I know everyone will say something along these lines, but every time they're on they seem to cover less of the actual sports and more chit chat about the "human drama" or some such nonsense. Especially since the olympics largely involves sports people mostly don't watch at other times, over time that erodes interest in the actual, you know sport, and fewer people bother to watch the next time around.
Maybe it's just a faulty memory but as a kid I remember sitting there watching things like endless downhill ski runs as they ran a lot of live coverage.