Tara/Johnnie on Skate Canada and China Cup

[Mathman]

Did anyone else watch (U.S.) NBC TV's coverage of Skate Canada and Cup of China today, with Johnnie and Tara?

Tara, on Skate Canada: Ashley Wagner was expected to win this event.

Karen Chen is coming out with a book next month, with forward by Kristi Ymaguchi. Probably a children's book about skating, I would imagine.

Johnnie: Karen's new LP is too "milk-duddy, " compared to the Carmen program that she abandoned.

Tara on Courtney Hicks: Every year I hope for her to make progress on artistry, but she never does.

On Shoma Uno: His jumps are wishy-washy today.

Cup of China, Zagitova:

Tara: The program is quite unbalanced with all the jumps at the end, keeping us waiting for something to happen. She will get credit for the second half bonus, but runs the risk of a hit on PCSs.

Johnnie: When I trained with Russian coaches they always taught us to use a long, unhurried set-up to the jumps. This would improve your vault into the air, air position and landing, compared to rushing the jumps one after another compromising the quality. When the new rules came in, they (the Russian coaches) had to change their approach.

My own observation, now that I have seen it on the big small screen instead of the small small screen. Kaetlyn Osmond is big and bold, but come on. That was not a good LP.

Between Zagitova and Higuchi, I could go either way. They were both outstanding, each in her own way. Johnnie and Tara agreed that they were close, but seemed to favor Zagitova as a legitimate rival of Medvedeva.

The men's LP was awful, except for Max, which we already knew. Vincent Zhou proved that if you can land half of your quad attempts you can run up the score and get second place.

 

[Tonichelle]

I still refuse to watch any coverage they commentate. I watched on Olympic Channel and Tracy Wilson's commentary was bad enough. I prefer Ryan Bradley, not sure why he didn't commentate this weekend. Ben Agosto went to the Scott Hamilton Commentary school, everything is "nicely done!" (to be fair, Ryan says it a lot, too)

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

I still refuse to watch any coverage they commentate. I watched on Olympic Channel and Tracy Wilson's commentary was bad enough. I prefer Ryan Bradley, not sure why he didn't commentate this weekend. Ben Agosto went to the Scott Hamilton Commentary school, everything is "nicely done!" (to be fair, Ryan says it a lot, too)

Ryan was at the Scott Hamilton benefit show in Cleveland, Ohio this weekend performing. He should be back this coming week for NHK.

ETA: I 100% agree with you on refusal to have anything to do with T/J's commentary on NBC.

 

[Tonichelle]

Ryan was at the Scott Hamilton benefit show in Cleveland, Ohio this weekend performing. He should be back this coming week for NHK.

Duh! I should have realized that.

 

[karne]

What'd they say about Max then? Lots of backhanders I bet.

 

[Mathman]

What'd they say about Max then? Lots of backhanders I bet.

I didn't take notes, but from memory they thought well of his performance (LP) but did not gush over it like Max deserved -- especially given the wretched quality of all the other competitors' performances. In particular, they hardly mentioned that Max won the long program, being too caught up in whether Kolyada would stay ahead of Jin.

Johnnie didn't like Max's music, feeling it was too lyrical and not in your face enough. Johnnie somewhat grudgingly said that Max should be in consideration for the third U.S. Olympic spot, along with Jason Brown and Adam Rippon. (Chen and Zhou are apparently a lock.)

They did give some background on all the hard work and training he put in to come back after his surgery last year.

 

[Ylyzybyth]

Where do you find the Coverage with Tara and Johnny? Asking for a friend that secretly enjoys listening to their catty commentary.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Where do you find the Coverage with Tara and Johnny? Asking for a friend that secretly enjoys listening to their catty commentary.

Watch Sunday NBC coverage of events.

 

[el henry]

Where do you find the Coverage with Tara and Johnny? Asking for a friend that secretly enjoys listening to their catty commentary.

This YouTube poster has some NBCSN skating videos with Tara and Johnny; I presume that it is the same commentary as NBC proper, I cut the cord two years ago and don't get cable now so I can't check.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOyQtuMFNZ2GR4CyIWMn7iw

I made it one minute into their commentary on Jason's FS at Skate Canada and then fast-forwarded to the end. Even Johnny's compliments need to be back handed snark. Oh well, what did I expect.:confused2:

 

[Tolstoj]

See, I'm perfectly fine with what Tara/Johnny said because these are their opinions without extra inappropriate/rude jokes.

Alina's backloaded program is definitely a risk (that personally i'd take considering that this is her first senior season, so she needs to shake the house)

They were severe with the american ladies but maybe fair: there is a reason why you rarely see an american lady at the podium at Worlds, so they all have to do more than this and the outing at skate canada was again slightly disappointing.

 

[Carolla5501]

I still refuse to watch any coverage they commentate. I watched on Olympic Channel and Tracy Wilson's commentary was bad enough. I prefer Ryan Bradley, not sure why he didn't commentate this weekend. Ben Agosto went to the Scott Hamilton Commentary school, everything is "nicely done!" (to be fair, Ryan says it a lot, too)

There's no reason to watch the side show this year. The Olympic Channel shows more skaters and we don't have to be treated to the "look at us" show or the amazingly unprofessional bias the Tara/Johnny show has.

 

[Osmond4gold]

My own observation, now that I have seen it on the big small screen instead of the small small screen. Kaetlyn Osmond is big and bold, but come on. That was not a good LP.

Thank you Mathman for your observation, ...I appreciate that this is how you saw it, and for others we saw it differently. I went back to find the video, to listen to what they had to say about KO's FS and here is the exchange, for those who have not heard it. I do agree with most of their observations on the skate. I was a little hesitant as trust me, they have not always been kind to KO. Here it goes...

Tara – that was a great free skate by Kaetlyn Osmond and she has a 7 point lead, not a bad place to be sitting right now

Johnny– certainly not perfect but there was something very regal and committed about the performance. She never broke character, there was something very ‘swanly’, if you will

Tara – I loved her swan lake…touch, it was understated, and those gazes!

Johnny - yes, those smoldering looks throughout the program, but really what to watch with her was the technique, the bounce on those jumps were great, so big and so fun to watch

In the KnC they again talked about her having ‘such a nice finish’ to her jumps and ‘the end flow’ after jumps, …little mistakes…these are small mistakes. Finally, they say "here are the marks, better than anybody."

Johnny – and deservedly so, she was in a league of her own here …and at 212.91, still a good score.

 

[sarama]

Did anyone else watch (U.S.) NBC TV's coverage of Skate Canada and Cup of China today, with Johnnie and Tara?

Tara, on Skate Canada: Ashley Wagner was expected to win this event.

Did she seriously said that?:eeking:
I didn't expect her even to medal, and honestly she did just because Marin and Anna bombed a program each

 

[frida80]

Just started watching the SC videos. Nice video quality. Given what type of skater Johnny is, I wouldn’t expect him to like a softer program like Karen’s new FS. It he’s delusional if he thinks Carmen was better. Seeing the program again I can see more content, where Carmen felt empty at times.

Both Tara and Johnny are not supportive of Ashley using MR again. But for some reason Tara still thought she would win of Kaetlyn. They basically stopped commentary on her jumps, and didn’t point out her missed combo. But that’s the entire reason they’re there!

I can’t bring myself to watch Anna’s commentary. So I’ll watch Kaetlyn and Masha’s next.

 

[Tolstoj]

Did she seriously said that?:eeking:
I didn't expect her even to medal, and honestly she did just because Marin and Anna bombed a program each

I'm with her on that.

The judging wasn't that harsh for the americans if you look it closely, i don't know if Ashley had chances to win this because judges were also rewarding Kaetlyn, but it could have been a great silver medal.

At the end yes she got the bronze but usually Ashley does well the first competition and then she kinda bombs the second event (4th at NHK two years ago, 7th at Cup of China last year) because she doesn't have the stamina to deliver clean programs over and over.

So you'd think that's maybe a strategy to start slow and then go in crescendo but i'm a little skeptical on that.

 

[ice coverage]

What'd they say about Max then? ...

.... They did give some background on all the hard work and training he put in to come back after his surgery last year.

Regarding Max, it was notable to me that both NBC and Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA spoke more than I expected about his surgery and its prolonged effects.

On NBC, they mentioned a comment from Max that was something like (I'm paraphrasing what NBC said): every day on the ice last season was a mental and physical battle.
(Sorry that I do not remember NBC's words exactly. I think NBC itself was paraphrasing Max.)

In any case, my fallible memory does not remember previously hearing/seeing a comment from Max that gave such a sense of how tough the long road back from surgery was.
(The little that Max had said in the past was more vague.)

---

Where do you find the Coverage with Tara and Johnny? Asking for a friend that secretly enjoys listening to their catty commentary.

Among nbcsports.com's own uploads this season are some Rostelecom videos with Tara/Johnny commentary.

See the links in the second half of this post in the NBC thread:

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/s...BC-channels!&p=1813775&viewfull=1#post1813775​

 

[Tonichelle]

Both Tara and Johnny are not supportive of Ashley using MR again. But for some reason Tara still thought she would win of Kaetlyn. They basically stopped commentary on her jumps, and didn’t point out her missed combo. But that’s the entire reason they’re there!

Tara cannot be impartial where Ashley is concerned. She was the reason Ashley wanted to skate, as I recall she used to mentor her as well... so... of course Tara's out to lunch in regards to Ashley's real chances.

 

[Mathman]

Thank you Mathman for your observation, ...I appreciate that this is how you saw it, and for others we saw it differently. I went back to find the video, to listen to what they had to say about KO's FS and here is the exchange, for those who have not heard it. I do agree with most of their observations on the skate. I was a little hesitant as trust me, they have not always been kind to KO. ...

In my opinion, Kaetlyn faces a two-sided sword. She skates so big that she can make a routine element look spectacular. On the other hand, when she makes a small mistake it looks larger.