2010 Winter Olympics: Where to watch your favorite events

NBC and its cable siblings will be airing 835 hours of coverage of the Winter Olympics from Vancouver starting Friday (Feb. 12). Considering that's more than twice as many hours as are actually in the 17 days of competition, we thought it would be helpful to give you a guide to what's on where.

The NBC network will save the marquee events -- primarily figure skating, but also some speed skating, snowboarding and alpine skiing contests -- for its primetime broadcasts each night. Unlike 2006, when the Olympics were held in Turin, Italy -- six hours ahead of the Eastern time zone in the U.S. -- some events will air live in primetime for the eastern half of the country (West Coast viewers are still out of luck).

USA, MSNBC and CNBC will devote their daytime coverage primarily to the two team sports, hockey and curling. Zap2it will also have daily highlights posts each day during the Olympics to help you sort out your viewing choices, but here's a broad overview of what each network will carry.

NBC

Daytime coverage will air from 3-5 p.m. ET/PT most days (occasionally it will start at 2:30) and focus primarily on nordic skiing events and snowboarding.

In primetime (8 o'clock each night, 7 on Sundays), the focus will be on figure skating (pairs is up first, followed by the men, ice dancing and the women) along with medal events in speed skating, snowboarding, alpine skiing, short track and bobsled.

Late-night broadcasts (11:30 p.m. or midnight most nights) will feature the luge and skeleton events, medal ceremonies and a recap of the day's events.

USA, CNBC, MSNBC

The three cable channels will feature extensive coverage of men's and women's hockey and curling matches. USA will be on the air at noon ET/9 a.m. PT every weekday starting Tuesday, Feb. 16, with coverage most days running until 5:30 ET/2:30 PT.

MSNBC will take over from 5:30 to 8 p.m. weekdays (2:30-5 PT) and offer late-night wrapups at 3 a.m. ET/midnight PT. CNBC, meanwhile, will devote 12 hours a day to Olympic coverage, starting at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.

In addition, Universal HD will offer replays of select events in the mornings, and NBCOlympics.com will have live streams of events, full-event replays and tons of highlights. For detailed listings, check Zap2it's grid and NBCOlympics.com.

Follow Zap2it on Twitter and Facebook for the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Related:

Lindsey Vonn injured, unsure of Olympics participation
10 already-famous Winter Olympic athletes
Winter Olympic hotties

Photo credit: NBC