Michelle

[Mathman]

Mathman is that a true figure - 66,500. Where did you read that. If its true that is amazing I didn't think 66,000 people were watching.

Oh wait, that's not right. I read it wrong from the USFS web site. They reported a total of 104,418 votes in total. So if it was evenly split between the men and the women, and evenly spit again between the two phases, and Michelle got 47% in the first round and 59% in the second round, let's see...that's 27,671 votes for Michelle.

Now, the new version of the Michelle Kwan Forum has 1220 active members. So if each one voted 23.7 times....

MM

 

[mzheng]

I want to follow up on my post of yesterday but before that I want to respond to couple of other comments made in this thread.
......
Back to Michelle, I watched the tape of her SP and liked it better than first (live)viewing now that I am less emotional and more objective. It is CoP friendly and could rack up some big points on the tech side. She was a bit lethargic and did seem a bit thicker set than usual but perhaps the weight will drop, the strength and stamina increase and she will be back fighting full force. I hope so. I also hope, for the record, that Irina's health holds out. I find MZheng's comments in general about MKs progress to be heartening. Okay just one month from today.....

I just rewatched the program an hour ago after busy reading through the internet comments....I felt much better than the first view. Now I'm no skater my self and has never being involved in any sport injury myself. But here are something I heard last couple of month, you all fans, no fans judg by yourself if the situation of MK is hopless or hopeful at Nationals, which was one month a way.
1) About six weeks ago she was walking like a duckie.
2) About a month ago she barely can lift her legs backwards.
3) About two weeks ago (the week of Thanksgiving) she landed her first 2A and 3T after the injury. And start practice combo spin.
4) Then about following week added 3Flip. Never heard mention of 3Lutz and any combo jump. So a 3Z/2T was a nice supprise for me. Never bothered with that double footing.
5) Going to Marshall was properbaly a last min decition made based on what she could do by the week before.

Obviousely she is nor physical, neither tricks(jumps, spin) ready for this competions(The threpy also take off some of her off ice training time as well). Plus she is still in pain. IMHO, going out to Marshalls is more of getting her mentally ready and into the competetion mod than anything. She needs to get that rythm back and feel confident about Nationals.....so let's see another month what she can do with the managable 'pain' in hip.

 

[mzheng]

Now, the new version of the Michelle Kwan Forum has 1220 active members. So if each one voted 23.7 times....

MM

mm, this honest fan only voted once for MK. Even I have 6 PCs at home. May be my membership at MKF will be revoked?

Joke asiding. During men, I voted for Matt even before Weiss finished. But during lady, I voted for Kwan until my darling girl finished.....see this huge MK fan at least TRIED to be 'objective'....

 

[R.D.]

Could you really vote more than once in this poll? I wasn't aware of that, but because the site was so slow, you only had time to vote once, really.

 

[R.D.]

Now, the new version of the Michelle Kwan Forum has 1220 active members. So if each one voted 23.7 times....

MM

You forgot to account for the enormous amount of Kwan fans here, the enormous amount of Kwan fans at FSU, the enormous amount of Kwan fans who don't frequent the forums, the enormous amou....

And not all of them go to MKF, either.

 

[mzheng]

Could you really vote more than once in this poll? I wasn't aware of that, but because the site was so slow, you only had time to vote once, really.

Yes. you can. even use the same computer. All you need to do is clear out your cookie. stored in your browser.

It is not a registered site. Unless they kept your ip adress in their server db, there is no way to tell if you already voted or not, if you have your cookie cleared. The site just think you are another voter.

Well, if a casual fan who happened to watch FS every 4 years, accidently tunned in and out of curiousity, decide to vote. Whose name he/she will recognized? After all it's a popular cometetion.....no sense but fun. If the survy number turns out good, USFS will have another bargin chip when they negotiate their next contract with ABC. or any other TV station.

Any sport needs its 'star' to draw in casual fans, late these casual fans may become avid fans......other wise the casual fan just 'drift in' and 'drift out' to watch the sport randomly. This will be difficult to develop arden fan base. Like I did with gymnastics and diving. There never was one drawing me to keep track on them.....For figure skating though it was different, there was Peggy, Kurt, Biotano, Paul, Kristi, Yagudin, etc. There are Michelle now.

 

[attyfan]

Does anyone know if the skaters were getting appearance fees or prize money? They didn't mention any prize money (which they usually do), and, I recall reading somewhere that Alissa was getting paid about 25K, so I assume that the skaters are getting appearance fees, but I would like to know.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Kyla - ITA. Anyone who voted in this competition is just encouraging them to repeat this thing next year. It would have been just as good (or bad) if the voting was out of it. Cheesefests are meaningless.

Joe

 

[Mathman]

Kyla - ITA. Anyone who voted in this competition is just encouraging them to repeat this thing next year. It would have been just as good (or bad) if the voting was out of it. Cheesefests are meaningless.

Joe

One man's meat is another man's poison. 104,000 people voted. Maybe this will help in negotiations for the new television contract coming up next year.

 

[R.D.]

104,000 people is a decent turnout. But I think the ideal # would have been closer to 500,000.

OTOH, a ratings bonanza like American Idol has MILLIONS of people participating in the voting process. I don't know about that Dancing show. But in all, this event was not advertised enough. Maybe they should have waited until after the OLYs? Show it in prime time?

 

[Kathy]

Really I'm amazed 104,000 people voted. For the lack of advertizing and the time this event was shown on TV, that is truely great. I mean in California it was shown at 10:00 am Sunday, heck in California people just don't get up that early on Sundays - those who do are either in church or jogging.

 

[mzheng]

Really I'm amazed 104,000 people voted. For the lack of advertizing and the time this event was shown on TV, that is truely great. I mean in California it was shown at 10:00 am Sunday, heck in California people just don't get up that early on Sundays - those who do are either in church or jogging.

LOL, you all missed the fun of voting there?

 

[Kathy]

Mzheng

Well not me - you bet I got my vote in -wanna guess who? LOL But the rest of California?

 

[havanamesa1]

Wow, yesterday was embarrassing for Michelle. Unless something miraculous happens in the next three weeks, I don't think that Michelle's going to be earning her record 10th US Sr Ladies title in 2006 but will remain tied with Maribel Vinson-Owen with 9 wins apiece. If she's at Nationals, the judges will feel compelled to squeeze her onto the team by hook or crook, even if all she does is a waltz jump....NBC will do whatever it takes to ensure Michelle being on the Olympics team, for the rating$$$....maybe rack-up record-setting high presentation scores? Sad.

Michelle WILL be in Turin, by hook or crook. That means that at least one gal, who will skate magnificently (Alissa, Kimmie, BeBe, unknown skater???) will remain home.

Hmm... Marshalls' was a Michelle practice session and it was public knowledge she was coming off from injury, so what's all this surprise that she didn't skate well? What would have been a surprise was if skated well! Besides, what's there to gun for? There's already an Olympic gold medalist just waiting to be crowned. So the battle in the Olympics is only for silver and bronze. As for Nats, only Sasha will be a threat (although that maginificently-covered splat yesterday won't fly there, I'm sure). Alissa, Kimmie, Bebe are still way below the level of these two for us to start assuming that they would be deprived of their right to be in the Olympics should they remain home.

 

[havanamesa1]

Really I'm amazed 104,000 people voted. For the lack of advertizing and the time this event was shown on TV, that is truely great. I mean in California it was shown at 10:00 am Sunday, heck in California people just don't get up that early on Sundays - those who do are either in church or jogging.

Yeah, imagine the (probably tens of) thousands of votes that would have been added if people from Kwan's and Cohen's home state actually saw the event and voted! (In Southern Cal, it was shown at 3pm -- three hours after the event (and voting) ended on the East Coast.)

 

[antmanb]

One man's meat is another man's poison. 104,000 people voted. Maybe this will help in negotiations for the new television contract coming up next year.

I think in reality 104,000 votes were cast rather than people people since i've read a lot about people clearing the cookie and voting over and over again!

Ant

 

[nymkfan51]

If they were absolutely intent on having this type of format, they should have done it for the spring cheesefest. That would have been a much better fit. But ... if they were determined to have it now ... they should never have had the judges part. I could not even watch that, it was so uncomfortable. If they wanted a fan vote, then that's what they should have stuck with ... just let the fans vote and be done with it. It was obvious to most of us that this was basically going to be a popularity contest anyway, so why confuse the issue with judges?

And get well soon Michelle ... my prayers are with you!

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

If this format continues in the future it will herald the death tolls of the sport of Figure Skating. It will be a fun Showbiz venture into high family ratings on a Sunday afternoon. They may even extend it to four times a year until that too, will kill itself. You can tell by the comments in this thread that few people even care about the audience result other than voting for their favorite skater.

Joe

 

[Mathman]

If this format continues in the future it will herald the death tolls of the sport of Figure Skating. It will be a fun Showbiz venture into high family ratings on a Sunday afternoon. They may even extend it to four times a year until that too, will kill itself. You can tell by the comments in this thread that few people even care about the audience result other than voting for their favorite skater.

We'll see what happens. But in any entertainment venue, you have to give the people what they want. On this very forum, on the front page of The Edge there are 300 (now 301) posts about various aspects of the Marshall's event.

By contrast, on the thread on the lades free skate in the NHK trophy shown on TV last night, there are exactly two posts -- yours and mine.

MM

 

[Kwanford Wife]

What nasty comments were made toward Michelle? Unfortunately this thing aired at midnight in my area and after reading all the comments about Peter being an a$$hat, I paid close attention his comments at the broadcast. He didn't say anything wrong or nasty toward Michelle. Michelle didn't skate her usual b/c of injury and he noted that. He didn't say that she sucked but he also didn't give praise either. Why should he praise her to the skies if she didn't skate well. She knew she didn't skate well and any praise would have seemed fake. Even Dick and Peggy only commented that she skated with a lot of heart. Sasha had great skates and *all* the judges praised her accordingly.

I think Peter gets way too much grief on this board (not necessarily you but other posters). He was a skater as well (and a darn good one as he won a silver medal in the Olympics) and he understands injuries. Just because he's not going to give Michelle false praise (which is worse than no praise IMO) doesn't mean that he doesn't repect her or hate the Kwans or whatever everyone thinks about his,

And Michelle is a big girl. She wanted to skate in this event , probably to get in front of an audience before Nationals. I don't get the Sturm und Drang about Michelle's skating. She skated well despite her injury (so I was wrong about that) and I enjoyed both of her programs. I don't see how she's not going to get better in time for Nationals. But of course there's has to be so much drama around Kwan :sheesh:

Hey Soogar,

ITA