When Nicky and Simon misstep, they misstep.

Yeah, don't read the comments of this article.

Who could have ever guessed Yahoo comments would be so ignorant? :lol:

Figure skating deserves better commentary. The British guys were awful, Ted Barton is somewhat better--by the way, congratulations to Leona Hendrickx on her silver medal--and Johnny/Tara are all big hair and ditz and glitz. Bring back Sandra Bezic and Scott Hamilton, please.
 
Bouffantrex said:
Yeah, don't read the comments of this article.

Who could have ever guessed Yahoo comments would be so ignorant? :lol:

Figure skating deserves better commentary. The British guys were awful, Ted Barton is somewhat better--by the way, congratulations to Leona Hendrickx on her silver medal--and Johnny/Tara are all big hair and ditz and glitz. Bring back Sandra Bezic and Scott Hamilton, please.
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Seriously. Even Scott tried to fairly call Tonya Harding's Olympic program... when it was clear he was not on her side to begin with.
 
I feel bad for Simon Reed. He and Chris Howarth have been an ideal team and we are grateful for having them. I think Nicky Slater has brought all the bad vibes.

Simon Reed has been covering figure skating for over four decades, so he certainly knows the sport.

That bitch comment wasn’t so bad considering what their colleague Meagan Duhamel tweeted. The worst part is that they have had way too much sympathy for Russian skaters.
 
Wow the statement from the ISU is that neither will ever commentate on ISU events in the future. If I am not mistaken Reed is the head of commentary for all of Eurosport and has been covering the sport for 40years, I wonder what they will do on that channel.
I just hope whoever replaces him is not a ‘color commentator’ and actually knows skating.
First time I watched an ISU feed and heard that Paul (equestrian) guy in Graz Euros 2020, I was absolutely flabbergasted that the ISU would allow someone like that to cover their Championship events.
Mind you on the BBC they’ve had Sue Barker and Katherine Downes, another two who know nothing and whose vocabulary extends to ‘nice’ and ‘pretty dress’ for commentary.

I still don’t understand what began the discord between them. Was Megan tweeting them privately or tweeting openly about their commentary?
I’m sure Reed is kicking himself for taking the slot anyway. He gave his place at Eurosport to Louise Walden and stepped in for Mark Hanretty while he was on Dancing on Ice.
 
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SLIVER said:
Wow the statement from the ISU is that neither will ever commentate on ISU events in the future. If I am not mistaken Reed is the head of commentary for all of Eurosport and has been covering the sport for 40years, I wonder what they will do on that channel.
Click to expand...

I assumed that just meant they wouldn't be allowed to comentate on the ISU official feed. Would the ISU really try to control who all the TV channels use as commentators? Seems like a risky ask.
 
SLIVER said:
Wow the statement from the ISU is that neither will ever commentate on ISU events in the future. If I am not mistaken Reed is the head of commentary for all of Eurosport and has been covering the sport for 40years, I wonder what they will do on that channel.
I just hope whoever replace him is not a ‘color commentator’ and actually knows skating.
First time I watched an ISU feed and heard that Paul (equestrian) guy in Graz Euros 2020, I was absolutely flabbergasted that the ISU would allow someone like that to cover their Championship events.
Mind you on the BBC they’ve had Sue Barker and Katherine Downes, another two who know nothing and whose vocabulary extends to ‘nice’ and ‘pretty dress’ for commentary.

I still don’t understand what began the discord between them. Was Megan tweeting them privately or tweeting openly about their commentary?
I’m sure Reed is kicking himself for taking the slot anyway. He gave his place at Eurosport to Louise Walden and stepped in for Mark Hanretty while he was on Dancing on Ice.
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It's linked in the article:
matti said:
I feel bad for Simon Reed. He and Chris Howarth have been an ideal team and we are grateful for having them. I think Nicky Slater has brought all the bad vibes.

Simon Reed has been covering figure skating for over four decades, so he certainly knows the sport.

That bitch comment wasn’t so bad considering what their colleague Meagan Duhamel tweeted. The worst part is that they have had way too much sympathy for Russian skaters.
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Right? I also heard she was dressed provocatively when she tweeted it!
 
Kateri said:
In honour of Simon finally getting his ass handed to him, please have this complilation of all my posts raging at his idiocy since 2014 when the public search begins. I can only imagine how many more there are from earlier in the Archive.
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I mean I have been listening to him for at least 20 years and he has learned nothing. Before IJS when ice dance pecking order was solidly pre-determined he could fake it a little bit :lol:
 
Commentary is a tough one, from the reviews I've read people have very different opinions.
Ted Barton sounds. like. a. robot. to me when covering the Russian events. Personally, he brings absolutely nothing to any event, he doesn't enhance the event in any way, not technically or in excitement. I hear that for the ISU feed he had to actually commentate, I wonder how it came across. I appreciate the no talking though for the Russian stream but it would be good to say something useful pre and post skate.
K Weaver, was annoying when I listened to her this year because she is just being diplomatic to not upset anyone.
I can't with the vanilla, I love everyone, everything is amazing comments, again zero analysis in a bid to stay polite. I get it but you are not paid to say everyone was 'amazing'.
First time I heard US commentary in the early 90's I was shocked at how loud and how much they talk. Now we have the CIRCUS that is Lipinsky and Weir, absolutely dreadful and non stop talking. I don't know how people in the US can watch 2 such self absorbed people.
Simon Reed is actually a good commentator by trade, he has an excellent voice for it, sets up the event well and doesn't talk very much. He had excellent rapport with Chris Howarth who was an amazing analyst but Reed's commentary has been getting worse and worse, especially since the start of the 'new judging system' way back in 2005. Reed thinks he can 'wing it' but he doesn't see under rotations, comments way too much on judging when he doesn't understand the rules. He is only watchable when he has someone knowledgable with him. I can totally understand how some people find his worsening knowledge totally off putting.
Mark Hanretty has been my absolute favourite recently, he seems to know everything on and off the ice. I guess Tanith is the equivalent for dance in the US. Mark does all disciplines very well too.

The issue with die hard skating fans is that they don't realise that 98% of viewers can't themselves correct even the worst commentator. If I watch golf I don't know if what the commentator is saying is right or wrong most of the time.
When you follow the sport so closely your knowledge is so vast that anyone that doesn't have the same knowledge seems lacking. I am alway stunned at how little ex skaters follow or watch. Even some top ISU judges will turn up to an event and not know a very prominent up and coming skater, when FSU will know their shoe size and every jump they ever attempted. Nicky Slater falls in that category, I was a high class skater once and now I watch once in a blue moon and I am going to wing it. It's just not good enough, especially in the world of social media when every word anyone utters is dissected. The only time I ever actually turned off is with Paul Alster ISU and on Russian TV when they talk from when the music starts till the very end.
 
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Can we just step away from the notion that Simon Reed actually knows the sport? Given the 40+ years he's had to learn, frankly his "body of work" in terms of skating commentary is a piss-poor return on all that front line exposure. Without the program content sheets he'd be even worse! Chris balanced him well with tecknik, as did Betty Callaway back on ITV in the 80's, but Simon and Nicky have always been a dud IMO and left to fend for himself he was a disaster.
 
floskate said:
Can we just step away from the notion that Simon Reed actually knows the sport? Given the 40+ years he's had to learn, frankly his "body of work" in terms of skating commentary is a piss-poor return on all that front line exposure. Without the program content sheets he'd be even worse! Chris balanced him well with tecknik, as did Betty Callaway back on ITV in the 80's, but Simon and Nicky have always been a dud IMO and left to fend for himself he was a disaster.
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LOL spot on, Simon and Nicky was a disaster waiting to happen to be fair. 30mins edited broadcasts on terrestrial TV in the 80's, with them together, were no where near as hazardous as week long live events lol!
 
FSU of all places, the land of ice dance fandom during the period of Euro political warfare (Scary Babs v. Princess Marina of Russia representing her married into Kingdom of France), is the place that taught me as a teenaged know nothing that Eurosport commentators, especially Simon Reed and Nicky Slater (the commentators on ice dance) were absolutely inept and incompetent at their jobs for a huge list of reasons.

For the past twenty something years I’ve been watching skating and hearing them, and retroactively watching old videos with them, they seriously have not improved at their job at all. Most people would be fired for such performances. I’m wondering who they’re sleeping with to have kept their jobs or if Eurosport simply doesn’t give a damn about figure skating.

Simon with Chris was usually ok since Chris would correct him or Simon would let Chris handle the technical aspects. With Nicky or on his own, which has happened, however…
 
VGThuy said:
FSU of all places, the land of ice dance fandom during the period of Euro political warfare (Scary Babs v. Princess Marina of Russia representing her married into Kingdom of France), is the place that taught me as a teenaged know nothing that Eurosport commentators, especially Simon Reed and Nicky Slater (the commentators on ice dance) were absolutely inept and incompetent at their jobs for a huge list of reasons.

For the past twenty something years I’ve been watching skating and hearing them, and retroactively watching old videos with them, they seriously have not improved at their job at all. Most people would be fired for such performances. I’m wondering who they’re sleeping with to have kept their jobs or if Eurosport simply doesn’t give a damn about figure skating.

Simon with Chris was usually ok since Chris would correct him or Simon would let Chris handle the technical aspects. With Nicky or on his own, which has happened, however…
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I believe Simon is the boss at Eurosport, that's how :D
 
Eurosport had Chris Howarth and Louise Walden covering worlds. I thought they were a decent team. Chris is willing to be very frank in his opinions, particularly in ice dance & Louise obviously knew the technical stuff. She’s still an active coach and got really into explaining things like the point at which you should turn on the circle for a bracket to be considered clean. But they aren’t as slick as people who have been commentating professionally, lots of pauses and you knows and likes. But overall, up there with Mark Hanretty as someone worth listening to.
 
Bouffantrex said:
Yeah, don't read the comments of this article.

Who could have ever guessed Yahoo comments would be so ignorant? :lol:

Figure skating deserves better commentary. The British guys were awful, Ted Barton is somewhat better--by the way, congratulations to Leona Hendrickx on her silver medal--and Johnny/Tara are all big hair and ditz and glitz. Bring back Sandra Bezic and Scott Hamilton, please.
Click to expand...
Hell to the No for Hamilton and Bezic. Watching the Meddling documentary and subsequently rewatching the 2002 pairs final made it so blatant that these two could not keep their biases in check when there was an emotional result or one that they were disappointed with .

The lack of professionalism during that event was shocking to look back on :yikes:
 
I did appreciate when they were talking about the brightness of the American skaters in the ladies discipline—meaning their projection and ability to connect with the audience. I don’t think they are alone in this but I appreciated the observation.
 
escaflowne9282 said:
Hell to the No for Hamilton and Bezic. Watching the Meddling documentary and subsequently rewatching the 2002 pairs final made it so blatant that these two could not keep their biases in check when there was an emotional result or one that they were disappointed with .

The lack of professionalism during that event was shocking to look back on :yikes:
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Apparently you’ve never ever listened to anything Johnny and Tara did. Professionalism isn’t even a consideration.

Johnny’s jealousy and Tara‘s vanity and Johnny’s even greater vanity have combined to make us have a commentary team that is only marginally better than Nicky and Simon. And I expect that is because they have been taught to keep the their really trashy comments off the air. I feel certain they could say even worse. And we know they what they know about some of the events, like ice dance, could fit in 180 character tweet with space left over


And I’m not sure a sense of professionalism is needed when an event is rigged. outrage is sometimes called for. That’s part of the job.
 
Carolla5501 said:
Apparently you’ve never ever listened to anything Johnny and Tara did. Professionalism isn’t even a consideration.

Johnny’s jealousy and Tara‘s vanity and Johnny’s even greater vanity have combined to make us have a commentary team that is only marginally better than Nicky and Simon. And I expect that is because they have been taught to keep the their really trashy comments off the air. I feel certain they could say even worse. And we know they what they know about some of the events, like ice dance, could fit in 180 character tweet with space left over


And I’m not sure a sense of professionalism is needed when an event is rigged. outrage is sometimes called for. That’s part of the job.
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I actively have avoided Tara and Johnny :shuffle:
 
morqet said:
Eurosport had Chris Howarth and Louise Walden covering worlds. I thought they were a decent team. Chris is willing to be very frank in his opinions, particularly in ice dance & Louise obviously knew the technical stuff. She’s still an active coach and got really into explaining things like the point at which you should turn on the circle for a bracket to be considered clean. But they aren’t as slick as people who have been commentating professionally, lots of pauses and you knows and likes. But overall, up there with Mark Hanretty as someone worth listening to.
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I warmed to Walden this week and I agree some of her technical insights were very interesting and perhaps gave Chris the green light to voice his (warranted) opinions yesterday during the free dance - particularly on the skating skills of Fournier-Beaudry & Sorenson in comparison to Hawayek/Baker for example where he ended up going for the jugular on Sorensen and did not hold back!! :EVILLE: But there is also a vibe with these two where I feel as though I'm listening in on Gogglebox for figure skating. I'm thinking more of Louise's random reactions such as to the third fall of Cain-Gribble and urging her to get up and carry on. Armchair commentary to the max! How many times did she comment "here we go!" or "come on audience" on the final section of a program? :rofl:
 
For most sports; there's usually some turnover when in comes to on-air talent, certainly less than 35 years.

I would venture that these days, it's the gig that younger talent don't really want (for a number of reasons, mostly related to lower profile and small audience numbers and chances for career advancement).

*****
Nicky from the season after he retired in 1985 on ITV.

youtu.be

Standings & Analysis - 1985 Saint Ivel OSP

Sept. 24th-27th, London, UK
youtu.be youtu.be
 
In the US, ABC gave us Dick and Peggy, with the preeminent sports commentators during the 70s and 80s like Jim McKay and Al Michaels.

CBS used Verne Lundquist as the main commentator. I don't remember him being particularly bad, or disrespectful to skating. He was highly regarded by the mainstream sports people.

ETA: thanks @AYS
 
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Maybe I'm thinking of Al. It's been too long. I just remember one that was really bad who didn't seem to care at all and was just marking time until retirement.
 
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