Oh, Canada, your TV bounty knows no bounds: Degrassi, Slings & Arrows, Being Erica…So we want to trust you when we hear from this NPR report that you’re going nuts up north for this show Battle of the Blades, which pairs pro hockey players and figure skaters in a reality competition, like Dancing With the Stars on ice! The other reason we trust you on this? Because it’s basically a reality version of The Cutting Edge! And we all know we can never have too much of that opposites-attract, Pamchenko-fueling energy. (I’ve found your foray into reality TV, ABC Family, home of three cheese-tastic Cutting Edge sequels!) Apparently, American production companies have expressed interest in bringing the Battle of the Blades format across the border, which begs the question: Could this work Stateside? God knows we love our Kristi Yamaguchis and our Moira Kelly/D.B. Sweeney-like pairings.
You can watch full-length episodes here, but here’s a look at one couple from the premiere:
It’s as fun as Dancing With the Stars to me, but he main obstacle to making it work it here would be, well, hockey. It is the one thing we might care about even less than soccer. (It’s a tough call, I know.) The thing is, Canadians definitely like ice more than we do, having far more of it to live with, and star hockey players in the Great White North enjoy a far greater level of celebrity than they do down here. Plus, we Americans may get our fill of tough-guys-doing-frou-frou-stuff with the traditional casting of at least one football player on every season of Dancing With the Stars. Bottom line: There’s no reason to believe that the missing ingredient in the failed Skating With Celebrities was, of all things, hockey players.
But I could be wrong: What do you think, PopWatchers? Could we ever see The Cutting Edge: The Reality Edition on U.S. television? Whom would you like to see compete? Or is there another way to pull off the same concept with more popular American sports? (Skating With the NBA, anyone?)
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THIS.IS.AWESOME! OMG!
I’m gonna say that idk how much we’ll care. MAYBE if it was at all possible to put a TV show that takes place on ice during the summer off-season it’d work, but then there’s many people who’ll find it stupid to put a show about ice skating on during the hottest months of the year. it’s quite the problem but i think if they make it a “special event” during the holiday series and then if it does well pick it up for a full season next year.
*holiday season
sorry i didn’t proofread lol
At least these people are using their talent and skill that they’ve worked on for years to create an entertaining show. If shows like I Love New York and More to Love can survive, so can this.
toe pick
Don’t quit your day job!
haha, that was the first thing i thought of too!
but i don’t think he was even wearing figure skates…
Didn’t they do “Skating with Celebrities” already?
Duh, you already mentioned that.
i can’t see a bastardized version of this show in america. hockey is part of the lifestyle in canada – we grow up playing hockey, and watching the stanley cup playoffs every spring. the average canadian would know at least a couple of the hockey players on the show, and show like this exploits our loyalties as we’re rooting for the players that come from our childhood teams. i was/am cheering on glen anderson, and craig simpson – both having played with the legendary oilers dynasty of the 80s. torontonians are going nuts over the talentless, ape-like tie domi, because leaf fans LOVE their unskilled goons. tie’s still on the show thanks to the ridiculously clueless, delusional leaf fans.
Domi got the boot last night. And I thought the Leafs at least had a chance to win a figure skating contest.
Not all of us Torontonians are for Tie Domi! He was the worst one! I loved his bad facial expressions as he tried to skate. Made me laugh!
As a CBC watcher, I can tell you that there have been much better things on there, I know this even without watching it. CBC is like NBC in that they only have two hours of primetime a night, the national news airs at 10. Therefore, if a show isn’t working, it’s out the door immediately. There have been great shows in recent years that were barely given a chance to make room for shows like this.
If you haven’t actually WATCHED the show, maybe you shouldn’t crap all over it? CBC didn’t trash your favourite programs just to make room for Battle – they cancel shows that don’t pull in enough viewers, just like every other network does. And they’ve finally struck on an idea that’s captivating millions of viewers. The question is, would an American version work? Sadly, I doubt it. But if you throw a bunch of basketball stars together with Olympian gymmasts and make ‘em ballroom dance, you might have something….
I’m a TV snob okay? I hate how shows like Dancing With the Stars and American Idol can kill shows like The Mole or Pushing Daisies. I’m just saying CBC should be more patient with their shows. jPod should not have been cancelled after only 13 episodes.
Awesome! ABC should be rushing to buy this show now and airing it after Dancing with the stars!
It’s not so much that the hockey players are well known that makes the show successful (although that obviously helps), it’s the fact that they can already skate, which is why Skating With Celebrities failed. If Americans don’t care about hockey, get someone like Apolo Anton Ohno on there.
This show is hysterical. I love watching the hockey players faces when they figure skate.
That said, I’m all for Sale and Craig Simpson for the win!
And I’m glad Tie Domi is gone. He was just bad!
Wow – I live near Toronto and I’ve never even heard of this show. I should tell my mom – she loves Tie Domi. I was a huge Cutting Edge fan, but I don’t think that’s enough to cause me to watch this. I’m sure that there are lots of Canucks though who love it. It’s a cute concept.
I don’t know if it will fly in the US because you aren’t hockey fans outside of certain pockets of the country. This show works because the guys can skate, but what puts them out of their element (except Domi) is that they use figure skates which are very different. I haven’t talked to a single person who dislikes this show, the girls are fantastic and the guys are brave for being so out of their element. To go from an ice surface with 11 others plus refs and in this show it’s just you and your partner, spotlights, figure skates, lifts, emotion, it’s just wonderful to see most of the guys transform. Some of these routines could be part of any professional figure skating show.
Americans can’t handle the speed and excitement of hockey. They much prefer the horrifically dull and painfully slow baseball and football. So sad. This show is amazing, I have been loving it all season.
As a Canadian and an ex-figure skater I find this show intriguing. I know a lot of hockey players who used to make fun of us girls for our “twirls and leaps” and maybe now they are realizing how hard it really is. Personally I hope Jamie Sale and Craig Simpson win, she’s a sweetheart and he’s an Oiler. FTW
As an American, I haven’t seen the show yet, though I’m awaiting a copy from some Canadian friends, and have heard nothing but raves from them.
As Jamie above points out, the reason Battle of the Blades works where Skating with Celebrities didn’t is that hockey players actually know how to skate, so it wasn’t weeks of just teaching them how to glide around with blades strapped on their feet. With Dancing with the Stars, not everyone knows how to dance, but everyone on the show at least knows how to stand on their own and walk around. Also helps that all the girls are pairs or ice dancers so they can actually do partner work.
I don’t know if this concept would work in the US since we don’t particularly care about hockey – though maybe doing a Skating with Celebrities where the celebrities are required to have a minimal level of skating ability would be somewhat better?
That said, I mainly wanted to point out – I’m fairly certain the CBC site is geo-blocked for those outside of Canada, so you can’t watch the full episodes on your link unless you’re in Canada…
Not true – I just watched the “final four” episode. Thanks, EW, for spotlighting this! As a long-time figure-skating fan, I love that this show is respectful of the sport and demonstrates just how difficult it actually is. The hockey players are all excellent skaters, so you can really tell how hard it is to do footwork, spins, lifts and especially jumps.
I should have mentioned that I’m in Virginia. So yes, you can go to the site and watch full episodes even if you’re in the US.
“Skating with the Celebrities” didn’t work because it was a poorly executed concept unlike “Battle of the Blades”. On Skating with the Celebrities, half of the “celebrities” barely knew how to skate before the show started and were just struggling to just stay on their feet during the routines. That’s not very exciting to watch. And the pairings were so uneven, you had professional pairs skaters mixed in with singles skaters so if you were lucky enough (Kristy Swanson)to get a pro male pairs skater (ex: Lloyd Eisler) you were already at a significant advantage because they could lift and throw you around properly and make you look better than you actually are.
In “Battle of the Blades”, the pairings are even and fair. The women are all professional pairs skaters, and all the NHL hockey players are retired and in almost the same age range. But the most important thing is that these guys CAN already skate very well so it’s not painful to watch. I wish you guys would’ve posted a better clip, instead of that Tie Domi clip because it fails to showcase just how good these guys really are. I went in expecting a trainwreck but it has been such a surprise. It’s such a fun, feel-good show, and I love that everyone is having a blast but at the same time, it isn’t a joke and the hockey players are all taking it seriously and are very competitive. And I love how all the money is going to charity, very classy
Maybe it’s different in LA, but I come from Michigan, and, let me tell you, hockey is every bit as much of an obsession as football and baseball here.
Jennifer Armstrong – I just re-read your review of Cutting Edge 2 (I still remember reading it in the magazine the week it came out a few years ago). It is still one of the funniest things I have ever read in EW. It made me laugh again as I re-read it. Thanks!
Here are some better clips. Shae Lynn Bourne & Claude Lemieux
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaU_vTB4KFU
You’re right, Reeny. That is a better clip. I’m not a Claude Lemieux fan, but he did a good job. And he was wearing figure skates. (Tie Domi wasn’t!) I’d watch this…
Another great Shae Lynn Bourne & Claude Lemieux performance from this week. Lemieux doing Swazye from Dirty Dancing had me worried, but I think he did fine =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXyb9TlHhwg
Jamie Sale & Craig Simpson are awesome together and will likely go to the finals with Shae & Claude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RkH872Wk5A
Group Skate With the Final Four (required elements include a side by side footwork sequence and one rotational lift, please ignore Tie Domi LOL)
Toe pick!
I live in the American south (Georgia), and I have to say – I think you’d be taking a BIG chance by translating this to the states. Hockey is huge in certain parts of the country, but in all the areas where you rarely have ice? It’s fun to go to the games (we have two pro teams close by – the Thrashers & the Gladiators), but you don’t have the same kind of emotional attachment to the sport as you do to things you grew up actually playing.
But props for featuring a video Of Christime Hough, who was actually IN The Cutting Edge. “And what is big problem coach? Smilkov and Brushkin. Who? SMILKOV and BRUSHKIN.”
Oh my God, I love everything about this, right down to the host wearing a suit and SKATES. So hilarious. I love Tie Domi, I love hockey, and I am prepared to love this reality show. PLEASE bring this to the US.
Not everyone is (was) cheering for the goon Domi. I was at a taping at the Gardens and we booed him. I definitely think this is a Canadian thing. There have been many discussions on whether or not we think this would work south of the border (decision: probably not).