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NBC enrages viewers by interrupting its Olympics coverage for promotional monkeyshines

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The Who guitarist Pete Townsend, right, and singer Roger Daltrey perform during the Closing Ceremony at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Monday, Aug. 13, 2012, in London. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Viewers were seeing red after NBC cut away from its coverage of the Olympics closing ceremony to hype a sitcom featuring a monkey.

After the previously scheduled preview of “Animal Practice” aired at 11 p.m. Sunday night, followed by local news, NBC returned at midnight to finish with an eight-minute medley by The Who.

Then host Bob Costas delivered an Olympics postscript before signing off after just 35 minutes in all.

Twitter lit up with complaints.

Disgruntled viewer Nina L. Diamond seemed to speak for many. She tweeted that, thanks to this kind of monkey business, NBC has made itself even less popular than Congress.

Meanwhile, viewers feeling duped might have noted a musical omission by The Who, which skipped this classic hit: “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

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