-- Skating with the Stars --

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skating_with_the_Stars

Was thinking (and lamenting) about the lack of televised competitive figure skating coverage and thought about the late "Skating with the Stars" reality television show.

I certainly respected the competitors - and believe me, I give everyone credit for having the bravery and fortitude to train and compete on ice - especially if you have never done so before! It is a lot of ask, physically, and well, the results were a bit mixed.

I can't remember the names of most of the competitors. Dick Button was involved with this series, and perhaps it was thought this venture could piggyback on the enormously successful "Dancing with the Stars". It just wasn't meant to be. :disapp:

I'm glad you started this thread. But, sigh...I was only able to watch about 1 1/2 episodes of this before I had to look away. It seemed to me that they were playing up the sniping and controversy rather than the skating. When Bethenny Frankel dissed Johnny Weir's critique, which was polite and knowledgeable and could have been helpful to her, I decided this wasn't the show for me. Maybe I missed some good skating because I gave up too early.

I watch the Russian and Canadian versions on YouTube when I can. Some of the routines are spectacularly moving. I hear that the British one is wonderful, too, and I should catch that.

Silver, since you watched more episodes than I did, did you see any contestants who really gave it a good try? Let me know, and I'll hunt them up on YouTube.

I suspect they need longer rehearsal time to prepare for this show, and maybe a different contestant pool. This is the one where they should look for contestants who already have dance experience, so they don't have to start from absolute scratch. It's not that American celebrities are too shallow and tone-deaf to have good results. After all, look at the way American contestants have risen to the occasion and worked their patooties off on Dancing with the Stars.

the show is a disaster...hope it never exist.... :disapp:
even korean and chinese version is much better than it...

Both Jonny Moseley and Rebecca Budig gave excellent performances, but the show was poorly executed. The host was awful. Thankfully, by week two Tanith took over some of his duties, but he still stunk. The ice surface was too small. The contestants didn't have sufficient rehearsal time. Johnny Weir was the only decent judge.

The British show Dancing on Ice is fabulous. Those celebrities start training two months or more before the first show of the season. The judges are sharp. It's so well done. No wonder it's a hit.

Pixie Cut said:

Both Jonny Moseley and Rebecca Budig gave excellent performances, but the show was poorly executed. The host was awful. Thankfully, by week two Tanith took over some of his duties, but he still stunk. The ice surface was too small. The contestants didn't have sufficient rehearsal time. Johnny Weir was the only decent judge. ...

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Good comments. I thought several "stars" gave good performances, esp. Moseley as you mentioned. Wasn't he paired with Brooke Castile? I thoroughly enjoyed her and the two of them as a team. Actually, I enjoyed the show overall (though it was clearly a debut effort and there was lots of room for improvement) and was sorry it didn't do better in the ratings.

Olympia, I honestly can't remember any of the routines as being really well executed. I'm not bashing anybody, but, please, the routines were almost disastrous in terms of execution and artistry. In my opinion, the judges bent overboard to be polite and as positive as possible. It's kind of hard to find good things to say about a really, really bad performance. Yikes!

Wasn't Bruce Jenner one of the competitors, or perhaps that was another reality show?

silverpond said:

Wasn't Bruce Jenner one of the competitors, or perhaps that was another reality show?

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That was Skating with Celebrities in 2006.

I find it amusing that you state with such conviction how bad the performances were, but you're not even sure who was on the show.

I *think* they tried to market it using the same formula as the Canadian version, but there were no takers. So they had to revamp it (small ice area, B stars, etc)

Pixie Cut said:

That was Skating with Celebrities in 2006.

I find it amusing that you state with such conviction how bad the performances were, but you're not even sure who was on the show.

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Thanks for the correction re Bruce Jenner/Skating with Celebrities, Pixie Cut. Agree that it's a bit nutty to comment on performances when you (me) do not remember specifically who skated those performances. Duh. Count if off from a rough day in the office.

Johar said:

I *think* they tried to market it using the same formula as the Canadian version, but there were no takers. So they had to revamp it (small ice area, B stars, etc)

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I think they always intended to use the Dancing with the Stars formula, seeing as how it's the same production company.