Skating with Celebrities

"Skating with Celebrities" is a celebreality-style show on the FOX network that began airing on January 18, 2006. Its first season ended on March 2, 2006.

ynopsis

The show was Fox's attempt to copy another popular show ABC's "Dancing With The Stars".

The show pairs six champion figure skaters with six celebrities who have various degrees of ice skill (Deborah Gibson, for example, is a skating novice; Dave Coulier played ice hockey in Canada; Jillian Barberie trained as a competitive figure skater into her teens). Each team is composed of one man and one woman and they have to perform a new routine each episode. As part of their new routines, each celebrity must demonstrate a specific figure skating skill (the first episode required a spin with no less than three revolutions; the second episode required synchronized footwork covering no less than half the length of the skating surface).

Each pair receives scores from a trio of judges (assembled like the "American Idol" panel--a tough male British industry insider, a softer-edge female American star performer from the recent past, and a moderate American professional man associated with the business side of the artistic endeavor) for technical merit and artistic impression. The scores are added together to create a cumulative score. No team was eliminated in the first episode; instead, the scores from episodes one and two were added together and the couple with the lowest score was eliminated. Beginning with the third episode, the pair with the lowest cumulative score in the episode is eliminated from the competition.

In the series' seventh week, the team of actress Kristy Swanson and Olympic Bronze Medalist (figure skating) Lloyd Eisler defeated the team of television personality Jillian Barberie and U.S. pairs champion John Zimmerman to win the show's first championship.

"Skating with Celebrities" aired in the U.S. at the same time as its UK equivalent, "Dancing on Ice", which featured nine British celebrities partnered with international figure skaters, including a number of Americans.

Cast

The show is hosted by Olympic Gold Medalist (swimming) Summer Sanders and Olympic Gold Medalist (figure skating) Scott Hamilton and judged by Olympic Gold Medalist (figure skating) Dorothy Hamill, renowned skating coach John Nicks, and journalist Mark Lund.

The six celebrities joining the show are Olympic Gold Medalist (decathlon) Bruce Jenner, television personality Jillian Barberie, comedian Dave Coulier, actress/singer/songwriter Deborah Gibson, actor Todd Bridges, and actress Kristy Swanson.

The six professional skaters who are pairing with the stars are five-time U.S. pairs champion Tai Babilonia, three-time U.S. pairs champion John Zimmerman, Olympic Silver Medalist (figure skating) Nancy Kerrigan, four-time World champion Kurt Browning, three-time U.S. pairs champion Jenni Meno, and Olympic Bronze Medalist (figure skating) Lloyd Eisler.

The teams receive assistance in their practice sessions from a trio of champion skaters who now work as choreographers: Five-time U.S. national ice dance champion and Emmy Award-winning choreographer Michael Seibert, U.S. and world figure skating champion and director/choreographer Randy Gardner (Tai Babilonia's longtime skating partner), and three-time U.S. ice dance champion Renee Roca.

Criticisms

A number of critics in both the media and on internet boards have noted the wide disparity of experience between the celebrity skaters; Jillian Barberie in particular has been called a "ringer" because she was a competitive figure skater as a youngster and thus her skillset is significantly higher than the others (for example, while most of the other celebrities struggled to do simple revolutions on the ice in their first routines, Barberie did a layback spin as her required element in one of the programs). Other observers have noted that Barberie's skills may have worked against her, as judging and public expectations may have been higher for her and thus any mistakes magnified. Barberie herself has noted in interviews that Swanson had previous skating experience as well but that it was deliberately downplayed in the final editing.

Another criticism has come from reviewers who note that Swanson and Barberie were paired with male skaters (former Olympians Lloyd Eisler and John Zimmerman) who are known for both their excellent pair work and sheer physical size and strength, enabling the pairs to do flashier, more professional-like stunts (Eisler, for example, performed an upright spin with Swanson wrapped around him, a move he used to do with his former pairs partner Isabelle Brasseur). By contrast, the other four celebrities were matched with either singles skaters (Deborah Gibson and Kurt Browning; Dave Coulier and Nancy Kerrigan) or the female half of a pairs team (Bruce Jenner and Tai Babilonia; Todd Bridges and Jenni Meno), significantly hindering the level of stuntwork the team can pull off. This did not stop some of the other teams from trying more difficult things, however; Todd Bridges learned to lift Jenni Meno over his head (after some tutoring from Meno's husband and skating partner Todd Sand), and Bruce Jenner learned how to support Tai Babilonia in a basic death spiral move, one of the more complicated pairs stunts for a novice to learn.

Criticism of another sort emerged as the first season headed toward its climax: Lloyd Eisler's wife Marcie told "Star Magazine" that while the series was being taped in the late summer and early fall of 2005, Lloyd and Kristy Swanson had begun a romantic relationship, straining the Eislers' already strained marriage (the couple had been separated since early summer 2005 but were, according to Marcie, still "working on the relationship") to its breaking point. Reportedly Swanson forwarded "steamy e-mail" [http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/skating-with-celebrities-kristy-swanson-lloyd-eisler-pair-up-off-ice-3960.php] to Marcie as a confirmation of the affair, and the Eislers formally filed separation papers on November 30, 2005. Representatives for Eisler and Swanson have confirmed the pair had indeed begun dating but denied that the two of them became involved until after the Eislers had separated for good.

The show also drew ire from fans of the critically acclaimed, but ratings deficient television series, "Arrested Development". After Arrested was cancelled, Skating with Celebrities, a purportedly "low-brow" program, replaced its time slot.

Episodes

Episode 1 (Featured Skill: Spins)

Notable Moments

* The teams skated to music from the movies.
* During rehearsal, Dave Coulier, a hockey player, was frustrated at the fact that he kept tripping in his figure skates, so he filed off the toe picks to make them more like hockey skates.
* Lloyd Eisler and Kristy Swanson ran into their first complication as a team: Swanson, as a left-hander, spun in the opposite direction from Eisler. Choreographer Renee Roca told Eisler that they would simply have to choreograph the routine to take advantage of the difference rather than have each try to adapt to the other's spinning. The awkwardness of this decision showed as their shaky routine landed them in last place.
* Todd Bridges and Jenni Meno skated to music from "Wild Wild West." During their practice video, it came out that Meno has a very hard time with dancing and video from practice sessions showed awkward and unrhythmic movements from her. However, during the performance, she pulled off the dance moves quite well and on the beat.
* This was the only episode where Jillian Barberie and John Zimmerman had the highest score alone. They tied with Eisler and Swanson in episode 4.

coring

Scores (Nicks/Hamill/Lund/Total)

Episode 4 (Featured Skill: Side-by-side Jumps)

Notable Moments

* The teams skated to Top 40 pop music.
* Eisler and Swanson and Barberie and Zimmerman tied for first place with the highest scores in the series to date. This would be the last time Barberie and Zimmerman would have the high score in the competition.
* Both Jillian Barberie and Bruce Jenner had to be rushed to the hospital during practice for this round; Jillian Barberie suffered a strained rib cartilage during practice when John Zimmerman hoisted her into a two-armed "detroiter" lift, and Bruce Jenner got his toe pick caught on the ice while practicing spins and fell face-first, resulting in a cut above the eye requiring 16 stitches to close.
* Bruce Jenner was supporting Tai Babilonia in a pairs glide move in an otherwise uneventful routine when Babilonia realized they were about to run into the "kiss and cry" dais. She quickly stepped up onto the dais and was able to get back onto the ice smoothly, but the misstep cost them points and landed them in third place.
* Dave Coulier admitted during practice that he was afraid of falling and getting injured and thus had difficulty learning the required jump. The pair eventually did a single waltz jump at the start of their routine before they went into their skating in order to fit the required element in, and it cost them the competition as their low scores led to their elimination.

coring

Scores (Nicks/Hamill/Lund/Total)

Episode 7 Finals, Part 2 (Free Skate -- no required technical elements)

Notable Moments

* The teams skated to music of their own choice.
* Before their final competitive programs, each team skated an encore of their favorite routines from the series.
* Lloyd Eisler managed to lift Kristy Swanson into a one-handed "detroiter" lift-spin as part of a near-flawless final routine that gave them a score of 59 out of a possible 60 points, the highest score in the competition.
* Jillian Barberie attempted a single-axel jump but fell on the landing, effectively ending their chances to take the lead. The judges praised the effort and gave them high technical marks, but not enough to overtake Eisler and Swanson's lead. Barberie later said in a joint appearance with Mark Lund that she'd successfully landed 22 axels during practice, most of them in a row as they practiced their final routine, so her fall during the routine itself surprised and disappointed her.
* During their victory lap, as Eisler went to lift Swanson overhead, John Zimmerman (who was still on the ice being interviewed by Scott Hamilton) had to duck out of the way to avoid being hit by Swanson's skates. Both teams laughed about the close scrape afterward.

coring

Scores (Nicks/Hamill/Lund/Subtotal)

International broadcast

The US version aired in Australia on Network Ten in early 2006, and in New Zealand in October, 2008.

External links

* [http://www.fox.com/skating Skating with Celebrities website]