Fred's, (Used to be Barb's), Board

April 16, 2019 - CBC today announced th ... spring.

Read more here:
https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/press-re ... the-blades

That's fantastic news!!! Can't wait, there are so many retired skaters I can think of as candidates. Thank you Elizabeth for brightening our day.

I heard this on the news...wonderful news!

It was always an interesting show. It would be nice to see it once again and maybe some older skaters & players as judges. I would hope also or an online broadcast of the show. So I could watch it too.

fred wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 6:58 pm It was always an interesting show. It would be nice to see it once again and maybe some older skaters & players as judges. I would hope also or an online broadcast of the show. So I could watch it too.

There might be hope now that CBC has their new "Gem" - https://gem.cbc.ca/

Some news released today about some of the participants in the new series: https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/press-re ... attle-of-t

Two hockey players announced and two of the figure skaters: Sheldon Kennedy; Natalie Spooner; Vanessa James; and Violetta Afanasieva.

Kurt Browning will be the head judge. Ron MacLean is also returning as host.

Vanessa will be the first active figure skating competitor to join Battle of the Blades while continuing her pursuit of World and Olympic Games titles. I'm guessing this means that she and Morgan will not be doing the GP season this year but I may be wrong. IFS Magazine reports that Morgan Cipres will be the coach of Vanessa James and her partner on Battle of the Blades.

Yes, yes, bring it on!

A photo from today's announcement event:

More on Vanessa James's participation from IFS magazine: https://www.ifsmagazine.com/vanessa-jam ... or-battle/

Apparently she and Morgan still intend to do their GP events, if they can get assigned to later ones.

Morgan will be coaching her with her assigned partner but they don't know yet who that will be - the article says:

They will attend a “Battle of the Blades” camp in July where the CBC production crew along with Bezic will figure out the pairings.

Update from Twitter:

Battle of the Blades

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Our two-hour season premiere takes place on September 19. Battle of the Blades will air Thursdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Andrew Poje, Eric Radford and Kaitlyn Weaver will make their debuts, with Season 2 winner Ekaterina Gordeeva and Season 4 winner Amanda Evora returning to the rink

From: https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/press-re ... attle-of-t

For those wanting to attend, CBC has announced how to acquire tickets for the live tapings: https://www.cbc.ca/television/battleoft ... -1.5232433

The tapings will occur in four different arenas:

• Sept. 19th (2 hr. premiere), Sept. 26 and Oct. 3 - First Ontario Centre, Hamilton
• Oct. 10 - Paramount Fine Foods Centre, Mississauga
• Oct. 17 & Oct. 24 - Tribute Communities Centre, Oshawa
• Oct. 31 - Ryerson's Mattamy Athletic Centre (former Maple Leaf Gardens)

There are separate links for purchasing tickets for each of the tapings on the page linked above.

According to a tweet from Violetta:

The reveal of the full Battle Of The Blades cast and partnerships coming next week!! The training has begun.

Sheldon Kennedy has been tweeting out "teasers"

No news on the pairings yet but some of the comments are worth a chuckle: https://www.cbc.ca/television/battleoft ... -1.5266032

Very interesting. I'm going to want to see this, but a lot of my time is going to be taken up with political activities, looking after my cat, sorting out my stuff in my new Apt. and treating my sore back, which I threw out lifting the piano. (More about this in the Off Topic Forum, soon,... if I don't fall asleep at the computer). I want to see this though.

Very interesting, the plot thickens! Can't wait!

Finally - the full cast announcement with the pairings has been made!!

Read it here: https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/press-re ... tle-of-the



PJ Stock was a last minute replacement due to an injury to Colby Armstrong in training!

https://www.cbc.ca/television/battleoft ... XKWq-BrslU

Oh, oh just set the PVR can't wait! As I am travelling (again) I will only be able to see the first 2 episodes live the rest on tape after my return.
It seems so odd that CBC cancelled the original series being the highest rating of all times.

Oh, oh just set the PVR can't wait! As I am travelling (again) I will only be able to see the first 2 episodes live the rest on tape after my return.
It seems so odd that CBC cancelled the original series being the highest rating of all times.

Kaitlyn & Sheldon promoting their participation and support for Jump Start


Amanda & Colton

Let the hype begin - today is "media day" for the Battle of the Blades folks.

Here's a "selfie" from Katia with several of the competitors.

Confirmation that those outside of Canada will be able to view Battle of the Blades episodes from the CBC website the day after they air and will able to vote is provided in this article which focuses on Vanessa James & Brian McGrattan: https://www.ifsmagazine.com/james-mcgra ... ve-battle/

The article also talks about James & Cipres decision to sit out most of this year's competitions.

And here we have the whole gang who will compete on Thursday, interestingly the hockey players all seem to be wearing hockey skates

It has been posted that on the day following broadcasts individual performances will be available for world-wide streaming (not the full show) and voting will be open world-wide as well. That's an interesting twist

That is interesting, but we can hope the bigger the audience and their participation the better the chances may be for a continued run. Can't wait.