CBC's "Battle of the Blades" Returns for a fifth Season.

siberia82 said:

Episode 4: https://gem.cbc.ca/media/battle-of-the-blades/season-5/episode-4/38e815a-011c84229be

Individual performances: https://www.cbc.ca/television/battleoftheblades/blades-performances




Maybe the producers didn't know in advance that he would attend the show last night?



Agreed.

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Thank you for posting all these performances. I'm loving it (even though I miss my beloved Vanessa) and for me who doesn't know the Hockey players at all, it's an eye opener. I just love Nathalie Spooner with Andrew Pojé.

siberia82 said:

Episode 4: https://gem.cbc.ca/media/battle-of-the-blades/season-5/episode-4/38e815a-011c84229be

Individual performances: https://www.cbc.ca/television/battleoftheblades/blades-performances




Maybe the producers didn't know in advance that he would attend the show last night?

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Oh yea that would be logical, huh? Lol. But Brian has guest judged before in Season 3.. Maybe the schedules didn't play out and he couldn't come another week :/

NanaPat said:

They don't just say "no elimination" on a whim, as it will/can affect the number of episodes in the show. They probably knew from the start that there would be one "no-elimination" week and that it would be at Kurt's discretion.

Thought they do seem to be making some decisions on the fly, like going from 10.0 to 6.0 and retaining Colby as a judge.

By the way, 6.0 or 10.0 makes no difference at all: just subtract 5 (in 6.0) or 9 (in 10.0) from the score and multiply by 10 to get the REAL score. It just seems less harsh/like people are closer together when they do it the way they are doing it. I don't mind that.

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lol so they knew ahead of time there would be a non-elimination week... sounds like knowing ahead of time who will get the 2002 gold in pairs

Seven Sisters said:

Serious question. With Vanessa having been eliminated so early on, is it now possible that Vanessa and Morgan might reconsider the decision to sit out this competitive season?

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They were never sitting out the competitive season. They said they would be back for French Nationals and onward.

Colonel Green said:

They were never sitting out the competitive season. They said they would be back for French Nationals and onward.

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Perhaps they now could enter one of the remaining Challengers (like Golden Spin which always serves as a kind of B-final anyway), if only to get a competition under their belts before Nationals...

ladyjane said:

Perhaps they now could enter one of the remaining Challengers (like Golden Spin which always serves as a kind of B-final anyway), if only to get a competition under their belts before Nationals...

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That’s what I’m thinking. They have some time freed up, and could compete. And it was never clear to me whether they were taking off just the Grand Prix, or the whole season. Do they plan to do Europeans and, most importantly, Worlds? (Most importantly Worlds, as I plan to be there.)

Seven Sisters said:

And it was never clear to me whether they were taking off just the Grand Prix, or the whole season.

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They said months ago that they were doing Europeans and onward.

Colonel Green said:

They said months ago that they were doing Europeans and onward.

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Their season is planned to start with French Nationals.

Harriet said:

Their season is planned to start with French Nationals.

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I noted that above.

Nothing against Balde and he is a wonderful performer but couldn't they find someone with more of a name like even Emanual Sandu, Jeffrey Buttle, Christopher Mabee, Vaughn Chipeur, Even Liam Firius

Battle of the Blades is wonderful cheese. It is Canadian so maybe there is a reason to their choices for judges and guests. Some of thei choices of judges and such while great to promote for example women's hockey one wonders how that helps this show with ratings. I wonder why Colby is a judge for the whole season or did have something to do with his contract since he got injured. I am not sure but do the competitors get paid. It is hard to accept these hockey players acting as judges especially Ms. Nurse who just came out for this one show. Like it takes a while to be knowledgeable about skating. Mind you the most famous world wide skater competing is probably Gordeeva and she or team is one of hte least popular. Oh Canada - so crazy.

Eladj is helping with the training as well as skating a few numbers on BOTB. I think he's doing an absolutely wonderful job of both.

I doubt if most of the viewers have heard of any of the figure skaters on the show except for Kurt. But I bet most of them are favorably impressed by Eladj!

Skater Boy said:

Nothing against Balde and he is a wonderful performer but couldn't they find someone with more of a name like even Emanual Sandu, Jeffrey Buttle, Christopher Mabee, Vaughn Chipeur, Even Liam Firius

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So basically saying "Nothing against Balde" but let's get someone just as or more unknown as him to many of the non-skating fans watching the show. Jeff's overworked and is coming back from injury/surgery.

Elladj is doing a very good job.

Negative, negative, negative.

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Skater Boy said:

Battle of the Blades is wonderful cheese. It is Canadian so maybe there is a reason to their choices for judges and guests. Some of thei choices of judges and such while great to promote for example women's hockey one wonders how that helps this show with ratings. I wonder why Colby is a judge for the whole season or did have something to do with his contract since he got injured. I am not sure but do the competitors get paid. It is hard to accept these hockey players acting as judges especially Ms. Nurse who just came out for this one show. Like it takes a while to be knowledgeable about skating. Mind you the most famous world wide skater competing is probably Gordeeva and she or team is one of hte least popular. Oh Canada - so crazy.

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Are you arguing with yourself at this point? Stop.

Skater Boy said:

Nothing against Balde and he is a wonderful performer but couldn't they find someone with more of a name like even Emanual Sandu, Jeffrey Buttle, Christopher Mabee, Vaughn Chipeur, Even Liam Firius

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Several of those guys are long retired and as far as I know not really involved with skating. The show hired Baldé to work as a choreographer/skating instructor, areas he's currently active in, and have found ways to include him skating a bit because he's a charismatic performer and he gets a great audience response.

Skater Boy said:

I wonder why Colby is a judge for the whole season or did have something to do with his contract since he got injured.

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That was reported on extensively. Colby was given a guest-judge spot in the premiere after he injured himself (hence the awkward setup where they had already arranged for two guest judges for each of the first two episodes and had four judges), and then changed the plan and made him a permanent judge because viewer response was extremely positive (indeed, I believe if you look back to earlier in this thread, you will see people saying that they should keep Colby on).

Colonel Green said:

I noted that above.

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Sorry, accidentally quoted the wrong post!

skater boy, really?? Vaughn and Christopher???? You may not know that but Elladj just recently retired from competitive skating with a strong showing at Nationals. The figure skating fans from the entire country fell in love with him, if they hadn't already, during his last Nationals. He performed with a lot of charisma and emotion, hoping to finally get on the podium and just came short. Despite the many many many guys out there in Canada doing backflips, he is the one people call "the backflip guy" as he can do a combo of two of them. Of course, your post exposes your lack of knowledge or is it simply just another negative post?

FUrthermore, Elladj is going around with Skate Global (if I am not mistaken, he is the co-founder of it with Liam Firus) giving seminars all over the place, performing in shows ALL OVER the world... yup.. he is that famous on the pro circuit... and getting more and more involved in choreography.

Regarding the cheese fest that BOTB is, it is a cheese fest.. .but it does put figure skating on the map in a hockey dominated land... and CBC thought it was a good timing to revive it after the success of Canadian figure skaters in 2018... cheese can be nutritive too ... in this case it does showcase some of the very intricate things figure skaters have to deal with, compared to hockey players... just seeing how difficult it is to skate for some of the big hockey players is very revealing and for parents of young kids, it may be something to consider when they choose a sport for their children.

Regarding finally why Katia doesn't get many votes at this point, check my earlier post... it's not about Katia... it's about the fact that Bruno has a different path versus some of the other hocker players out there, being francophone and never having played in a pro Canadian team. He is absolutely unknown (i didn't even know him and I am from Quebec) and as it is a popularity contest, it is normal that some of the "greater Toronto" region hockey players get more votes... the show is not presented on the French CBC.. of course.. just the English channel... AND of course, being shown on primetime Thursday night, where there are many good French shows in the various Quebec channels, it is normal that Katia and Bruno have not YET received so much attention.... i wouldn't say like you mentioned, that Canada is crazy for not voting properly...


UGH... sorry all but I have hit my limits

Skater Boy said:

Some of thei choices of judges and such while great to promote for example women's hockey one wonders how that helps this show with ratings.

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Well, this is a show about hockey players. If fans of women's hockey tune in to see Natalie Spooner, that's a win-win.

Привет [emoji960][emoji173][emoji119]

CBC's 1080p YouTube videos for Episode 4:

Weaver & Kennedy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMZbZLEt9E

Spooner & Poje: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsZVRbz7egw

Evora & Orr: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vya7qNhqeSk

Afanasieva & Stock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozk-76zza5I

Gordeeva & Gervais: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=806FQZDk5lc

I must just be an odd-ball, because I am getting into this more than the actual skating competitions so far this season.

I would never vote against anyone skating to, "Do you Lo-o-ve me -- now that I can dance!" by the Contours.

Evora and her partner did a double twist.

Great entertainment. How can you compare Spooner and Poje's funk with the drama of Gordeeva & Gervais' offering?

Still, I have to say that of the hockey players, Kennedy is in a class by himself as a dancer. Kaitlyn is drawing the maximum out of him without overshadowing him and hogging the spotlight. Fine characterization, great unison.