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Skating Losing Its Edge? Not for Kurt who is going for a spin on W tomorrow

Source: The Toronto Sun
Date: November 29, 2002
Author: Bill Brioux

Copyright 2002 Sun Media Corporation

Are figure skating specials suddenly on thin ice? For a dozen years, an ice special was money in the bank for CBC and CTV. Even if you thought the sport was, well, lame, everybody knew and cheered for Brian Orser, Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko, our string of North American men's champions.

Not only were these guys world class, they were great ambassadors for their sport and always friendly and available to the fans and to the media.

Several charismatic women and pairs' champs also proved to be an irresistible draw on TV.

That was then. The titles aren't coming as easily, and when they do -- as they did last winter when Jamie Sale and David Pelletier eventually captured the gold medal, the sport seems tainted and diminished.

Browning admits it has all had an impact. Instead of the usual packed houses for every ice show, he's skated in front of as few as three thousand fans in recent years.

That being said, he was pretty pumped when I spoke with him a few weeks ago about Kurt Browning's Gotta Skate, which airs tomorrow night at 7 p.m. on W. Browning, who taped the ice show Nov. 1 at Hamilton's Copps Coliseum, has aced TV in the past, especially a decade ago in an arty and memorable black-and-white CBC special that paid homage to Casablanca.

This new, two-hour offering is a more straight-forward ice show, featuring old friends Orser, Isabelle Brasseur & Lloyd Eisler, back-flipping U.S. Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton and three-time Canadian national champion Josee Chouinard, plus several others.

As much of a coup as this is for W, which is enjoying a ratings upsurge this season (who knew dropping two letters could make such a difference?), it's also an indication that figure skating has dropped a notch as a hot TV property. That being said, CBC has HSBC Stars On Ice set for Monday at 8 p.m. Canadian Olympians Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz, Brasseur and Eisler and Orser and Browning are all featured on the hour-long special along with U.S. past champions Todd Eldredge and Kristi Yamaguchi.