CBC Revives Battle of the Blades Skating Show!

[Habs]

Spooner looks just like Candace Cameron-Bure. It’s almost distracting.

 

[rdavies]

Spooner looks just like Candace Cameron-Bure. It’s almost distracting.

I didn't think so until I saw this picture of Bure.

 

[karmena]

My God forgive me, I completely lost my respect for Kurt. His personal feelings/opinion about Katia as a skater took over objectivity.

 

[Satellizer]

My God forgive me, I completely lost my respect for Kurt. His personal feelings/opinion about Katia as a skater took over objectivity.

And when he just has to give a mark .1 lower than his co-judges almost every single time. So predictable.

 

[trouble77]

In this Battle of the blades, Bruno should win. I understand why Kurt is so impressed by him. Bruno has managed to skate with such fluidity while at the same time doing difficult lifts without ever showing how difficult the lifts are. I never saw him wobble once while lifting Katia. Among the Hockey players he is the most elegant and graceful skater on the ice. I like when he smile while skating and I can understand how much he struggled both when he had to learn a routine without Katia and this week with an injured arm.
Katia must have thought him some real figure skating skills.

I also don't understand this constant allusion about Kurt and Katia. So useless.

 

[Perky Shae Lynn]

My God forgive me, I completely lost my respect for Kurt. His personal feelings/opinion about Katia as a skater took over objectivity.

Wait.... you completely lost respect for the 4-time world champion and all around skating legend Kurt Browning because of a silly show?

 

[barbarafan]

::wanders in::

Aren’t Canadians supposed to be nice?

::wanders out::

Canadians (yes I am Canadian) follow the rhyme...when she was good she was very very good, but when she was bad she was horrid.

 

[karmena]

Wait.... you completely lost respect for the 4-time world champion and all around skating legend Kurt Browning because of a silly show?

No, I did not lost respect towards Kurt ! I just lost respect how he did judging in this "silly" show .. I do not insist that I am right , but, certainly, it was and is my perception.

Katia is a great skater, no one doubts or will ever doubt it- Katia TRULY is a great skater and not only a great skater, she is a legend. However, the show was not about her. The show was about hockey players AND figure skaters. To me it seemed too much talk and pushing towards Yekaterina. I might have missed something there (?) or not, I do not know. This has been my very first opportunity to watch parts of this show and, in general...oh, I am not the one who likes either to watch shows or exhibitions after competitions... do not take my opinion too seriously!

 

[Alilou]

I also found Kurt's pushing of Katia and partner troubling. Perhaps even slightly creepy, and definitely out of line.

 

[Desperado]

I think the show wanted the best skating teams to make it to the finals and they got worried when Bruno and Katia kept being in the bottom two so they tried to balance things out in awkward ways. They might have done the same in Season 2 with a similar scenario (Katia and Valery) but I can’t remember.

I’m happy with the results and look forward to the finale next week. Sheldon and Caitlyn will win (I love his success story and dedication) and B&K (my favourite team) will be third. I’m there to watch fun and hopefully see memorable performances like in past seasons.

Compared to other seasons, something was off this year. Not sure what really, maybe they lost backstage organizers, could also be too much Kurt. It can’t be less financial resources because I don’t think they ever had much to begin. Or maybe it’s just me becoming curmudgeony.

 

[Satellizer]

I think the show wanted the best skating teams to make it to the finals and they got worried when Bruno and Katia kept being in the bottom two so they tried to balance things out in awkward ways. They might have done the same in Season 2 with a similar scenario (Katia and Valery) but I can’t remember.

I’m happy with the results and look forward to the finale next week. Sheldon and Caitlyn will win (I love his success story and dedication) and B&K (my favourite team) will be third. I’m there to watch fun and hopefully see memorable performances like in past seasons.

Compared to other seasons, something was off this year. Not sure what really, maybe they lost backstage organizers, could also be too much Kurt. It can’t be less financial resources because I don’t think they ever had much to begin. Or maybe it’s just me becoming curmudgeony.

Most of the episodes just felt disorganized, slow, or rushed in pacing. Oh, and not as Many fluff pieces.

 

[Alvyne]

Ron's babbling is getting on my nerves this season. We don't care about your random facts, just focus on the skaters. I could also do without the celebrities commenting in the crowd.

 

[Desperado]

Ron's babbling is getting on my nerves this season. We don't care about your random facts, just focus on the skaters. I could also do without the celebrities commenting in the crowd.

I figured I had said enough negative stuff and that he was probably liked in English Canada so I shut up about it, but he annoyed me a lot too. I thought when Katia said to him as he was going on: “what was the question?” she might’ve been throwing a bit of shade his way too.

 

[fruchick]

Ron's babbling is getting on my nerves this season. We don't care about your random facts, just focus on the skaters. I could also do without the celebrities commenting in the crowd.

The CBC cast cross-promotion is cringy. I know why they're doing it, but it isn't helping drive viewership to these shows when the stars just fawn and don't say anything particularly interesting or funny.

I've attended 4 of the tapings this season (including last night), and at least 1 or 2 for each of the previous seasons. Reading along on the teleprompter, I've always noticed Ron going off-script and doing minor real-time rewrites, but this year he's been completely off the rails. He'll blow past entire chunks, improvise lines that don't need to be improvised, and make mistakes as a result (things like "last year" instead of "last week," which happened at one of the Hamilton tapings). Wish he'd just stick to the script, and its writer likely wishes that too.

 

[Anemone]

I'm not a fan of the CBC cross-show promotion thing either. One thing to show/mention legendary hockey players or skaters who are in the audience, and quite another the commentary by actors from other CBC shows. Why they don't just get some commentary by the legends in the audience (who would actually know something about what they are talking about), I don't know.
I will say that I don't really like Kurt as a judge, and much preferred it when he was just the host and not judging. With all the great skaters we've had in this country over the last couple of decades, I find it hard to imagine that they couldn't have found someone who would have been willing to be the resident figure skating judge.

 

[rdavies]

I am glad I voiced my criticisms of the show and am encouraged that others are doing so as well. Aside from Sheldon, this has been one of the worst seasons of BOTB. Everyone of you above has made valid points and if this show that we all love is to move forward these points have to be addressed.

The program this year was very disjointed and I have become increasingly less entertained with each broadcast, not exactly sure why but I think the sum of the criticisms everyone has voiced have definitely contributed.

One of the biggest issues I am sure the producers face is casting the program, skaters and hockey players. I think this has hurt the show this year and if they are having this problem after the long absence I have to wonder about the future.

 

[rdavies]

No, I did not lost respect towards Kurt! I just lost respect how he did judging in this "silly" show. I do not insist that I am right , but, certainly, it was and is my perception.

Katia is a great skater, no one doubts or will ever doubt it- Katia TRULY is a great skater and not only a great skater, she is a legend. However, the show was not about her. The show was about hockey players AND figure skaters. To me it seemed too much talk and pushing towards Yekaterina. I might have missed something there (?) or not, I do not know. This has been my very first opportunity to watch parts of this show and, in general...oh, I am not the one who likes either to watch shows or exhibitions after competitions... do not take my opinion too seriously!

No need to apologize, you didn't "miss" anything, in fact your observations are spot on.

 

[rdavies]

I think the show wanted the best skating teams to make it to the finals and they got worried when Bruno and Katia kept being in the bottom two so they tried to balance things out in awkward ways. They might have done the same in Season 2 with a similar scenario (Katia and Valery) but I can’t remember.

I’m happy with the results and look forward to the finale next week. Sheldon and Caitlyn will win (I love his success story and dedication) and B&K (my favourite team) will be third. I’m there to watch fun and hopefully see memorable performances like in past seasons.

Compared to other seasons, something was off this year. Not sure what really, maybe they lost backstage organizers, could also be too much Kurt. It can’t be less financial resources because I don’t think they ever had much to begin. Or maybe it’s just me becoming curmudgeony.

Agree with most of your points but I think Bruno will finish second and yes something was off this year. The show actually does have pretty good resources because that is why it disappeared, it's a costly show to produce.

 

[rdavies]

I'm not a fan of the CBC cross-show promotion thing either. One thing to show/mention legendary hockey players or skaters who are in the audience, and quite another the commentary by actors from other CBC shows. Why they don't just get some commentary by the legends in the audience (who would actually know something about what they are talking about), I don't know.

C list celebs and bland guest judges contributed to a lackluster season. They had the GOAT, Don Jackson in the house and didn't talk to him, big time opportunity missed.

 

[fruchick]

I really miss Sandra Bezic being on the judging panel. She walked past my section last night, and thought, "yup, that's what's missing."

Another factor: The show is also pretty flaccid on social media. The original run was a success story in part because of its digital marketing efforts and CBC's ability to engage viewers through social media on a huge scale for the first time. Now they just churn out content with blinders on, RT only the participants, and ignore fans like they forgot the "engagement" part of social engagement. Stuff like that matters -- you can turn viewers into fans, and fans into superfans, just by making them feel heard and invested. But sure, pull out all the stops so the country can hear the secondary characters from Schitt's Creek weigh in.

But regardless of the flaws, they still seem to be getting viewers. I wouldn't be surprised if they aimed to do another season next year.

 

[rdavies]

Well, let's hear what these two goomers have to say this time. Notice their YouTube title mentions nothing about the hockey players (the actual focus of the show), judging from that title it's probably the same drivel as the last one but I must give them a chance before pronouncing sentence

Battle of the Blades 2019: Weeks 3 & 4 Recap (Ekaterina Gordeeva, Vanessa James, Weaver Poje)

 

[rdavies]

I really miss Sandra Bezic being on the judging panel. She walked past my section last night, and thought, "yup, that's what's missing."

You just made me think of the old Joni Mitchell lyric "you don't know what you got till it's gone" It was a touch of class, a touch of caring that she brought that was definitely missed.

 

[rdavies]

But regardless of the flaws, they still seem to be getting viewers. I wouldn't be surprised if they aimed to do another season next year.

I don't know about that, just checking Numeris, after hitting number 17 in the show debut, they haven't hit the top 30 since.

 

[rdavies]

Battle of the Blades 2019: Weeks 3 & 4 Recap (Ekaterina Gordeeva, Vanessa James, Weaver Poje)

Save yourself an hour and a half of your life. I could critique this but seeing as BOTB was barely mentioned I need not bother.

 

[Skate Talker]

CBC radio in Winnipeg just had Sheldon Kennedy on their morning Information Radio show talking about his experience on Battle. Couple of interesting things to me.

Sheldon says he pretty much hasn't skated at all since he retired 22 years ago - estimates has had blades on his feet maybe 30 times total in 22 yrs. To me that makes all this even so much more amazing.

He also said that Thursday's show is all group numbers.

 

[Desperado]

All group numbers? I don’t understand the point. They had pair performances in the past and a lot of them were memorable.

I will keep watching the show no matter what, but I wonder what non-skating fans think of the whole thing. Which is a silly thing to ask here, of course.

 

[rdavies]

CBC radio in Winnipeg just had Sheldon Kennedy on their morning Information Radio show talking about his experience on Battle.

Oct. 29, 2019: Sheldon Kennedy set for Battle of the Blades finale

He's spent most of his career advocating for those in need and now he's hoping to win one-hundred-thousand dollars for the charity of his choice. Marcy Markusa spoke with Manitoba-born Sheldon Kennedy about his time on Battle of the Blades.

 

[mapleleafsk8fan]

BOTB CBC Instastories showed all competitors and their partners playing a game of hockey! hopefully they show some highlights of that on the show!

 

[rdavies]

BOTB CBC Instastories showed all competitors and their partners playing a game of hockey! hopefully they show some highlights of that on the show!

When hockey meets figure skating! After learning to figure skate for the past few months, it was so much fun to welcome the figure skaters into our world for a little game of shinny!- Natalie Spooner

Old time hockey, Eddie Shore, Dit Clapper, Ellaj Balde
Watching him stick check, he has played the game. See Kurt below taking his Oilers jersey for a spin.

 

[rdavies]

Balde, Browning, Orr and Gervais all demonstrating the tried and true classic hockey picture poses. Weaver's not holding her stick right, but she's cute as a bug.