I don't really like this show as much as you think I would. I remember when Fox had their version and it annoyed me for two reasons. First of all, Lloyd Eisner, who I used to be a big fan of back when he competed in the 90s with Isabell Brasseur, goes and knocks up his "celebrity" partner when his wife just had a baby. Kind of spoiled the whole show for me.
The other thing that bothered me is that I've skated for more than ten years and these people get out there and make it look like all you need is a couple of weeks and skating's really not that hard and why can't I skate like that?
But if you take a good look --these celebrities are not actually skating much at all. Obviously some have more of a knack at it than others - like the star of my favorite Soap "All My Children" Rebecca Budig. She looks really good. But really what she is good at is holding a pose. And her partner was very good at pulling her around and choreographing a program that makes her look good without having to actually skate much.
Because skating IS harder than dancing.
But Johnny Weir is a judge and he skated and that alone makes it worth tuning in.
I agree. Do you get CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Channel)? They have the best version ever, which is where the US got it from, called Battle of the Blades. They pair hockey players with female pairs skaters. It's really good because the hockey players already know how to skate, how to be comfortable on the ice so it's just all about who can learn to figure skate the best. Plus, with all the non-pros being men, it evens the playing field. The draw for the hockey players is that the prize is money for the charity of their choice and the longer they stay in, the more money they can get for their charity. The whole concept is better than what we have.
ReplyDeleteThat does sound much better. My daughter noted how much easier it is for the women because the men can just haul them around. (although women really do need to work the lifts). My old club used to do a fund raiser called "SwitchBlades" and the figure skaters would play a hockey game and the local hockey team got up in drag and did routines. Now the appeal of course was seeing them in drag but they were pretty darn good figure skaters when they tried.
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