ABC has been running their new reality show on Monday nights, Skating with the Stars. With a similar format, it took over for the network’s immensely popular Dancing with the Stars in the Monday night timeslot. Last night, the competition came to a close with actress Rebecca Budig taking home the golden skates trophy. Will she be the series’ first and last winner? Does ABC have another big hit on their hands or a disappointment that will be cancelled and quickly forgotten?
Skating with the Stars pits teams of professional skaters and “celebrities” together as they perform routines on ice. They are judged and scored by Johnny Weir, Dick Button and Laurie Ann Gibson. Those scores are combined with votes from viewers and the team with the lowest total leaves the competition each week. Vernon Kay hosts with Tanith Belbin providing color commentary.
Debuting after this year’s final Monday night edition of Dancing with the Stars, Skating with the Stars attracted a decent 2.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 9.36 million total viewers. On the downside, it lost about 50% of its lead-in audience in the demo and 60% of total viewers.
In week two, the demo rating fell 50% to a 1.2 with 6.06 million viewers. In week three, they fell another 33% to a disastrous 0.8 rating and 3.94 million total viewers. In week four, the numbers stabilized with a 0.8 for the demo and 3.79 million. This past Monday night, opposite repeats on most of the other networks, Skating with the Stars incredibly hit a new low and fell a staggering 38% in the 18-49 demo. It hit a 0.5 rating with 3.37 million viewers.
Will Skating with the Stars return for a second season? No way. Based on these numbers, the network execs surely couldn’t wait for this show to be over. If it weren’t the holiday season and an ongoing competition, they would have cancelled it weeks ago. It’s a huge disappointment in the ratings.
But, what do you think? Have you enjoyed Skating with the Stars? If it were up to you, would you renew or cancel it? How would you fix it?
Image courtesy ABC.
Ok i liked the show. I do agree on one of the judges and the host. the lady judge never heard of.. All of the people hating on the old guy obviously are truly into skating. He is the only one to win back-back gold medals at the olympics. sure he is older but he has a right to judge other skaters because he is a talented skater. and I love Johnny Weir! He is talented too!
don’t cancel!! just improve!
I liked it don’t cancel it. It does need better hosts and
judges and it needs more then 6 couples skating but do not cancel
it, it did not suck at all and it was not boring!
I enjoyed this show and I’m not into ice skating, ABC can thank Rebecca Budig for getting me to even give it the time of day. But if they want even more peeps to pay attention then yes as many have said, get better, more well known judges because I never heard of any of these judges and didn’t care about their opinions. By the end I could appreciate Johnny Weir a bit more since he is a skilled skater but why were the other two allowed to judge others? If that old man ever skated he couldn’t have done… Read more »
Cancel it! Tired of these time wasting competitor shows. They are there mostly for the financial benefit of filling time at less cost. Has nothing to do with taking TV back to what the majority of viewers enjoy. Series that they can relate to. Not eggo’s to watch. Don’t care to hear singing, watch dancing, nor skating. Not to interested in Apprentice anything either. I personally would like to kill all of the survivors off so the islands empty. Please start putting back on GOOD program series.
I loved the show. It had parts where it could be improved, yes, but for a first season, I think it was great. I definitely think it should be renewed for a second season and given a chance. Maybe now that the first season is over, they can find some more popular celebrities and skaters and get more people interested! This show has so much potential and it would be really sad to see it go to waste. With a little more funding, some more interesting contestants, and a little more spark, it could easily be as big as Dancing… Read more »
I loved the show. It had parts where it could be improved, yes, but for a first season, I think it was great. I definitely think it should be renewed for a second season and given a chance. Maybe now that the first season is over, they can find some more popular celebrities and skaters and get more people interested! This show has so much potential and it would be really sad to see it go to waste. With a little more funding, some more interesting contestants, and a little more spark, it could easily be as big as Dancing… Read more »
It’s a shame, as I think the idea has a lot of potential, but both this and the Fox version from a few years ago suffered from too few contestants and not enough ‘names’.
They probably would have done better to stick more closely to the format established so successfully by Dancing on Ice in the UK. The way the vote/rating system was designed in the US version was extremely poor (and poorly explained on the broadcast.)
I say keep the show, but get a new host and judges. I think the concept of the show is good (was MUCH better than the Fox’s Skating with Celebrities), but I could NOT stand the host and the judges. First of all I never heard of the one judge before, Dick Button is alright, but Johnny Wier is just strange! Was never really a fan of his anyway. I THINK if they got a BETTER host and judges, the the show will be alright. I say give it another chance and bring on stars/professionals that are well known.
Noooooo. Please do not encourage them! How many skating, dancing, dating, fighting, eating, schmoozing shows with housewives and other “celebrities” can be created before someone realizes it just isn’t that interesting anymore. Some real entertainment might be nice. I am now watching NETFLIX “The Wire” again. I guess nothing can compare favorably to that! Go McNulty!
Cancel it! There was a show like this one before.
I did not like this show and am not sorry it got cancelled. I didn’t care for the judges and their remarks (especially to the girl who came in second) were cruel at times. I just found it boring. Love Dancing With The Stars, so you would think I would love this as I love skating, but it just didn’t cut it.
Rarely can I say that I’m glad a TV show failed, but in this case, I’m glad this stupid idea got the low ratings it deserved and hope it will be getting the axe asap. So sick of reality shows killing in the ratings & great things like Terriers dieing , glad people saw this for the crap that it was.
Thanks for including the loss of Terriers. That was a good show and should have continued. Instead we get reality shows with “stars” doing this and that. I finally found the off button on the remote.
The show was boring. The host failed miserably at his attempts to be funny. The older judge is suffering from some kind of dementia or something. He just didn’t seem to be all there. None of the stars they chose were really very well known, which detracted from the allure of the show.
First, I would have better recognized Judges. I can’t remember the lady judges name, but she is a choreographer for “Diddy” and no one really knows her. The Professional skater is okay since he can judge the asthetics of the skating. However, the older gentleman, is not really known. Also, they should have celebrities that we know of and really like. Rebecca Buding and Bethany Frankel were the only 2 that I really like so I was happy to see the two of them make it to the final round.
cancel i dont think its very good