Figure Skating TV Commentators thread

screech said:
Watching on CBC - how many times does Kurt have to mention his own skating career,
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Well, you could switch to US NBC and have the score tracker man-splained 500 times. lol

[QUOTE="Also, Kurt, Carol, and Brenda have all made a LOT of mistakes in their comments, such as referring to the ShibSibs as world champions.[/QUOTE]

I wanted to ring Tanith's neck (but I love her) when she said Carolina's 3 rd Olympics.. NO.. 4th... Torino, Vancouver, Sochi, Korea...

Theres always a usual amount of statistical mistakes and inaccuracies... Like my Beloved Knierims landing the 3 axel... just love it.
 
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I'm just guessing, but I've assumed:
- Green = a-ok
- Yellow (though it looks more like a lime-green) = under review
- Red = fall or other major -GOE (since some elements have had red but without falling)
- x = invalid element
 
@screech Green means the judges have given +GOE, Yellow means under review, Red means -GOE, and an invalid element is just not counted in the little boxes (I think left blank or maybe all the boxes are shifted one to the left? I haven't seen enough with the current graphics). So pretty much what you were thinking.
 
Willin said:
@screech Green means the judges have given +GOE, Yellow means under review, Red means -GOE, and an invalid element is just not counted in the little boxes (I think left blank or maybe all the boxes are shifted one to the left? I haven't seen enough with the current graphics). So pretty much what you were thinking.
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IIRC, an invalid element has a white cross on the box: [X] It came up during Nathan and Kolyada's skates.


As far as commentary goes, I enjoy British Eurosport. While they do have their own tastes and opinions I don't always agree with, they don't prattle on and on during the skates, they don't point out obvious things, and they don't rake the skaters over the coals when they fail. Their crticism is usually along the lines of "she's such a wonderful skater, unfortunately that was far from her best" or "That was not what he was looking for".
 
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The way that Tanith speaks reminds me a little of Tracy Wilson. I just can’t deal with tara and Johnny
 
allezfred said:
Japanese names are pronounced flat so putting any more stress on one syllable over the other is incorrect.
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Thanks. So that's 'Ta na ka,' with no stress on any syllable. :)

It'd be cool to hear you @allezfred as a fs event announcer with an Irish brogue! And no more mangling and mispronouncing of skater's names.

I was listening to an interview with Saiorse Ronan the other day. I love the sound of her speaking voice, especially when she talks with her own accent. It was on the Actors on Actors interview show, where Saiorse and Kate Winslet were having a blast talking to each other.
 
Willin said:
@screech Green means the judges have given +GOE, Yellow means under review, Red means -GOE, and an invalid element is just not counted in the little boxes (I think left blank or maybe all the boxes are shifted one to the left? I haven't seen enough with the current graphics). So pretty much what you were thinking.
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How many times do they need to say this during a broadcast? I guess they (NBC) assume that we cannot possibly comprehend the system that was used for 4CC with the actual base value and the GOE presented for each element. No, we couldn't handle that - let's just dumb down the judging system so we just need to know our colors ... we wouldn't want the public to understand the judging system at all ...
 
P. J. Kwong is an excellent announcer, and we know she loves skating and truly cares about the skaters too, who all seem to respect her.

I believe the colored boxes were innovated by NBC in conjunction with U.S. fed to cover U.S. Nationals broadcasts. Although in the beginning, too much screen space was taken up by the graphics spelling out each element next to the small colored boxes. NBC eventually developed more streamlined graphics, and apparently encouraged ISU to use the setup as well.
 
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aftershocks said:
P. J. Kwong is and excellent announcer, and we know she loves skating and truly cares about the skaters too, who all seem to respect her.

I believe the colored boxes were innovated by NBC in conjunction with U.S. fed to cover U.S. Nationals broadcasts. Although in the beginning, too much screen space was taken up by the graphics spelling out each element next to the small colored boxes. NBC eventually developed more streamlined graphics, and apparently encouraged ISU to use the setup as well.
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I love da boxes, lol. More boxes!
 
I love the boxes! It's fun to see how TES was scored in real time and to see how far we are in the routine (and how it's going) when I have to step a way from the TV for a second.
 
I think whether you like the commentators depends on the viewer. My hubby is really enjoying Carol Lane and Kurt because he’s a casual observer and he likes their explanations. I actually don’t because I’m not a casual fan and I prefer commentary like Ted Burton who are quiet when the skater is skating. Fortunately we have 4 TVs and different viewing areas so I can chose not to listen to them or just watch online. Agreed about PJ she is the best announcer for figure skating, such a lovely voice.
 
Part of the reason Kurt is there is to provide the athlete’s perspective. Team events for skaters are very rare, I can see why mentally for a skater it would feel very different to be worrying about how your skating was affecting a team mate’s medal chances. I thought it made sense for Kurt to share that information. I’m happy with the commentary and the overall coverage on CBC.
 
Lol CBC live feed microphone issues with Kurt asking if they're allowed to talk during the warm-up, Brenda acknowledging their mics are on, and just general awkwardness until she said she was going to turn off the mics.
 
CoolGuy said:
I'm living for Leslie Jones' commentary on twitter...
https://twitter.com/Lesdoggg

Some favorites:
Love & Knierim's free skate
Mid-skate outfit changes
Rippon's score
Patrick's score
Nagasu's Triple Axel

:ROFLMAO:
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LOL at all the think they're 'in-the-know' Patrick and Kolyada fans trying to convince more casual pissed-off viewers that trying and falling on quads deserves more rewards than a clean, artistically beautiful, and musically interpretive performance. :lol: Despite quads being harder to master and land consistently, triples in figure skating are not exactly a piece-of-cake, and gorgeous artistry is rare. Adam landed very good fully rotated 3-axels, and Patrick did not, although I have more issues with Kolyada placing ahead of Adam. The expression on Raf's face in the kiss 'n cry said it all.

Sure Adam's cross-overs are not pleasing to the eye, but everything else is, and then some. :swoon:
 
People running the sport are like kids let loose in a candystore. No clue and no common sense except to keep trying this, this, and this, forming cliques, trading tit-for-tat under the radar, hoarding and splurging on one favored item, causing a ruckus and a mess, gorging and going overboard, can't do math, poor judgement, shortsighted, out of money, no knowledge of how to plan for the future to maintain the goodies, etc. :lol:

Skaters and coaches are used to having to accept and go along for the ride. Fans, not so much...
 
clairecloutier said:
Where did the love go for Tara/Johnny?
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/article199295354.html

:rofl:
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That article is obviously one-sided and doesn't quote the countless tweets in support of Tara and Johnny. For every one of these articles, there are a few of these:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...johnny-weir-mean-olympics-20180209-story.html

Let's face it. The men's short WAS a disaster, aside from a couple of skaters. Johnny said it was the worst Nathan had ever skated...and he was right. Interestingly, Scott said he had "never seen Nathan skate that way," which is essentially the same thing, and he didn't get the same type of criticism. I think a lot of people look for reasons to dislike Tara and Johnny. When Tanith took over the commentary for dance (with Terry), some people tweeted that Tara and Johnny should stop talking so much. They weren't even on the air! Johnny and Tara may be brutally honest at times, but these are top-level athletes. Dick Button was much the same.

My opinion is that Tara does talk too much, and sometimes sounds unprofessional. She seems to forget that she's doing commentary. She'll say to Johnny and Terry, "Hey, guys, I just LOVE this!" and when she does say something of substance, she uses twice as many words as necessary. Or sometimes Johnny will say something and she'll repeat it, unnecessarily. For example, he said a jump was "astounding" or something, and she said, "Yeah, that jump was SO BIG!" I think she's like Scott in that she gets caught up in it and ends up fanning out a little bit and forgetting that she's doing a job. Johnny really doesn't talk any more than, say, Tanith does. Maybe even less. His comments are usually substantive. And it's Terry is asks the questions that prompt Johnny and Tara (usually Tara) to talk about their own careers. That said, I think the team genuinely likes one another, and that counts for a lot. There's nothing fake about the chemistry between Johnny and Tara.
 
@ToFarAwayTimes Considering how shady Tara and Johnny are during the GP about judging, I'm surprised how tame they've been here - especially with the wildly inflated PCS for Kolyada and Zagitova. (I can't remember if they were the ones being shady about their PCS scores during the grand prix? Maybe it was Ryan Bradley). I seriously hate espousing judging conspiracy theories, but their PCS scores have me wondering what the heck is going on for so many judges to be so off the mark on them
 
Willin said:
@ToFarAwayTimes Considering how shady Tara and Johnny are during the GP about judging, I'm surprised how tame they've been here - especially with the wildly inflated PCS for Kolyada and Zagitova. (I can't remember if they were the ones being shady about their PCS scores during the grand prix? Maybe it was Ryan Bradley). I seriously hate espousing judging conspiracy theories, but their PCS scores have me wondering what the heck is going on for so many judges to be so off the mark on them
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I don't know, I haven't followed the season too close until recently and I am only getting caught up. There is the "Tara and Johnny" thread where it's said that some people love them and some people hate them. When it comes to their shtick and wardrobes and stuff like that I'm in the neutral camp. I don't think any of that adds to their broadcasting nor does it take anything away from it, so if that's just who they are more power to them. But while I think Johnny is very knowledgeable and has talent as a broadcaster, I think he lacks emotional range and I think he's selectively dishonest at times which really bothers me. He has an extreme bias towards Russians and cannot seem to be professional about it. Tara is not very talented but she's actually a good complement to Johnny; she's better at the things he's not good at and vice-versa.

The only problem is that she was gifted marks in her career and so...in my opinion...she really believes some of the nonsense she says sometimes, but Johnny knows better and says it anyway. Based on past seasons, I would be very skeptical that either of them would ever offer honest, fair, and balanced critiques of the judging, but again I have heard very very little of them this season so maybe they've changed.

Love watching CBC though, shame we don't get them here in the U.S.
 
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