ABC Sports is in the midst of covering the World Figure Skating Championships for the 25th year. But there are reports that the network is considering severing its relationship with the event — and with figure skating altogether.
As with all things TV, it's a matter of ratings. And figure skating ratings have been in decline in recent years.
Maybe they need somebody to get whacked in the knee with a pipe.
Well, not really. But the fact is that the whole Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding scandal back in 1994 gave figure skating its highest profile and highest ratings ever. The 1994 Winter Olympics were by far the most-watched in history, averaging a whopping 27.8 rating. (The highly successful Salt Lake Games averaged a 19 rating, more than 30 percent below that figure.)
The night that Kerrigan and Harding performed, 126,660,000 viewers tuned in, making it No. 4 on the all-time ratings list for programs of any kind, trailing only a trio of Super Bowls. And CBS, reeling from the loss of the NFL to Fox back in 1994, used figure skating to try and compete.
But 2003 is not 1994. Oh, Olympic figure skating continues to do very well — as always, it was the highest-rated event of the 2002 Games — but other events have done considerably less television business.
And, perhaps, what happened at the Salt Lake Games is contributing to Americans' waning interest in what happens on the ice because of what happened off the ice. The judging scandal continues to reverberate through the sport.
We can only imagine what would happen if an NFL or NBA referee actually admitted to cheating. (OK, so there are conspiracy theorists who suspect that happens, but no one has ever admitted it.)
If ABC parts ways with figure skating, the sport will no doubt find another TV home. But in an age when money shelled out for TV rights seems to be on an unending upward escalator no matter what the ratings, figure skating could find itself taking the elevator down.
OLYMPIC BIDDING: Bidding is about to get under way for the TV rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games, something that hasn't happened in almost a decade.
Back in 1994, NBC made a pre-emptive, take-it-or-leave-it offer to the International Olympic Committee — $3.5 billion for the five Summer and Winter Olympics between 2000 and 2008. The IOC accepted without taking bids from other networks. Which, of course, didn't make those other networks particularly happy.
Not that they're holding a grudge. (At least not publicly.) Among those expected to enter the bidding are NBC, CBS, Fox and Turner. And there's speculation that the rights for the 2010 Winter Games and 2012 Summer Games could bring in as much as $2 billion.
Which sort of makes you wonder how much Salt Lake might have gotten for 2002 if there had been a bidding process. Not that the $545 million NBC paid for those Games was chump change — it was considerably more than the $400 million originally anticipated. But, still, you've got to wonder.
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com