, but also displayed real sympathy for Harding, whose side of the story illuminated class prejudices in America. This partially was due to the fact that, while Harding agreed to be interviewed for Nanette Burstein's piece, Kerrigan did not. Even though others connected to Kerrigan spoke, it meant the documentary was Harding's story, and that story was a tragic one indeed.
RELATED: Why a Bronze Medal in Hockey Might Seem Better Than Silver
But the rivalry has always been fodder for parody, and there isn't just serious Nancy-Tonya programming going around. Tonight, Logo premieres "Ice Queens," a retelling of the story with drag queens from RuPaul's Drag Race.
Get More: Logo TV
This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2014/02/nbc-will-close-olympics-some-nancy-tonya-nostalgia/358279/
Read more from The Wire
• A Taxonomy of Drag Queens on 'RuPaul's Drag Race'
• Lily Allen's New Album Is Called 'Sheezus', Has 'Little' Connection With Kanye
