Mathman said:
I think what Kasey is talking about is the fact that in these "battle of the sexes" things they usually cheat as they go along to keep the contest even. The last one I remember, the men were way ahead (or maybe it was the other way around), then they gave all the ladies inflated scores in the last round to let them catch up.
Basically, what they want is to give the audience a good time, rather than any kind of pretense at a serious competition.
MM
Yeah, that's how it's been with the actual Battle of the Sexes competitions -- which were mostly celebrity judged things. The one I think you're remembering was the original one with Scott H., Brian B., Kurt B., Paul W., Kristi Y., Liz M., (I think) Caryn K. and Roz S. (can't remember the ladies for sure), and they had "spinning" contests and such between programs and did manage to get the two teams into a tie by the end so they could have a "jump off" between Brian and Kristi.
But I would assume, since it's Ice Wars, they'll maybe (hopefully) continue to have "real" judges -- that is, former skaters, coaches, etc., rather than Boom-Boom Mancini and Rashamba Williams, or whoever the heck they've had at these celebrity-judged things. Over the years at Ice Wars, they've had people like Irina Rodnina, Landon Johnston, Ron Luddington, Elena Bechke, Bernard Ford, Petra Burka, Charlie Tickner, Francis Dafoe, etc., do the judging, and while I haven't always agreed with them, I at least can acknowledge that they know skating. And they've always had some rules -- not a lot, not particularly complicated, but some rules that skaters and judges can figure out.
Yes, the main point is to entertain the in-person and TV audience, but having skaters who take their own performances seriously (and I think most of this lineup does) and judges who know skating and who take their job to judge quite seriously (at least, the ones I've talked to after events seem to) makes the "competition" aspect of it a bit more realisitic and enjoyable -- for me, at least.
