Peter Carruthers | Golden Skate

Peter Carruthers

C

cassieandcheetah

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Hi everyone, I was just wondering why people dislike Carruther's so much, and what you thought of his interviewing style? I once saw a picture titled "carruthers does it again," with him interviewing Tanith and Tanith almost glaring at him as though she was angry with him. Does he just rub people the wrong way or something? I definitely see that because he just doesn't sound too sincere, or he tries too hard and in turn pisses people off with his insincere remarks and stuff...What do you think?
 
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cassieandcheetah said:
Hi everyone, I was just wondering why people dislike Carruther's so much, and what you thought of his interviewing style? I once saw a picture titled "carruthers does it again," with him interviewing Tanith and Tanith almost glaring at him as though she was angry with him. Does he just rub people the wrong way or something? I definitely see that because he just doesn't sound too sincere, or he tries too hard and in turn pisses people off with his insincere remarks and stuff...What do you think? For me, he strikes me as condescending and a bit slimey though I know nothing of his moral character obviously. :)
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I like him. I havent seen all of his interviews. But as far as I have seen, he has always been nice and positive. Even when the athlete made mistakes, he tends to be neutral and positive (i.e., no overly-done encouragement, but positive and happy) :)
 
I think sometimes he forgot what it was like to be a skater and the pressure skaters feel. The one thing that really upset me was at last year's grand prix final. While reporting on Johnny's withdrawal due to injury, Peter made it sound like Johnny wasn't injured enough to have to withdraw. His exact words were "in Johnny's mind, he can't skate". I thought that was wrong since the doctor at the gpf had examined Johnny and said he had suffered an abrasion to his hip on his take off leg. The abrasion making it impossible for Johnny to jump since he couldn't cross his legs or even pull his leg back to jump.

. I really have to wonder how he and his sister would have done under the CoP system.
 
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cassieandcheetah said:
Hi everyone, I was just wondering why people dislike Carruther's so much, and what you thought of his interviewing style? I once saw a picture titled "carruthers does it again," with him interviewing Tanith and Tanith almost glaring at him as though she was angry with him. Does he just rub people the wrong way or something? I definitely see that because he just doesn't sound too sincere, or he tries too hard and in turn pisses people off with his insincere remarks and stuff...What do you think?
Click to expand...

Peter to skater I am paraphrasing here "You really lost control of that combination jump in your LP and took a hard fall how did you feel about that" then sticks the microphone into the skater's face, skater rolls eyes, then proceeds to answer. There was one instance I am not sure which competition it was but he was interviewing Sasha and he was going on and on about her jump mistakes then he stuck the microphone in her face and she said to him something along the lines of why do you always focus on the bad stuff why don't you point out the good things.
 
I find his voice somewhat irritating. He is sort of abrupt at times as well. He is no Kurt Browning in front of the camera that is for sure.
 
Kurt - for as much as I love him - is not always perfect with his commentary either, he's had a few oopsies over the years :laugh: Kurt's just a big clown and so the camera does not intimidate him... not a bad thing, but it can backfire if you're not loveable enough ;)


Peter just asks dumb questions, which yeah I get he's not a journalist and what not, but it just annoys me... his commentary can be incredibly biased at times as well and it's not always consistent because of it... but I don't have a dislike for his style... there are worse.
 
My biggest complaint about Peter Carruthers is that many of the questions he asks are so inane:

"How were you feeling after the fall on the triple lutz?" <Um, bad?>

"What does a win here mean for you?" <Um, it's good?>

I guess a lot of that is standard fluff, but just once, I'd like to see an offbeat question or two. The questions that are always asked of skaters remind me of the scene from Bull Durham when Kevin Costner's character tells Tim Robbins' character that he needs to memorize his cliches:

"I'm just trying to help the ball club."

"I'm just taking it one day at a time, and the good Lord willing, things will work out."

It seems the answers skaters must memorize are:

"I just felt really trained and well prepared."

"We're just going to go back and work hard to prepare for {Nationals, Worlds, the Olympics}."

"I just couldn't quite get my feet under me."

"I just wanna have a good skate."
 
I don't have a problem with Peter commentating, especially about pairs. My concern with him in with the questions he asks after a skater's performance, especially if it hasn't gone so well. When a skater's feeling kind of down, I wouldn't persist in asking some of the questions he's asked.
 
dutchherder said:
My biggest complaint about Peter Carruthers is that many of the questions he asks are so inane:

"How were you feeling after the fall on the triple lutz?" <Um, bad?>

"What does a win here mean for you?" <Um, it's good?>
...
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IMO, the "most inane question" took place at the-event-formerly-known-as-Trophy-Lalique, during the '00/'01 season, when a young Sasha and a young Sarah, both of whom had skated cleanly in the SP, were still placed behind Maria Butyrskaya, even though she had made a mistake. He asked them what they thought of the judging, and the look they gave each other -- "I can't believe he asked us that question" -- was priceless!
 
Peter's no worse than any other interviewer. Over the years (like the past 30) I've heard the same dumb questions asked which is why fans so often complain about the skaters stock answers. I've always felt those interviews are a waste of time. It wasn't Peter who tried to interview Orser after he lost the Olympic gold wanting to know how he felt (devastated, obviously!). It wasn't Peter who asked Eldredge after the '98 Olympics what it was like to be off the medal platform while his training partner (Lipinski) had just become the ladies gold medalist.
 
merrywidow - you make a good point, but Peter's a former skater where as normally the Oly interviewers are just 3rd string network journalists lol Peter should remember how he felt during those interviews and come up with something better

I do agree with Joe that this season so far seems to have gone better in that department :)
 
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Peter, along with other commentators, can all benefit from broadcast and communications courses. They need to learn interpersonal communication, and maybe some (like Peter) need to learn intercultural communication. I hate it when Peter Carruthers talks to a skater from another country (like Mao) and he speaks slowly and loudly--as if she was mentally handicapped (and there is even a translator!).

The worst by far is when Christine Brennan was doing commentary for ABC, and right after Angela Nikodinov's mother was killed, she interviewed Michelle Kwan. Like a grinning Cheshire cat, she asked, "How do you feel about the death of Angela's mother?"
 
and Brennan is a journalist... classes don't give a person class (no matter how much my university insists that taking their classes makes one more rounded as an individual... it actually just makes the school's pocketbook more round ;))
 
demarinis5 said:
Peter to skater I am paraphrasing here "You really lost control of that combination jump in your LP and took a hard fall how did you feel about that" then sticks the microphone into the skater's face, skater rolls eyes, then proceeds to answer. There was one instance I am not sure which competition it was but he was interviewing Sasha and he was going on and on about her jump mistakes then he stuck the microphone in her face and she said to him something along the lines of why do you always focus on the bad stuff why don't you point out the good things.
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yeah... i remeber that. she finally said what so many other skaters should have said. He ALWAYS talks about the mistakes and says "what happened there?" What diffrence does it make. he/she/they fell. we saw that. he never says anyting intersing. then he says somthing like "well you are going to the GPF, how to you feel about that?" how does he think that they skater feels. of course the are excited, happy. ESPN needs a new interviewer!

attyfan said:
IMO, the "most inane question" took place at the-event-formerly-known-as-Trophy-Lalique, during the '00/'01 season, when a young Sasha and a young Sarah, both of whom had skated cleanly in the SP, were still placed behind Maria Butyrskaya, even though she had made a mistake. He asked them what they thought of the judging, and the look they gave each other -- "I can't believe he asked us that question" -- was priceless!
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is this on youtube? i have to see that!
 
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I think he's actually gotten a little better over the years.

I'd MUCH rather have Peter on a telecast instead of non-skating people like Tom Hammond (horrible) or other network people, kwim??

He's better when he's commentating....like with Susie Wynne or Paul Wylie.....rather than interviewing.
 
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