First Episode of Skating’s Next Star
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I Tivo’d Skating’s Next Star. It got a terrible review in Entertainment Weekly so part of me wanted to skip watching it all together. But then again, my favorite reality TV show Dancing With The Stars got poor reviews and I thought it was great. This first episode was almost painful to watch. The twelve contestants are competing for a $25,000 prize, a feature article in some figure skating magazine and a management contract. They were put on the spot right away, asked to improvise a performance one minute in length, to incorporate spins, footwork and jumps. Two contestants would be eliminated at the end of this show (one man and one woman). You could tell all the performers were nervous, but for the most part were pretty good, at least in my opinion.
The judges, on the other hand, didn’t agree with me. The judges are Elvis Stojko, Oksana Grishuk and Rudy Galindo. I had a problem with the behavior of both Oksana and Rudy. Elvis appears to be a gentleman with a kind heart, understanding that for these contestants this is most likely their only shot to make it big. He seems to have reasonable expectations as to the performance and technical levels of the competitors. Rudy is just a nit picky pain in the butt, and Oksana isn’t too far behind him. It was completely out of line when Rudy and Oksana criticized Natalie’s weight. And you wonder why young women get eating disorders. When Oksana and Rudy laughed so hard at Chris Thombs they were crying that was completely uncalled for and disrespectful. But overall Rudy seems to want to play the role of the disagreeable, displeased, unsatisfied, nothing will ever be good enough for me judge. Let him do that – it’s just going to make him more and more unlikable and more and more unpopular. What is he doing now professionally?
At the end of the show the pairs team/romantic couple of Kristin Dority and Chris Thombs were eliminated from the show. I only hope that in the upcoming episodes Rudy and Oksana can start to emulate Elvis in his deportment and act in a more professional manner.
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