Stars on Ice 2009

KwanFan1212 said:

Shizuka did a few guest appearances in the Canadian SOI tour back in 2004 when she won Worlds (I saw her in Kitchener and Hamilton that year) but I don't think any of the 2006 champions were ever with SOI in the first place. T&M and N&K both stayed in Russia, Shizuka stayed in Japan, and I believe Plushenko stayed in Russia as well. I have no idea if SOI ever approached them about touring either but they may have and were turned down.

I'm glad Cincy is still on the schedule and maybe they'll actually bring back the two hour show on NBC that they used to show in the past. That would be good for all the fans who can't get to a show this year.

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Shizuka also did Fashion On Ice after winning the Oly's.

This is sort of related, I guess. John Z. has started a journal. His first entry has lots of news about what he (and Silvia) have been up to lately. As the season progesses, I would imagine he will share some insight into this season's SOI tour.

http://www.figureskatersonline.com/ina-zimmerman/journal.html#oct08

Thanks for the link Gail. That was an interesting read. I thought it interesting that he was skating with Elena B and is skating in a Russian ice show.

skamper23 said:

According to Heather's TV Skating schedule and the one over on icenetwork, SOI will air a 2 hour special on Jan 4th 4-6pm on NBC!!!

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The last couple of years, the SOI special has been clips from prior shows with preview snippets of the current tour.

attyfan said:

IMO, the problem with low attendance at SOI and other skating shows has more to do with the general economy rather than the skaters involved.

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I agree with you. Other important factors have to do with the fact that skating was way oversaturated with made for TV events from 1994-2002ish, and many viewers simply were turned off by it or became bored by it all. Skaters aren't staying in amateur ranks as long as they used to because of rigorous training (when was the last time we had someone win two Olympics in a row? Katarina? Grishuk Platov?) so the name branding isn't there. Lastly, other countries, especially Japan and newly wealthy Russia is ravenous in its appetite for skating right now. There are so many shows and tours and specials over there right now. Even the other European countries are proving to be very enticing for skaters looking to go pro. America is all but dead to figure skating.

Tonichelle said:

I wonder if the reason they have the guest stars instead of signing skaters like Jeff to a full tour comes down to $$ - SOI/IMG doesn't have enough to pay for them to be a full tour member, but enough to bring them in for a certain number of shows?

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One reason could be that SOI had already invited their quota of male skaters as cast members and Buttle´s announcement may have become public knowledge a bit too late?

About the problem with low attendance at SOI I´d still have the opinion that there are enough skaters at SOI, but maybe not enough those whose programmes make the general audiences really enthusiastic and draw those audiences in for a new season again. The economy is a factor of course, but not if audiences find the money to participate in other events, what ever they might be.

considering there are more males willing to turn pro and tour than ladies, I would think they could make the exception ... though this is America and it's tougher to sell a mostly male cast