To be honest, I kind of find this whole controversy misplaced. I watched the FD with a non figure skating fan, trying to explain the scoring, etc. His reaction was, "The weird thing about ice dance is that what they are judged on and what people watch them for are completely different things." Even fans can't really tell the difference between 1st and 15th, we are just relying on the experts. For the 4 year fan, their favorites never win and they don't know why. So even if scoring was more even, and even if patterns and such were brought back, and even if choreo elements were eliminated, most people cannot discern what makes a good ice dancer anyway! And part of this is the education on the broadcasts. I've said it before, I can watch a football game with friends and understand what happens because they slo-mo the play and draw yellow lines and talk about the rule book during the broadcast. I've watched ice dance for years with commentary and don't know my rocker from my bracket. If the levels are determined by the key turns, why not show the key turns zoomed in on the slo mo replay, let the commentators discuss/draw lines to show whether or not it is clean? Why not reduce the elements of what makes good GOE to a manageable amount, have a judge for each on one the list, and let viewers know, they got a yes for speed, no for flow, no for creativity, etc.? Bring back the pattern, and then show on the replay the outline of the pattern, dots for the key turns, etc. The weird jump tracker at the Olympics shows we have the technology for it. As it stands, scoring is a black box, fans look to random podcasts for scoring hints instead of the actual sports org, so, of course, we fans are as vibed based as the judges. Rather than trying to make the sport more entertaining, but then making the technical aspect more obtuse (what is retrogression?!!), explain and simplify the technical elements to make them accessible.
