Skating With the Stars

I wasn't sure whether to put this in general news or competitions, but decided to put it on here since it's more of a reality tv show than a real, serious competition. Moderators are welcome to move it.

ABC just announced today that they will be doing a new series "Skating With the Stars". They will announce the cast on the Dancing With the Stars result show on November 2nd. The show will only have six episodes, starting on November 22nd.

As a big figure skating fan, of course I am excited, but I'm also worried. Just four years ago, FOX did "Skating With Celebrities" and it bombed pretty bad. A few months ago, there was also, "On Thin Ice" which did not involve celebrities, but was a reality, elimination series pairing up all pro skaters. I don't even know if all the episodes got aired! I was following the show, and after a few episodes, I couldn't find out when it was coming on again.

A show like Skating With the Stars would have done great 20 years ago, but figure skating isn't that popular here any more. If a show just like it failed just a few years ago, I'm kind of surprised to hear someones trying it again. However, this show may have more of a chance to succeed. It will be tied to Dancing With the Stars, and even have some of the same producers. Maybe the format of the shows will be very similar (although I don't know how much more similar you can get than Skating With Celebrities). Also, Dancing With the Stars is the highest rated show in America right now. Maybe the fact that this new show will be like a sister show will bring a lot of their viewers, and the show will actually be successful! I hope it is

Star85 wrote:

As a big figure skating fan, of course I am excited, but I'm also worried. Just four years ago, FOX did "Skating With Celebrities" and it bombed pretty bad.

Ah, I remember that... good ol' Jillian Barberie.

I think part of the struggle will be wowing the viewers. DWTS always manages to showcase some really good routines every season, but it's much harder to polish pairs skating and make it look impressive - esp. when one-half of the team is a complete newbie - and Skating With Celebrities more or less cemented that suspicion. Only having six episodes don't exactly help either.

Thin Ice was also rather underwhelming in terms of ratings, but as long as the show actively pushes its DWTS connection I think the show will do OK - at least for the first week. Sister-shows and spinoffs tend to fail on prime time, but there are exceptions (e.g., American Juniors) so it'll definitely be fascinating to see which way this will be going. If it does succeed, the show *might* revitalize some much needed public interest in FS too.

Hmm...I'm not sure how successful it will be either.

I think clovera makes a great point about how it'll be more difficult to make wow-factor skating programs. If they go only with people who have at least some skating experience, the celebrities they find will most likely be ones the public isn't that interested in...even DWTS is having trouble nowadays finding famous enough celebrities.

On the other hand, this show is going to get massive publicity. The other shows I don't think were publicized that much, but they're going to advertise this show on DWTS, which gets around 25 million viewers, many of whom would probably be interested in watching figure skating. I've already seen information about it on blogs and twitter, which will be spread much more quickly than it could have even in 2006. This may result in much more attention to the sport (hopefully positive!) that could even have an effect on how much airtime figure skating competitions get in the US! Hopefully, anyway.

Success and ratings aside, I'm definitely going to be watching. I think more skating on TV (even if it'll probably be a trainwreck in the beginning hahaha) would be awesome. This probably won't happen, but I'm actually hoping Dick Button is a judge. I've missed his comments about skaters' stretch and extension hahaha. If Scott Hamilton and/or Sandra Bezic are involved, I will be rolling my eyes a lot and voting to sabotage their contestants

Yeah, I agree with you guys that this show could be a potential way to pull in some new fans to figure skating again. And what better way to do it than by going through DWTS? The show has tons of viewers, and fanatics, and since pairs skating is so comparable to ballroom dancing, it would be kind of right up their ally. I think a lot of people just don't even really think about figure skating any more. If they do the show right, it could just be the answer to figure skatings prayer in this country (that's a stretch, but hey, there's always a chance! Maybe it could at least give it a little boost). I also think that if they stick very closely do DWTS format (live band, judges+viewers votes, etc.) it would be smart. Although I'm not really sure what they're going to do with only 6 episodes.... Just as long as they don't make it cheesy, don't choose as bad of music as they use in much of real figure skating (lol), and get some decent celebrities. Skating With Celebrities was actually a US version of a UK show, "Dancing on Ice" which was, and still is really successful. Figure skating is even less popular there. There were some reasons why the US version failed as opposed to the why the UK version thrived. Hopefully the producers of this new show will be learning from that.

I also hope that Dick Button, and NOT Scott or Sandra are judges. I also wouldn't mind if Peggy, and Tara were judges too. It would be good if they could use the DWTS host Tom. Everyone really seems to like him. A lot of people hate Brooke though. lol.

Well, the participants were announced...

I can only recognize Vince Neil and Jonny Moseley.

clovera wrote:

Well, the participants were announced...

I can only recognize Vince Neil and Jonny Moseley.

Yeah, I've never heard of ANY of these people!... I wasn't expecting A list celebrities, but this is the worst selection I think I've seen on any celebrity reality show .... I was hoping at least there would be some pro skaters to get excited about to make up for it, but there's not a very impressive lineup there either.

Yeah, I barely recognize any of the celebrities, same with the skaters. The thing I'm most excited about is Dick Button judging. I'm not sure that really bodes well for the success of the show..

bellarina wrote:

Yeah, I barely recognize any of the celebrities, same with the skaters. The thing I'm most excited about is Dick Button judging. I'm not sure that really bodes well for the success of the show..

Yay! Well there's ONE good thing. I agree that that probably won't help the show out too much (at the same time, it won't hurt it). Dick is loved in the figure skating world, but most other people don't know who he is.

Star85 wrote:

bellarina wrote:

Yeah, I barely recognize any of the celebrities, same with the skaters. The thing I'm most excited about is Dick Button judging. I'm not sure that really bodes well for the success of the show..

Yay! Well there's ONE good thing. I agree that that probably won't help the show out too much (at the same time, it won't hurt it). Dick is loved in the figure skating world, but most other people don't know who he is.

Oh sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant it's not a good sign if someone who loves figure skating is only really excited about Dick Button being a judge, instead of looking forward to seeing the skaters and celebrities as well. I think Dick being on the judging panel will help the show definitely, and make it seem like less of a trainwreck-type show.

How do you feel about Johnny Weir being a judge? I'm sort of indifferent. A retired skater I think is a great commentator now is Tara (honestly, I like her commentary more than her skating, haha!), and I think it'd be cool if she did this show eventually, though I'm glad that she's doing the GP series and "real" figure skating competitions instead

I think Johnny would be a very good choice for judge. He's really popular amongst skating fans, and as far as figure skaters go, he's one of the more well known ones outside of the figure skating world too. He's quirky, controversial, and entertaining to listen too. What would REALLY be good is if they have Johnny and Evan as judges at the same time. Lmao. And while they're at it, they could sit them right next to each other too . Evan would be just as good of a judge if not better, since he was just on DWTS, and this show is tied with that show. A lot of the people who will be tuning in will be DWTS fans. Plus there's the whole he just won the olympics, and he's having a bit of fame right now.

I agree with you about Tara. I think she's been doing a good job commentating. I would also like to see Michelle. Either one would be good for the show. They were both America's sweethearts, and most people know who they are. And of course, there's Peggy too. She's always a good choice. I heard they may have Brian Boytano. I also heard they may have Johnny as a guest judge.

Still no word on who will host... Hm

bellarina wrote:

Oh sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant it's not a good sign if someone who loves figure skating is only really excited about Dick Button being a judge, instead of looking forward to seeing the skaters and celebrities as well. I think Dick being on the judging panel will help the show definitely, and make it seem like less of a trainwreck-type show.

How do you feel about Johnny Weir being a judge? I'm sort of indifferent. A retired skater I think is a great commentator now is Tara (honestly, I like her commentary more than her skating, haha!), and I think it'd be cool if she did this show eventually, though I'm glad that she's doing the GP series and "real" figure skating competitions instead

Johnny could play the role of the hard-to-please judge (aka the Simon position) - it'll either be him or Dick. The show really needs all the buzz it can get, so the more big names as judges, the better. It's highly unlikely that the show can become what Battle of Blades is to Canada or Dancing on Ice is to the UK, but I do wish those involved in it the very best.

Here are the participants and their partners:
Rebecca Budig and Fred Palascak
Bethenny Frankel and Ethan Burgess
Jonny Moseley and Brooke Castile
Vince Neil and Jennifer Wester
Brandon Mychal Smith and Keauna McLaughlin
Sean Young and Denis Petukhov

ETA: I like Star's suggestion
There's no way either Johnny or Evan will possibly agree on being on a show with one another, but I'm amazed that there's no appearance scheduled for Michelle or Sasha who do *not* have commentating gigs. Or maybe they are slotted in as surprise guests perhaps?

I've heard that Kristi, Brian Boitano, and Dorothy Hamill will also fill in as judges, although ABC is taking forever to confirm this.
...and suddenly a weird idea popped into my head. Since Kristi was on DWTS, why isn't Carrie-Ann Inaba one of the participants so there'll be a flip-flop situation going on?

Looks like Johnny will be a judge for sure:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20440875,00.html

It sounds like clovera was right - Johnny's going to go the strict judge route. I can definitely see that. I can see him being a sassy Simon Cowell

I want Kristi to come on! Hopefully that happens. She'd definitely be a Paula-type judge. She was AMAZING on DWTS (have you guys seen her performances? So. Good.) though so I kind of wonder if she'd have high expectations for people on this show.

Do you guys know if any of the celebrities have skating experience? I feel like it'd take so much time to teach them how to skate in addition to teaching choreography..I know they teach the celebrities from scratch on DWTS, but it seems like it'd be much harder to learn how to skate - not only in staying upright/balanced but learning about edges and crossovers and footwork and just the basics of skating in general..I think it'd take enough time to learn all of that even without having to learn the choreography and movements of a routine.

bellarina wrote:

Do you guys know if any of the celebrities have skating experience? I feel like it'd take so much time to teach them how to skate in addition to teaching choreography..I know they teach the celebrities from scratch on DWTS, but it seems like it'd be much harder to learn how to skate - not only in staying upright/balanced but learning about edges and crossovers and footwork and just the basics of skating in general..I think it'd take enough time to learn all of that even without having to learn the choreography and movements of a routine.

I think I heard that they only choose celebrities who new had to ice skate. I think that's what they did on Skating With Celebrities too. It really makes much more sense. My ankles always turned in whenever I tried to ice skate or even rollerblade (and on the same rental skates everyone else was using who didn't have that problem). It sucks. I just can't hold them up . Anyway, I would have no shot in this show. haha

Star85 wrote:

bellarina wrote:

Do you guys know if any of the celebrities have skating experience? I feel like it'd take so much time to teach them how to skate in addition to teaching choreography..I know they teach the celebrities from scratch on DWTS, but it seems like it'd be much harder to learn how to skate - not only in staying upright/balanced but learning about edges and crossovers and footwork and just the basics of skating in general..I think it'd take enough time to learn all of that even without having to learn the choreography and movements of a routine.

I think I heard that they only choose celebrities who new had to ice skate. I think that's what they did on Skating With Celebrities too. It really makes much more sense. My ankles always turned in whenever I tried to ice skate or even rollerblade (and on the same rental skates everyone else was using who didn't have that problem). It sucks. I just can't hold them up . Anyway, I would have no shot in this show. haha

Ooh, okay, sweet. It'll be MUCH less of a trainwreck now! At least they don't have to start from scratch.

Btw, THAT HAPPENS TO ME, TOO! I thought I was the only one!! Even after I started following figure skating and learned what edges are, I would tell myself, "nooo, use the outside edge!" and my feet would just not listen. They kept turning inwards. But I'm actually going to take figure skating next semester (it's taught as a PE course at my college), yay! I have a feeling I will suck, but I'm still excited, because learning how to figure skate will hopefully make me more knowledgeable (and also better appreciate just how good Mao is!)