CBC out of teach with reality

Seriously, this is going to be a financial and cultural disaster.

It would be one hell of a trip to crawl around inside the mind of the CBC exec who dreamed up a reality show called Battle of the Blades, which (via TV Feeds My Family) is, wait for it, "an elimination-style challenge that teams up Canada's top figure skaters with this country's most daring and versatile hockey stars to compete against one another each week in a glitzy pairs figure skating performance." Guhhhhhh.

It is understandable that the CBC loves hockey-based reality shows (see Making The Cut, or Hockeyville). It revs their engines. They are about 15 years late to cash in on a boom in figure skating's popularity (the average age of that sport's fans is "dead"), but that's neither here nor there.

It sort of comes down to so-called common sense. It's a bit of a stretch to imagine that NHL teams would sign off on releasing their most precious assets to a reality show figure skating competition. It is an even bigger stretch to picture hockey players, whose sport prizes stuffiness and conformity, not that there's anything wrong with that, being eager to do something so, uh, prancy.

An active football player such as Jason Taylor can go on Dancing With The Stars and no one casts aspersions on his masculinity. Who knows, maybe younger players wouldn't think twice about it, but can you see Brian Burke letting Luke Schenn try figure skating?

The real kick in the hockey pants is this is a gold-embossed invitation to CBC-bash. The people's network does a lot of good things (the radio division, the website), but come on.

Related:
CBC Skates Out New Shows For 2009-10 (Bill Brioux, TV Feeds My Family)