Sasha to headline Stars on Ice

Sorry - just saw it is a one-year contract.

SOI doesn't need Sasha to *improve* the tour in quality or execution, it needs her as a headliner for the marketing of the tour and for ticket sales. The other skaters are all indeed interesting on the ice, great skaters, and all contribute to making the show great, and I don't think Sasha will change that. However, the reality is, SOI is a business, and as great as Jen Robinson, Yuka, and Angela are, they don't have the big, instantly recognizable to the US public names that sell tickets to the general non-skating fan. Katia is more recognizable but she doesn't do the whole tour so they can't honestly use her name to build up interest in the show nationwide. I also think that Sasha is more of a name skater than Sarah at the time she did the tour, because Sasha's been around longer and has had more time to build up the name recognition and fanbase needed to "headline".

As for Sarah, I can't comment one way or the other on backstage dynamics and I'm not a big advocate of super-skinny is the only way to go, but one thing to keep in mind is that the other skaters had to lift Sarah during the show several times, so her weight actually would have had a direct impact on many of the skaters that it wouldn't otherwise have had.

If D&L are doing the whole tour, that'll be great. I've missed R&S on tour and it'll be cool to get the mix of all four disciplines in the show.

good points, all. I don't think Tara was liked a whole lot when she did the tour back in 99-02 (she complained of it), and to me Cohen seems to have the same type of persona (?) so it'll be interesting to see if she can click with the rest. But as far as skating goes, I think she'll take it seriously and give it her all.

I thought the problem for Tara was that she was much younger than the rest of the cast, and between the ages of 14 and 20, people's personnality can and normally does change a fair bit, and maturity comes into play, also.

Kypma

Teenes said:

SOI doesn't need Sasha to *improve* the tour in quality or execution, it needs her as a headliner for the marketing of the tour and for ticket sales. The other skaters are all indeed interesting on the ice, great skaters, and all contribute to making the show great, and I don't think Sasha will change that. However, the reality is, SOI is a business, and as great as Jen Robinson, Yuka, and Angela are, they don't have the big, instantly recognizable to the US public names that sell tickets to the general non-skating fan. Katia is more recognizable but she doesn't do the whole tour so they can't honestly use her name to build up interest in the show nationwide. I also think that Sasha is more of a name skater than Sarah at the time she did the tour, because Sasha's been around longer and has had more time to build up the name recognition and fanbase needed to "headline".

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:yes: What Teenes said.

Joesitz said:

But will it take away from the Show as a whole? If you ever worked in a show where you worked with groups, you know the group should work as ONE.
You will remember in 'Chorus Line', the Director had problems with the former 'star' working in the corps.

We know Sasha is a STAR, but I'm just waiting to see if Sasha can work with her colleagues in the group numbers where all the other stars work as a team, and she will just have to fit in.
Joe

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Interesting. We don't know the details of Sasha's contract. For all we know she may have contracted with SOI to only skate two performance per show and not join in the group numbers at all. Sasha is a Star and probably could write her own ticket. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Yup. What Mathman said Teenes said, lol!

Sasha as a headliner will provide a little excitement and "wow" factor to the production as even the casual and non-fans know who Sasha Cohen is...and very few non die-hard fans knew who Yuka Sato, Jen Robinson or Angela Nikodinov were.
Of course a lot of it comes down to personal taste, but I think Sasha has an "it" factor that can only help draw people to the show - and satisfy them in the way that American audiences like to see an American star perform in their hometown.

For dance though, I'd rather see Peter and Naomi.

Tinymavy15 said:

Well the hughes girls don't seem the most east to get on with... they don't have that easy temperment to hang out with like Michelle and sasha.

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Sarah is a sweet heart , so is Michelle. Like Sarah Emily comes from the family with so many bros and sis to ground her. None of the Hughes girls behave like spoil kids at all. Never heard that they ignore their coaches' instructions, never seen/heard about them cut into other skaters jumping passes in practice. I have never heard any of their coaches complain that they trade training time for shopping sprees at Paris either

Not to bust anyone's bubble on Sasha's star appeal, but I think the show is called in the plural: STARS with an S.

I like Sasha as much as the next person but if she is going to do her COI numbers in SOI, I'm not going to see them.

Joe

Joesitz said:

Not to bust anyone's bubble on Sasha's star appeal, but I think the show is called in the plural: STARS with an S.

I like Sasha as much as the next person but if she is going to do her COI numbers in SOI, I'm not going to see them.

Joe

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I don't think SC will just do her COI numbers in SOI. Scott's philosophy and expectation is SOI is a family, the skaters do a lot of group numbers, they also have to do 2 individual programs. Outside of skating, they do a lot of community work etc together. Kristi probably is the best role model of what a headliner skater of SOI. She has the star power, keep up with her techniques, and is willing to defer to the group, there is no "look at me I am Kristi". Unfortunately Tara was too young to fill that role, even though they seemed to be grooming her for it. Sarah was just doing the gig for one season. Kristi is a tough act to follow.

Mathman said:

IIRC Sarah herself said that some of the cast members were pretty mean to her. She mostly hung out with the unfailingly courteous and charming Russian contingent -- Alexei and Elena and Anton.

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Someone just said basically the same thing on MKF; that they read that Hughes was riding the "Russian bus" because her own compatriots were giving her such a terrible time about her weight gain, and so on.

I'm curious if people had similar concerns when Katarina Witt joined the tour. She ended up fitting in very well and apparently really enjoyed working with the other skaters, but she definitely had a "diva" image, didn't she?

Not to bust anyone's bubble on Sasha's star appeal, but I think the show is called in the plural: STARS with an S.

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That's partly because Stars on Ice used to have stars in the plural on the tour. And by star, they generally meant Olympic Gold Medal. As a huge fan of Kurt Browning, obviously I don't define stars that way, but SOI has generally over the years marketed the standout name skaters in their tour (particularly the singles skaters). In particular, American name skaters, and in particular Olympic Gold Medalists... I remember when I first discovered the tour in 1995 advertising that only showed a photo of Scott Hamilton on it, but made sure to emphasize the names Kristi Yamaguchi, Paul Wylie... They've had advertisements which put Kristi/Katarina/Tara/Scott (or Kurt)/Ilia right up front... IMO internal to the show, things tended to be a bit more balanced (if only b/c some of the non-"name" skaters were in a lot of group numbers) but in the advertising and marketing, it's been about the names. And in particular the ladies' names since that's the most popular discipline in the US. They went after Kristi, they went after Katarina, they went after Tara, Sarah... They got the Olympic gold or silver medalist in men's for every Olympics between 1984 and 2002 except 1994 (Scott, Brian O, Paul W, Ilia, Alexei)... So yeah, Stars on Ice has a lot of great skaters in it, but the star system isn't exactly new or specific to Sasha. What is new is only getting one new "big" star, and not directly out of the Olympics either.

I doubt Sasha will "save" the tour and bring it a huge burst of new popularity and audience. But, given that SOI has cut down from 60+ cities to 40, and given that it's losing name talent (B&S, S&P due to pregnancy, etc) faster than it's getting new name talent, it needs all the help it can get just to sustain the levels it has now.

And none of that has *anything* to do with the actual dynamics within the show, or the skating we see on the ice and what the respective skaters actually deserve... Well, maybe a little. They did do one year where GOLD was the theme b/c they had Kristi, Tara, Katarina, and Ilia all in the show...

rtureck said:

Sarah is a sweet heart , so is Michelle. Like Sarah Emily comes from the family with so many bros and sis to ground her. None of the Hughes girls behave like spoil kids at all. Never heard that they ignore their coaches' instructions, never seen/heard about them cut into other skaters jumping passes in practice. I have never heard any of their coaches complain that they trade training time for shopping sprees at Paris either

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just curious, have you met either of the Hughes'?

We've spoken to Amy Hughes (Sarah & Emily's mother) & Emily twice at Mike Weiss' foundation show (9/05 & 9/06), and both have been very pleasant and down to earth.

^ that's nice to hear, especially after getting not-so-good vibes from Em recently.

Red Dog said:

just curious, have you met either of the Hughes'?

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Yes, and just curious why is the question directed just to me? I praise the Hughes girls, and Tinymavy did not, but she or he talked about both girls too.

Because it seemed to me that you were talking about them from the persepective of a friend...in other words, from the way you were speaking it sounded like you met them and it peaked my curiosity.

Jimmy Hoffa said:

Someone just said basically the same thing on MKF; that they read that Hughes was riding the "Russian bus" because her own compatriots were giving her such a terrible time about her weight gain, and so on.

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A little off topic but why would there be a seperate bus for Russians? During Khrushev's time the Bolshoi Ballet did everything well guarded and without outside influence, but nowadays a professional group has colleagues not adversaries.

Joe

I'm guessing they had two separate buses for the cast, and while the North Americans *primarily* grouped together on one bus, most of the Russians probably grouped together on another. (not sure though )

Before we get further into the Hughes family.

I understand the 'billing' of Sasha as an Olympic Silver Medalist but I'm just asking for opinions as to whether she can handle the group numbers. Some people think it is not necessary and that she can do just 2 solos which I can't help but interpret as 2 COI-like numbers, and not in line with any programic concept of SOI.

Joe