BLOGS
This show tried to make me believe that it was the most dangerous competition on TV, but c'mon. I watch The Challenge on a regular basis and those people are 50 feet up in the air dangling on a string or something between buildings. Jonny Moseley used to host that program (back when it still had the Real World/Road Rules moniker), so I'm surprised he didn't call the Skating With the Stars producers out on that. Frankly, I think even Wipeout is more dangerous.
Here, the biggest danger seems to be bruised egos. Most of the stars in question seem to have some experience on ice, so none of them are really terrible enough to be entertaining. Brandon Mychal Smith is an avid roller skater, Moseley is used to competing on ice, Rebecca Budig placed fourth in an ice-skating competition when she was seven, Vince Neil won an ice-skating competition when he was younger and Bethenny Frankel likes to skate at Rockefeller Center. Sean Young was the only one without any specific experience mentioned. Even so, it really seems that they are all somewhat comfortable on the ice and though they fall when they try new stuff, there's no one clinging to the sideboard desperately trying to stand up.
And while I don't recall every minute detail of Skating with the Celebrities, I certainly remember some stars with a lot more visible bruises or cuts to their eyes because of the blades. After five weeks of training, none of that was evident here. Not saying that I need to see people injured, but the show seems hell-bent on promoting the danger aspect and talking about all the falls or near falls in rehearsals, so I was expecting a reenactment of that Jason Priestley Saturday Night Live sketch, not some passable pairs performances that went off without a hitch.
I already hate the host, Vernon Kay. He moved the mic away while introducing the show so you heard him say "Skating with the..." and "Stars" was quiet. If you can't properly introduce your show on live TV, you shouldn't be there. Can Tom Bergeron not do double duty? This guy is just cheesy and annoying and lacks Tom's sarcastic wit. I also didn't really like that co-host Tanith Belbin (a former ice dancer) was critiquing the required elements of the dance. Why bother having judges? It was weird to have her talk about it after we heard what the judges had to say.
As for the judges, well, it's hard for me to say anything bad about them. I have loved listening to Dick Button since I was a kid and I just want to hug him and hear him talk about skating all day long. Laurieann Gibson is nutty and kooky and a renowned choreographer and she uses words like "fantastical" and "magical." She's my happy medium between Paula Abdul and Mia Michaels. And then there's Johnny Weir. I personally adore him and watch every thing he does. I find him endlessly fascinating and if I keep tuning in for every episode of this overly long, tedious show, it will be because of him. His performance to "Poker Face", which I've seen on the Internet far too many times to count before last night, was still fantastic. If he does a weekly performance, I'm in for the long haul.
As for the celebs, they were fine. I felt Bethenny was underscored, as she seemed far better than Vince Neil, who was just cruising around throwing devil horns and sticking out his tongue. But that's just my humble opinion. The judges probably know far better than I do. I'm also curious about Sean Young's hat collection. It's like she has a whole rainbow of the exact same hat -- I can only imagine what colors will come out next week. I thought Rebecca was dull, and could barely concentrate on Brandon because his partner Keauna looked so much like Cheryl Burke hat I found it entirely distracting. My personal fave was Jonny Moseley as his routine actually was fun and had some energy. Here's hoping that others follow his lead next week, or I might fall into a coma from boredom.
What did you think? Sound off below.
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Agree completely. Johnny M's was the only contestant program I really enjoyed -- the others were just....tense. I'll stick around for the Crazy (Lauriann) and the Fabulous (Weir), though!
Concur. Especially on the Cheryl Burke/Keauna long lost twins scenario!
This show was simply too long. They should have condensed it down to one hour, especially as there were only six celebs skating. I was hoping that Sean Young at least would pull out some crazy, but sadly, she held it together. If it were not for Johnny Weir, I would have switched the channel after the first 20 minutes.
I can only hope that Sean Young snaps in a later episode and skates in her Blade Runner outfit and hairdo, pulls a switchblade on her partner, or somesuch.
Jonny Moseley was the best? Really? His was the only performance that I saw (while channel surfing) and I thought it was ridiculously boring. If that was the best then I shudder to imagine what the others must have been like.
"Moseley is used to competing on ice"
Do you mean snow? He does moguls. Not really ice...
It's too bad you don't get CBC where you live-they've had a show called "Battle of the Blades" for the past two years where they pair up a female figure skater with an ex-hockey player and have them put on performances-it's miles ahead of this load of crap on ABC.
BORING-BORING-BORING...I turned it off after the first half hour...this show is going nowhere.
You may hate the host, Vernon Kay, on this show, but I saw an episode of whatever they call the British version of Family Feud and he was awesome! Four years after that trip, my friend & I are still using "It's not there!"--in his accent--as a catchphrase.
I definitely thought the overall show was fairly boring, though I do like skating. Everyone looked so tentative to me that it was hard to enjoy their performances. I actually liked Rebecca's quite a lot because she looked the most comfortable on the ice to me, and I find it a lot easier to enjoy someones performance when they seem to be enjoying it :P. Johnny's was the only other one that was even worth watching though imo, and I didnt really like his that much...
I'm with Luigi, "Battle of the Blades" was exciting to watch; this was really difficult.
"Vince Neil won an ice-skating competition when he was younger"
Yeah- but often those competitions only have 3 boys skating in them, and based on the picture he was young enough that he probably wasn't doing much more than what this program showed (probably just a few tiny jumps.)
Honestly- I liked the show, but by making it so long it was almost unbearable...the commercials just kept coming! If they go to a 1 hour format, I think it will be much better.
I actually thought the performances were decent for adults with their experience.
I also thought Bethenny was underscored. I know she was carried around a lot, but it looked like she held good positions in those moves. That does require some effort. Also, the judges comments made it sound like she was pretty good, and then they gave her 4s. That was weird.
It would help if the judges had a clue and actually took this seriously, but they don't, so why should I? Done!
Oh, and no duh, celebrities are not going to be doing impressive or interesting skating moves after 5 weeks! That's impossible. This isn't like dancing where you can throw a routine together and have the celeb stand there if he's not any good while the dancer dances around him. Skating is an actual sport! What's next, Swimming with the Stars? Please, ABC needs to stop milking the DWTS concept because it's just making a good sport seem boring. Bring on the real skating please.
I love watching skating shows and competitions, but this was so boring and drawn out I couldn't believe it.Personally, I believe skating is much harder than dancing so these people needed a bit more experience, at least knowing the basics. Also, they need some muscles!! Neil looked so out of shape he could barely lift his own arm, and Bethany had skinny legs and arms and no muscles in them. At least if they had funny hosts or more mishaps as the author says it would make it more fun. All of the judges and the host were just flat and BORING..I don't care what they did elsewhere, they aren't cutting it on this show. TWO HOURS!!!! I am trying to make it through it but will probably just tape it and FF throught the humongous amount of commercials and other garbage. Jonny and Rebecca seem to be the only ones with a chance. I missed Sean Young, just watching the 12-6 show. It appears as if not much money was spent bringing this to the air and it shows!! They need to start over. Dick Button is a bit too old now at 81. He has trouble finding words to finish his sentances..time to stick to what he knows or retire..sorry to say about a once great skater but we all get there sometime. Even the pro's are boring. They should have had a skating choreographer not a dancing one on there also. Have I said enough negative things yet? sorry...
Ah, just now they announced Brandon won't even be performing on tonight's show cause he went to the hospital that morning, no reason was given for that hospital visit, so they use a taped rehearsal..WTF? Cold feet maybe? Well they are on ice after all.
ARE YOU KIDDING . WHO WILL WATCH THIS AFTER SUCH POOR JUDGING.... JONNY AND BROOK WERE THE ONLY ONE'S WITH ANY PERSONALITY. THEY WERE ON TOP
MOST OF THE TIME . WAS IT FIXED OR WERE WE WATCHING BRISTOL AGAIN ? THE GALS ON THE SHOW WERE JUST LIFTED IN THE AIR . BIG DEAL THEY DIDEN'T LEARN TO SKATE LIKE JONNY DID.
GIT RID OF THE ANNOUNCER AND DICK (HOLD THE CARD WRONG) BUTTON.MY VOTE WAS FOR JONNY AND BROOKE.
Let me get this straight: If you can afford a Lamborghini and hookers (which we all know he engaged in as he confessed in his interviews) why can't you pay a driver to drive you around?
Youre so cool! I don't suppose I've read anything like this before. So nice to find somebody with some original thoughts on this subject. really thank you for starting this up.
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