Yahoo! I’m writing for Yahoo. First two posts went up yesterday and today covering the finale of CBC’s Battle of the Blades.
I thought former Devil Claude Lemieux and partner Shae-Lynn Bourne deserved to win. The pair started well and got better every week, evolving into a real dance team by the end of the competition. Who knew The Pest had such a romantic side? No wonder Tie Domi chased him all over the rink that time.
As I posted Sunday night, however, you could see that third place team Stephane Richer and Marie-France Dubreuill would split the Quebec vote, allowing Craig Simpson and Jamie Sale to take the goofy crystal trophy (which really does look like two glass boomerangs).
CBC drew big ratings for their Sunday/Monday broadcasts, launching at 2 million and holding close to that throughout on Sundays. Curiously, though, they never released the home vote tallys, even for the final. Even Canadian Idol used to draw millions of phone and Internet votes so the Blade count must have been low by comparison.
Attention now shifts on future editions of the series. CBC plans a press launch for their January shows on Nov. 24 in Toronto and while the focus there will be on The Republic of Doyle and the new Kids in the Hall mystery miniseries as well as a Don Cherry bio-pic, maybe some info will leak out on Blades II. Early word has it that at least 10 pairs will be invited next time, up from eight. Look for at least one of Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark to lace up their skates, figuritively speaking.
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