PILOT REVIEW: Skating with the Stars

SKATING WITH THE STARS

Hosted by Vernon Kay and Tanith Belbin
Judges: Johnny Weir, Dick Button, and Laurie Ann Gibson

After a highly successful fall edition of Dancing with the Stars, ABC is helping to bridge the gap with Skating with the Stars. I will admit that I don't watch Dancing regularly and I only half watched the 1 hour, 47 minute premiere of Skating, but there's no guarantee the massive audience for Dancing will follow Skating for many reasons. First of all, skating is not quite as electric or dynamic when you are watching average skaters. Secondly, this format has already attempted and failed in FOX's 2006 Skating with Celebrities. Thirdly, the celebrities, host, and judges are all not household names. Granted Dancing with the Stars started out this way as well but are audiences going to want to watch Rebecca Budig and Vince Neil skate after watching the well-known Jennifer Grey and buzzworthy Bristol Palin dance?

The upside to this show is that it is visually appealing. The celebrities are actually fairly good and the format is familiar and tested as it closely follows the format of Dancing. The host is likable enough, but not as familiar as Tom Bergeron. The judges are ok but Laurie Ann Gibson is quite annoying. There is no dynamic judge though which won't help. Basically, it's an adequate fill-in for Dancing with the Stars but it will never live up to its quality or success.