More skaters on DWTS?

[Coltrocks12]

I wish that they would re-introduce skating with the stars with a few tweaks. I liked Tanith back stage but the host was creepy and the one judge that didn't skate (Lori Anne?) was a joke. I think if they had judges that were all tied to skating somehow (former skaters, announcers, judges, coaches) and let the recently not competing skating stars (Meryl, Charlie, Scott, etc) be the pros I think it would be fun. I don't want to see another ringer though (Rebecca Buddig had former skating experience.) A similar show worked really well for Fox (I think it was called "Skating with Celebrities") and I know Canada had a couple of seasons of a similar show that worked well. I would just like it to have similar production value to DWTS. I also think it would be fun to do a show taking ice dance or pairs teams that exist and have them mixed up with different partners to see how they would do. They could have them not match their own real-life partner or someone else in their federation. I thought of that when they did the partner switch week on DWTS both in Meryl and Charlie's season and the one after.

 

[ice coverage]

.. A similar show worked really well for Fox (I think it was called "Skating with Celebrities") ...

Strongly disagree. The Skating with Celebrities scandal is the reason that I lost interest in skating for many years. Although just one skater primarily was at fault, I previously had held him in high regard. Made me wish that I had never paid any attention to the sport in the first place.
And I believe that the scandal is the reason that the "genre" of that type of skating show has not flourished in the U.S.

 

[Mathman]

Speaking of Michelle Kwan, she is scheduled to be a judge/commentator at something called the Millennial Dancesport competition in Tampa, Florida, next week. The others at the "commentator's table" will be DWTS pros Toni Dovolani and Karina Smirnoff, and the DWTS winner from a couple of seasons ago, Donald Driver.

http://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/event-detail/millennium-dancesport-championship/162750

 

[dorispulaski]

Donald Driver was a kick! His winning freestyle was to Cowboy Troy's I Play Chicken With the Train.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcMfOzMEcPY

 

[Pixie Cut]

Strongly disagree. The Skating with Celebrities scandal is the reason that I lost interest in skating for many years. Although just one skater primarily was at fault, I previously had held him in high regard. Made me wish that I had never paid any attention to the sport in the first place.
And I believe that the scandal is the reason that the "genre" of that type of skating show has not flourished in the U.S.

You lost interest in skating because one male skater was a horndog and cheated on his wife while doing a reality show? His bad behavior was in no way linked to the sport.

This genre of show most likely hasn't flourished because celebrities don't want to put in the work necessary to be decent.

 

[ice coverage]

You lost interest in skating because one male skater was a horndog and cheated on his wife while doing a reality show? His bad behavior was in no way linked to the sport. ...

Reports at the time were that at least one other skater helped deceive the wife, who was pregnant with her husband's first child, no less.
It was terribly disillusioning for me that I had cheered for the skaters in question (esp. the TV skater) during their competitive careers -- because they seemed like fine people as well as fine athletes.
Watching any skating at all thereafter was only an unpleasant reminder of how wrong I had been about those particular skaters.
Thus my loss of interest -- whether it makes sense to you or not.

 

[Pixie Cut]

Reports at the time were that at least one other skater helped deceive the wife, who was pregnant with her husband's first child, no less.
It was terribly disillusioning for me that I had cheered for the skaters in question (esp. the TV skater) during their competitive careers -- because they seemed like fine people as well as fine athletes.
Watching any skating at all thereafter was only an unpleasant reminder of how wrong I had been about those particular skaters.
Thus my loss of interest -- whether it makes sense to you or not.

You unreasonably idealized those skaters. I'm not excusing the bad behavior. You have every right to be disappointed. But to allow their bad behavior to impact your appreciation of the beauty of skating is very unfortunate. Skaters are human. They do bad things -- not all of them, but more than one or two. No different than people in this world and all too common among athletes who live in protected bubbles.

The cheater didn't thwart this genre of show. Skating is hard hard work. To make a decent product, the celebrities have to make a commitment of time and effort and the producers have to put in resources and create a platform for a good show. Neither side was willing. Skating with the Stars was ridiculously bad. The terrible host, the misshapen rink, etc.

 

[ice coverage]

You unreasonably idealized those skaters. I'm not excusing the bad behavior. You have every right to be disappointed. But to allow their bad behavior to impact your appreciation of the beauty of skating is very unfortunate. Skaters are human. They do bad things -- not all of them, but more than one or two. No different than people in this world and all too common among athletes who live in protected bubbles. ...

Skaters are human beings?? And human beings have flaws??
I am shocked, shocked, shocked .
"Unreasonably" shocked, shocked, shocked.

 

[Pixie Cut]

Skaters are human beings?? And human beings have flaws??
I am shocked, shocked, shocked .
"Unreasonably" shocked, shocked, shocked.

If you are so quick to mock my comment, why were you so life-changingly horrified that one skater cheated on his pregnant wife (this is confirmed) and another skater allegedly helped cover it up? You said you thought these human acts effectively killed this genre of show in the U.S. Pampered, protected athletes did dumb stuff.

 

[ice coverage]

... You said you thought these human acts effectively killed this genre of show in the U.S...

At the time, I worked for another major U.S. television network, and in fact, there was discussion within the industry that it was too risky for any producer (who otherwise perhaps might have been interested) to try this genre again (at least anytime soon) -- because of the taint of the scandal.

Once was bad enough, but no producer would have wanted her/his skating project to be struck by a repeat of the same type of scandal -- and of course, there was no guarantee against the possibility, given that skaters are human; humans are prone to bad behavior; blah, blah, blah.

 

[dorispulaski]

Why does this not concern them about the DWTS celebrities, where speculating on whether the pro/celebrity are in a relationship seems to be part of what the audience is enjoying? Is it only skaters that are supposed to be pure as snow...and ice??

 

[Pixie Cut]

Why does this not concern them about the DWTS celebrities, where speculating on whether the pro/celebrity are in a relationship seems to be part of what the audience is enjoying? Is it only skaters that are supposed to be pure as snow...and ice??

The public has always loved the romance rumors on DWTS.

 

[ice coverage]

Why does this not concern them about the DWTS celebrities, where speculating on whether the pro/celebrity are in a relationship seems to be part of what the audience is enjoying? Is it only skaters that are surlpposed to be pure as snow...and ice??

If the very first season of DWTS in the U.S. had resulted in one of the stars running off with his DWTS partner and ditching a wife who was pregnant with their first child, I think it could/would have been problematic for the future of DWTS as well.

(IIIRC, the Skating with Celebrities scandal happened in its one and only season??)

I don't pay enough attention to DWTS and DWTS-related gossip to know whether the innuendo "promoted" (with wink/winks) by the show itself extends to the possibility that DWTS partners are cheating on spouses to carry on an extramarital affair. I hope not -- although the show obviously does not have the power to muzzle what media/fans out in the world want to gossip about.

And obviously, romances (whether rumored or confirmed) btwn unmarried DWTS contestants are not analogous to the Skating with Celebrities scandal. Apples and oranges.

DWTS is so well-entrenched at this point (after twenty-something seasons, is it??) that I suppose it prob. could survive a homewrecking scandal. But again, I think it would have been a different story in the first season of DWTS.

 

[dorispulaski]

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity...finally-address-dating-rumors-on-dwts-2015243

Here's one. Wife was not pregnant though.

 

[ice coverage]

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity...finally-address-dating-rumors-on-dwts-2015243

Here's one. Wife was not pregnant though.

Sorry to read this article, but thank you for adding it to our conversation, Doris.
As I said, I don't pay a lot of attention to DWTS in general at this point -- and have paid zero attention recently, so was not aware of this situation.
(I'm so out of it that I don't know whether the season is over. Pleeeeeeease tell me that these partners did not win.)

As I said earlier as well, DWTS has become such a strong franchise that I do believe that it has become scandal-proof. [ETA: To clarify, I don't mean immune from scandal. I mean strong enough to withstand scandal.]
But if marital infidelity had been an issue in the first season of DWTS, I think it would have had an adverse effect on the show.

[At the risk of holding myself up to further ridicule (not from you, Doris), I will add that a particularly cringe-worthy memory of Skating with the Celebrities is at least one judge's on-air advice to the partners in question -- urging them to develop more chemistry, which apparently they lacked at the beginning of the season.]

ETA:

Herjavec already was separated from his wife months before DWTS, according to two comments attached to the article (from two separate people). I have no idea whether the comments are true (and don't care enough about the story to try to find out), but if true, then I see something merely "juicy" (at least for those interested in this type of thing) -- but not scandalous -- here.​

 

[Mathman]

I think the shark tank guy had already split with his wife shortly before the show began.(?)

As for the miscreant pairs skater, IIRC the next year he was suspended from coaching in Canada for sending "inappropriate" emails to a fifteen-year-old student.

Taking a 180 degree turn, Max and Meryl won the prize and retired the trophy for winking, teasing, good clean fun.

 

[karne]

There was a scandal on Australian DWTS several years ago. One of the pros, Kym Johnson, was engaged to Shane Watson, a very talented Australian cricketer who was that year chosen to go on Australia's tour of England. He left with the team with her promise that she would join him when the current season of DWTS was over.

She rang him the day after he arrived in England and told him she was ending their engagement because she was having an affair with her partner. Coming right before an Ashes series, that made her Miss Unpopular to say the very least. Watto had the last laugh though - she was dumped by her dance partner, while he is now happily married to someone else, with the most beautiful son and daughter.

 

[ice coverage]

A nitpicky comment about my own post above: I didn't mean immune from scandal when I used the term "scandal-proof." Sorry if my wording gave the wrong idea. I meant scandal-proof as analogous to bullet-proof -- that DWTS would not be damaged by scandal.

---

I think the shark tank guy had already split with his wife shortly before the show began.(?)

As for the miscreant pairs skater, IIRC the next year he was suspended from coaching in Canada for sending "inappropriate" emails to a fifteen-year-old student.

Taking a 180 degree turn, Max and Meryl won the prize and retired the trophy for winking, teasing, good clean fun.

I do hope that you are correct that Herjavec already had split with his wife before DWTS. I like Shark Tank, and liked him on that show. Was vaguely aware that he was cast on DWTS, but never knew a thing about his personal life.

I was completely unaware of the Canadian skater's suspension and the reason why. More sliminess on his part. Ugggh.

---

There was a scandal on Australian DWTS several years ago. One of the pros, Kym Johnson, was engaged to Shane Watson, a very talented Australian cricketer who was that year chosen to go on Australia's tour of England. He left with the team with her promise that she would join him when the current season of DWTS was over.

She rang him the day after he arrived in England and told him she was ending their engagement because she was having an affair with her partner. Coming right before an Ashes series, that made her Miss Unpopular to say the very least. Watto had the last laugh though - she was dumped by her dance partner, while he is now happily married to someone else, with the most beautiful son and daughter.

And Kym Johnson also is the DWTS pro (now on U.S. DWTS) in the article above from Doris. Hope KJ's entanglements with DWTS partners never will go so far as to break up a marriage. Glad the cricketer rebounded to a very happy life.

 

[Pixie Cut]

Robert Herjavec split from his wife last year and were either already divorced or well into the divorce process before he went on DWTS. No real scandal.

There have been rumors of married celebs hooking up with their partners, but it's only added to the aura of the show.

 

[Coltrocks12]

At the time, I worked for another major U.S. television network, and in fact, there was discussion within the industry that it was too risky for any producer (who otherwise perhaps might have been interested) to try this genre again (at least anytime soon) -- because of the taint of the scandal.

Once was bad enough, but no producer would have wanted her/his skating project to be struck by a repeat of the same type of scandal -- and of course, there was no guarantee against the possibility, given that skaters are human; humans are prone to bad behavior; blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, but...

Skating with the Stars by ABC was done several years after Skating with Celebrities. I think the Canadian version (something with Blades in the title) worked really well and as far as I know, didn't yield any scandals. I think they could give it a try and make it work. Besides how long ago was it that Lloyd what's his name left his wife for Kristy Swanson? Just sayin...

I agree with the posters who say that you shouldn't let your disappointment in finding out a pro who hasn't competed in a couple of decades has clay feet keep you away from a sport filled with young athletes that have nothing to do with the scandal.