2019-20 U.S. Men's Figure Skating

[mrrice]

Thanks a lot NBC, you make it nearly impossible to watch US Nationals other than through NBC or it's paid services and then you interrupt when Nathan and Jason skate with a news report (that people can get so many other places).

What disrespect to two great athletes in figure skating to take away their moments on live national TV. Finally, at the very end they replayed Nathan's free so that we could actually watch it, but Jason's was never shown. I hope someone puts up a decent video online. I don't see why they couldn't have waited until the last two skaters were done to interrupt the program.

It is easier to watch the nationals of other countries than it is to watch my own US nationals. I await the day when NBC no longer owns the rights to show figure skating.

In their defense, Kobe is a hero to many people. An NBA Hall of Famer and an Olympic Gold Medalist. Here in Ca. where I live, this is a huge story. pre-empting MANY shows on ALL networks. I am certainly upset to have missed Nathan and Justin and I hope to find their FP's on YouTube.

 

[brightphoton]

^ The police officer was so frickin rude too. He want on a rant, berating people for asking the identities of the 7 non-famous victims, likening them to garbage like TMZ. Instead of watching Nathan and Jason's championship free skates live, we had to listen to a self-important policeman soapboxing for 15 minutes.

 

[noskates]

Oh - were you not able to switch over to NBCSN?

And quite frankly, the death of an athlete as great as Kobe Bryant did deserve the attention it's received. Sorry - but that sort of surpasses a skating competition.

 

[NanaPat]

^ The police officer was so frickin rude too. He want on a rant, berating people for asking the identities of the 7 non-famous victims, likening them to garbage like TMZ. Instead of watching Nathan and Jason's championship free skates live, we had to listen to a self-important policeman soapboxing for 15 minutes.

You make me glad that I had started watching late so I could FF through ads and interruptions. I started to FF at the beginning of Nathan's skate and came back in the for Jason's marks.

And it wasn't like we didn't know about the crash. It was crawling all over the screen and the commentators had mentioned it.

 

[skatespin]

NBCSN wasn't scheduled to show it, NBC was. This news broke hours ago, I had already heard of this news. Not saying it isn't relevant, but certainly NBC could have waited 15 minutes to cover it? Or people could tune into one of the other million news networks we have in the US who are actively covering it. If NBC doesn't want to do anything with figure skating, can they please stop purchasing the rights. The US has some of the most restricted access to figure skating.

NBC is making it even more difficult for the sport to gain popularity and mass appeal in this country by making it so dang hard to watch and there aren't many videos appearing on youtube, like with all other competitions.

 

[brightphoton]

Oh - were you not able to switch over to NBCSN?

And quite frankly, the death of an athlete as great as Kobe Bryant did deserve the attention it's received. Sorry - but that sort of surpasses a skating competition.

No, I wasn't.

And no, the death of a former athlete does not warrant interrupting current programming. What did we need a breaking news press conference so urgently for? That's something for a hurricane, an earthquake, or a mass shooting, when the public needs to know information immediately.

Besides, the 6 o'clock news is in less than an hour, so what was the rush?

 

[mrrice]

No, I wasn't.

And no, the death of a former athlete does not warrant interrupting current programming. What did we need a breaking news press conference so urgently for? That's something for a hurricane, an earthquake, or a mass shooting, when the public needs to know information immediately.

Besides, the 6 o'clock news is in less than an hour, so what was the rush?

This, I agree with. They could have said "We'll have an "In depth" report following this broadcast. There were less than 20 minutes left and I think a Bulletin would have been enough. That's my skating fan talking.

 

[lariko]

I can’t believe they put that report over Chen’s skate... it was timed perfectly to block out US own silver and gold performances in the live feed. Moreover, they do not have streaming and geoblock everything else... at least they repeated Chen’s skate afterwards, but it was a middle finger to figure skating as a sport. There is no other way to interpret it.

 

[noskates]

Logging off now. Can't believe what's being said here.

 

[el henry]

People, and I say this with love, get a grip about the last two skates not being shown on NBC.

The death of Kobe Bryant is HUGE news in the U S of A. NBC would have interrupted anything less than the Super Bowl for Kobe, and probably would have split screen the SB and the news conference.

No skater, none, zero, nada, zilch is or should be, more important than that. :no:

 

[Tahuu]

Forget about NBC program interruption. Now who should go to Worlds, Tomoki or Vincent? I guess with Jason's condition, either of the two is not as critical for 3 spots next year.

 

[brightphoton]

Sure, if you're a basketball fan. I on the other hand got an alert on my phone about Kobe's death before lunch, so it was old news by the time the men started skating. Not breaking news.

 

[moonvine]

Thanks a lot NBC, you make it nearly impossible to watch US Nationals other than through NBC or it's paid services and then you interrupt when Nathan and Jason skate with a news report (that people can get so many other places).

What disrespect to two great athletes in figure skating to take away their moments on live national TV. Finally, at the very end they replayed Nathan's free so that we could actually watch it, but Jason's was never shown. I hope someone puts up a decent video online. I don't see why they couldn't have waited until the last two skaters were done to interrupt the program.

It is easier to watch the nationals of other countries than it is to watch my own US nationals. I await the day when NBC no longer owns the rights to show figure skating.

I fear you have a long wait. I used to wait for them to give up the rights to the Olympics. I finally gave up on that.

 

[YuBluByMe]

Some of y’all in here are disgusting. Y’all know who you are and I will not acknowledge you further.

Forget about NBC program interruption. Now who should go to Worlds, Tomoki or Vincent? I guess with Jason's condition, either of the two is not as critical for 3 spots next year.

I’m not a fan of skaters duking it out for Worlds spots after Nationals, but I think it may be justified in this case. Zhou skated well and is consistent and Hiwatashi isn’t. If Zhou would have bombed, I would feel differently. I think 4CC should be the decider. I also think they should name Torgashev to 4CC instead of Brown. USFed is sending Glenn to 4CC instead of Bell. Bell may have declined the spot, but I don’t know why she would do that since she’s on the cusp of being in the penultimate warmup group at Worlds without it.

 

[Feline Feeder]

I miss old Jason Brown.

He was so. . .happy! Riverdance! Hamilton! Prince! Brown Betty! He was so peppy and perky and fun.

When they cut his ponytail, it's like his spirit was lost. Schindler's List has been overdone and no matter how beautiful one skates to it, it's very depressing. And that ballad in his short program wasn't great either. It's like those original songs that people used to write for Johnny Weir (or maybe he wrote them himself, I don't remember. Either way, they weren't great.)

Come back, old Jason. There has to be another way to show "artistry" than to do slow, somber music. You used to be unique, now you're like everyone else!

PS. I'm sure many will disagree with me, and I realize that he skates cleaner with less involved programs, but I still miss them!

 

[Seren]

I miss old Jason Brown.

He was so. . .happy! Riverdance! Hamilton! Prince! Brown Betty! He was so peppy and perky and fun.

When they cut his ponytail, it's like his spirit was lost. Schindler's List has been overdone and no matter how beautiful one skates to it, it's very depressing. And that ballad in his short program wasn't great either. It's like those original songs that people used to write for Johnny Weir (or maybe he wrote them himself, I don't remember. Either way, they weren't great.)

Come back, old Jason. There has to be another way to show "artistry" than to do slow, somber music. You used to be unique, now you're like everyone else!

PS. I'm sure many will disagree with me, and I realize that he skates cleaner with less involved programs, but I still miss them!

Interesting take as I'm one who 100% disagrees with you. I think Jason has really found himself as a performer. And his SP is very unique, there are very few skaters who could skate to that music. Look at his step sequence- his joy in skating was so evident. Music doesn't have to be joyful for passion and joy of skating to come out.

 

[discode]

Forget about NBC program interruption. Now who should go to Worlds, Tomoki or Vincent? I guess with Jason's condition, either of the two is not as critical for 3 spots next year.

Gotta go with Vincent honestly. He was only 3 points behind. He's the defending bronze medalist and he was pretty remarkable considering his lack of training time. First time I actually really enjoyed his skating. Of course, it might change when he adds back in all those quads he has trouble landing.

I'm also not for fighting it out after nationals, but 4CC would be a good place to decide it.

 

[crazydreamer]

I don’t blame them for cutting out for the Kobe press conference, but it is inexcusable that they did not immediately replay Nathan and Jason.

Kobe’s death is a tragedy. I gasped when I heard (hours ago). But why they felt that people watching their FS broadcast cared more about the press conference and NBC’s commentary about it than about Nathan and Jason’s skates is beyond me.

Anyway, Nathan A, Jason A+, NBC F.

 

[Seren]

I think fans of the sport can be disappointed about the last two skaters not being shown and also acknowledge the significance of today's news.

That said, I was sort of bothered by skating being interrupted/ not shown at all because it was interrupted for nothing. There was no new news, only speculation, which to me reeks of taking advantage of a situation for clicks/views. It would have been fine to have a brief break saying that coverage would be forthcoming when there was actually more information.

I think what the anger is really about is that it seemed like (not saying it is true) another marker of how little importance skating is to the network. I don't think that NBC would have suspended super bowl coverage to cover an athletes death- no matter how sad it is.

At the end of the day the accident today is really, really tragic and sad. That is the most important thing.

Just my 2 cents.


Also, the reality is that figure skating is a niche sport. My friend and I went to a sports bar today to watch it and no one was there so they put it on the big projection screen for us. By the time the last 3 skaters were going people were starting to trickle in and a women who came in was mad that the Oregon basketball team wasn't being shown on it (they were on a smaller tv). It was kind of funny, like "sorry lady we were here first but wait 15 minutes and its all yours.".

 

[Amei]

I can’t believe they put that report over Chen’s skate... it was timed perfectly to block out US own silver and gold performances in the live feed. Moreover, they do not have streaming and geoblock everything else... at least they repeated Chen’s skate afterwards, but it was a middle finger to figure skating as a sport. There is no other way to interpret it.

This didn't have anything to do with giving figure skating a 'middle finger' - this press conference took precedent on all the networks.