NBC vs. IceNetwork vs. Universal Sport

[Penny]

I don't get the Kerrigan bashing. Her soft spoken comments don't interfere with the skater's program and are mostly limited to technical comments that help the nonexpert ("That jump looked underrotated..."). She was the only commentator to note the Japanese skater's lovely inside spread eagles.

As bad as NBC commentating is, I did appreciate the short segment explaining why Evan didn't win (underrotated triple A). They focused on Evan because his program brought people out of their seats, whereas Johnny's, although very pretty, did not stir people's hearts. His music is so bland. If Johnny had hit his quad, he would have won--but that was obvious. Viewers wanted to know why Evan didn't win.

If there had been CoP and replays in the past, Kerrigan would probably have a gold Olympic medal.

 

[yelyoh]

Nancy Kerrigan's commentary is truly horrendous - her monotonous tone of voice, misprononunciation of the skaters' names, lack of understanding of CoP even after it has been in place for six years now, and just a general tendency to make completely uninsightful statements about the skating make me cringe. I actually have to turn the sound down on icenetwork just to be able to watch.

Without Dick Button to reign him in, Scott Hamilton's bias drives me crazy. He has always had a strong tendency to promote the skaters he is going to use on his "Stars on Ice" tour, and as SOI is losing money these days, he is getting worse and worse. At Skate America, his bias for Evan Lysacek was completely out of control. He was completely apoplectic during Evan's free skate, screaming "THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!!" over and over, despite Evan's many mistakes, like a fall, an incomplete triple axel and a missed combination. He was so subdued during Johnny Weir's program it was like he was asleep, and then he actually did an entire segment explaining why Evan lost the gold medal to the Japanese guy and made no mention at all of Johnny, who actually beat Evan!

Last season, Scott hired Evan for all of the men's guest spots on SOI despite a poll on the SOI web site on which fans voted for Johnny to be the guest star by a margin of eleven to one, and it is likely that he is planning to hire Evan again this season. I'm sorry, but it is just completely unethical for him to be using his commentary gigs to promote certain skaters for his professional tours over others.

Didn't know all that. Now it makes sense. Can't stand Scott or Sandra anyway.

 

[Tonichelle]

So here it is: Scott Hamilton only likes to hire male skaters for the Stars on Ice tour who are either married or have public girlfriends. He feels that this makes them seem "safe" to the public audience. Get it? Evan dates Tanith. Johnny calls himself a "princess". Scott is not going to hire him for the Stars on Ice tour.

OK?

Brian Orser? Rob McCaul? where do they fit into that theory?


ETA - and I believe Robin Cousins and Toller Cranston made appearances early on as well...

Scotty had a hand in which skaters were chosen for Ice Wars and we got Rudy Galindo...


I agree - he has a personal bias when it comes to his commentary - but i've only really noticed it since he got into NBC - and I think that says more about NBC than anything else. They manipulate the commentary as much as they can. Scott likes a certain style on the ice - he's never said anything different - but he has to have a network bias as well. If he wants to keep his job.


I thought Dick was (and is) just as bad as Sandra and Scott when it came to bias on NBC and certainly when he was on ABC - his biggest problem was he wasn't just in charge when he was dropped into the NBC booth, and you could tell he was frustrated when they wouldn't just agree with him. He did the same thing when Kurt joined the ABC team, but at least Kurt had a backbone.

 

[rosee]

Mathman, I can tell when there's a touchdown scored, but when the zebras throw their flags for a penalty, I never know the reason, and often can't see it even on the replay... Is it just me?

No it's not just you! I've been watching rugby so I thought it was pretty similar but when I watched an American Football match I didn't understand much. I know what touchdows are. What I odn't understand is why they keep stopping the game every 5 seconds

 

[PolymerBob]

My favorite was hearing Tugba say "It sucked." I don't know whether she was talking about her falls or the judging, but it was funny. I didn't realize she's totally bilingual. (PS: I really like her plush style this year and her line is beautiful.)

I heard Tugba say "I don't know what happened", in really good English. I was surprised. I was expecting something like Mao at last year's Worlds.
.......... "I - very - happy."

 

[Mathman]

Mathman, I can tell when there's a touchdown scored, but when the zebras throw their flags for a penalty, I never know the reason, and often can't see it even on the replay... Is it just me?

Not just you, I think it's everybody. That is my whole point. Yes, if we were interested to enough to study the NFL rule book we might pay more attention.

What happens, IMO, is that whatever the call, all the people on the blue side of the field think the guy was out of bounds and all the people on the red side think it was a touchdown. No matter how many times they show the replay.

Huh?

Big-deal plays are automatically reviewed in football. Sometimes that alleged touchdown is called back on a penalty or a step-out. Or a more exotic infraction that requires actual work for the commentator to explain.

My main thing is, it is always a bad thing for a sport when the referees upstage the athletes. This is what happened at the Salt lake City Olympics. When fans leave the stadium talking about the referee's call instead of the great catch, that is not good for the sport.

And in football, at least there is some tension and excitement for the fans when the referees huddle to review a play. In figure skating, all of the interest in the rules interpretation has evaporated because the skate is over, the scores have been announced, and what's the point of stirring that old cold coffee?

(That's what I think, anyway. )

As bad as NBC commentating is, I did appreciate the short segment explaining why Evan didn't win (underrotated triple A). They focused on Evan because his program brought people out of their seats, whereas Johnny's, although very pretty, did not stir people's hearts. His music is so bland. If Johnny had hit his quad, he would have won--but that was obvious. Viewers wanted to know why Evan didn't win.

I appreciated that segment, too.

Still, a sport should not have to explain to the audience why one athlete won and the other didn't. Lipinski, six first place ordinals, Kwan, three. That I can understand. (I might not like it, but I understand it. )

 

[enlight78]

Not just you, I think it's everybody. That is my whole point. Yes, if we were interested to enough to study the NFL rule book we might pay more attention.

What happens, IMO, is that whatever the call, all the people on the blue side of the field think the guy was out of bounds and all the people on the red side think it was a touchdown. No matter how many times they show the replay.

My main thing is, it is always a bad thing for a sport when the referees upstage the athletes. This is what happened at the Salt lake City Olympics. When fans leave the stadium talking about the referee's call instead of the great catch, that is not good for the sport.

And in football, at least there is some tension and excitement for the fans when the referees huddle to review a play. In figure skating, all of the interest in the rules interpretation has evaporated because the skate is over, the scores have been announced, and what's the point of stirring that old cold coffee?

(That's what I think, anyway. )

would it be better if we dress the technical callers in stripes so the crowd will know who to boo. Oh yeah. according to the cbc feed. Skater America sold more tickets this year than ever. It was >29,000 .I guess people really like to boo or washington did some good advertising.

 

[Mathman]

Would it be better if we dress the technical callers in stripes so the crowd will know who to boo.

yes! Not callers, but back before secret judging you could always boo the Russian judge to your heart's content.

Oh yeah. according to the cbc feed. Skater America sold more tickets this year than ever. It was >29,000. I guess people really like to boo or washington did some good advertising.

The Everett people did a really good job (and, yes, people do like to boo -- at least, I do.)

Here is the article from the local newspaper.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20...kate.America.in.Everett.everything.fans.hoped

Kimmie got twice as many stuffed penguins thrown to her than either Rachael or Mirai .

 

[Buttercup]

Re Tugba, guys, she's been in Canada since she was 11 - more than half her life! At this point I'd imagine her English is better than her Turkish.

What happens, IMO, is that whatever the call, all the people on the blue side of the field think the guy was out of bounds and all the people on the red side think it was a touchdown. No matter how many times they show the replay.

Mathman, how astute! But how do they spot all the false starts and holding and what not?

back before secret judging you could always boo the Russian judge to your heart's content.

See, this is the real problem with CoP... How are the viewers to know who the eeeeevil judges are?

I guess people really like to boo or washington did some good advertising.

Considering how the Mariners did this season + the Seahawks being 2-5, clearly they get loads of practice booing!

 

[sillylionlove]

I think that the best announcer that has been out there in a while is Paul Wylie. He didn't show any bias and really broke down the COP in a way that the average person

 

[Blades of Passion]

Wylie is definitely the best American commentator.

 

[KayMil01]

It's sad that ESPN canned skating. I miss Paul Wylie & Susie Wynn's commentary Paul was great, he explained things so well...BRING BACK PAUL!

 

[waxel]

Universal is not available to me. There were some techinal problems with icenetwork- but I think the mere $29.95 price to see all the GP's (and other events) is one of the biggest bargains going.

Commentating dream team? Paul WIley and Tracey WIlson.

 

[libby]

Brian Orser? Rob McCaul? where do they fit into that theory?


ETA - and I believe Robin Cousins and Toller Cranston made appearances early on as well...

Your information is wrong, Tonichelle.

US Stars on Ice and Stars on Ice Canada are two different tours. The Canadian tour has always allowed gay men without any problem (Hamilton does not own the Canadian tour or any of the other foreign SOI tours, for that matter). As for Rob McCall, he was never out of the closet in his lifetime - in fact, it was Scott Hamilton who outed McCall after his death from AIDS in 1991, in Scott's own autobiography - a book in which Scott himself admits to being homophobic. Hamilton has allowed men to skate on his tour as long as they take pains to portray themselves as straight.

 

[Tonichelle]

Brian Orser skated in the US SOI, not just the Canadian... same as Tracy Wilson and Rob McCaul... and CSOI did not start as a seperate tour, they originally just added on stops to the end of the SOI tour to include their neighbors in the north.

I don't recall the term 'homophobic' being used in Scott's book, yes - he admitted to having issues with how he was percieved, but that's an unfair leap to claiming he's a bigot.

 

[libby]

Brian Orser skated in the US SOI, not just the Canadian... same as Tracy Wilson and Rob McCaul... and CSOI did not start as a seperate tour, they originally just added on stops to the end of the SOI tour to include their neighbors in the north.

I don't recall the term 'homophobic' being used in Scott's book, yes - he admitted to having issues with how he was percieved, but that's an unfair leap to claiming he's a bigot.

The Canadian SOI tour is now a separately owned tour, not a part of the US one. Brian Orser was the one and only openly gay man who ever skated on the US SOI tour in its entire history, and that was only after he had made a big deal out of claiming that he would never be allowed to tour on ice shows again if the Canadian courts allowed the man who was suing him for palimony to do so in an open court, and Scott apparently felt forced to allow him on the tour just once to prove that he would let a gay man on the tour. Then he never did it again.

Now go back and read Scott's book again. He talks about how uncomfortable he was around all the gay men when he competed and how he made homophobic jokes about them until one of them got pissed off and angrily confronted him one day so he had to stop.

 

[stevlin]

hi Libby

I read what you said about Scott Hamilton and his hiring men who have wives or girlfriends. Jeffrey Buttle stars in SOI and I do not think he has a girlfriend. Or does he? Jeff is a wonderful skater anyway.

 

[libby]

I read what you said about Scott Hamilton and his hiring men who have wives or girlfriends. Jeffrey Buttle stars in SOI and I do not think he has a girlfriend. Or does he? Jeff is a wonderful skater anyway.

Sigh. Try reading all of the comments, Stevlin. Jeff Buttle skates with CANADIAN Stars on Ice, NOT the US tour. The Canadian SOI is NOT owned by Scott Hamilton - it is a separate tour, and as I have already pointed out, has always had no restrictions on which men can skate with it.

Any chance at all we can get back on topic now?

 

[iluvtodd]

Jeff Buttle will be doing half of the US tour (20 shows, including the Lake Placid debut show) this season. arty:

Now, can we please get back on topic?

I enjoyed having the coverage of Universal Sports, but I actually missed some commentary. I personally really like hearing what Dick Button has to say (I've learned a lot through him), but I would be very happy to have Paul Wylie do the commentary (he is very knowledgeable about CoP).

 

[stevlin]

Universal Sports channel

I enjoyed the skating on Un. Sports but the times were way off so I had to record everything. Hated that the men's were on so late. Oh by the way I came across an article that Jeff [ http://www.jeffreybuttle.com/releases/soi09-lp.pdf ] Buttle will be touring in Scott Hamiltons show .