Was Karen Barber really any good?
Leicester_Hunk
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I've done a very basic bit of looking her up last week and was shocked when she is compared to Katrina Witt. KB doesn't even exist in comparison.
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Leicester_Hunk
Posts: 18,316
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Katarina was a solo skater for a start whereas Karen was an Ice Dancer so completely different disciplines.
Karen wasn't amongst the very best but her & Nicky did consistently finish in/around the top 6 for a few years. And they won a European bronze. Not bad all in all - whatever people think of her as a judge I think it's unfair to completely belittle her & Nicky and their achievements.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/dancing-on-ice-queen-karen-barber-278126
and this:
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=553013
Looks like she's had the makeover
In your expert opinion, of course! :rolleyes:
They deserved to finish higher than they did in Bolero year with their Chaplin routine, and the following year with the Drgon Dance one (when they got the European bronze), again they deserved to do better, it was just the Eastern bloc voting for their own who kept them down - a bit like T&D in 1994!
I don't have a problem with her being on the panel, especially as she is the only ice dancer on it, but she needs to be much more impartial
Ooh, I'd love to see that Chaplin routine again, is it on You Tube? I remember Barber and Slater had a great on ice persona, Karen as cute as a button - the cheeky kids with great comedic timing - definitely crowd pleasers - I expect Karen the DOI judge would have scored them 10's all the way, even if the dial only went up to 6 in those days.
I think they reached their [very high] level at the same time as T&D, and although they were tipped to move up after Jayne and Chris turned pro, I don't think the technical ability was there to make them serious medal contenders.
I recall Nicky saying in an interview that he and Chris were both on the look out for partners at the same time, and along came Jayne....
I agree she has acted unprofessionally on the panel, and she is far too emotional to be impartial.
I agree about her not being a judge, definitely not while she's still coach, but I'd prefer her not to be a judge at all.
So would I. Let her get on with the coaching in the background and keep off the panel. It is since she started a relationship with Chris, I think she thinks she is some sort of WAG and deserves to be in the limelight. Carry on coaching and keep off the panel.
I thought she was better this year at keeping her personal feelings out of it, but her attitude towards Matt compared with Beth was ridiculous. Even if she weren't coaching, her relationship with Chris makes it all a bit odd, as Chris and Jayne are always supposed to be neutral themselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR6A_uMU0mI
The point is she isn't impartial and ratings took a nosedive since she came back. ITV have shown themselves up by getting her back and the commisioning team must be pretty irritated by shooting themselves in the foot getting her back.
Put it this way money hasn't been made since her return because of poor ratings. Unless ITV get a strong production team for DOI it really is a dying show.
I'm sorry but ratings haven't gone down just because Karen's back on the panel, there are loads of factors including that all shows of this type are having a downturn (strictly being the notable exception).
I really don't get all the Karen dislike on here she is actually the most qualified person on the panel as Robin wasn't an ice dancer. Personally I would like them to keep Karen and bring Nicky back.
Ratings also took a nosedive when she was off the panel - I don't think you can blame her for the ratings.
Maybe she is, but it is the blatant favouritism of Matt and her sour face when he didn't win, that has shown her up to look unprofessional.
Why single her out - she wsn't alone in that regard.
Where do you get that incorrect information from?
From a sporting family (his father was a goalkeeper for Millwall) of Bristol, England, Robin Cousins took to figure skating very early after skating for the first time at Westover Road Ice Rink in Bournemouth.[1][2] He won his first national title in 1969 at the age of twelve on the novice level.[3] By age fourteen, he was Britain's junior champion, and he made his international debut that same year.
As a young skater, Cousins also did ice dancing at the same time as singles, his first coach being a dancer.[3] He was later coached by Carlo Fassi.[4] Cousins is able to spin in both directions.[3]
Cousins represented the United Kingdom as an amateur skater for eight years, winning the National Senior Championships for four consecutive years. He had a left knee injury at the 1977 World Championships.[3] By 1980, he had undergone major surgery on both his left and right knees.[3]
Cousins won the free skating portion of the World Championships three times, 1978 through 1980. He won silver medals at the World Championships in 1979 and 1980. He reached the pinnacle of his amateur ice skating career by winning the European Championships gold medal, and also winning the Winter Olympic Games gold medal in Lake Placid, New York, in 1980.
Cousins followed this with a highly successful career as a professional ice skater. He starred in such skating shows as Holiday on Ice and Ice Capades,[3] and he was a regular in the World Professional Championships. In 1983, Cousins formed his own ice skating performance company, and it toured the world with the programs Electric Ice and Ice Majesty. He has also worked with the British synchronized swimming team.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Cousins
Or perhaps a case of people seeing what they want to see. I think people let their imaginations run away with them.
I stand corrected, perhaps I should have said he isn't known for being an ice dancer. And this year in particular he has been very biased towards the male celebrities so singleing Karen out for not being impartial is unfair imo
It was Karen's and Nicky's misfortune to follow Torvill and Dean and as a consequence they will always be found lacking: yet considering their achievements I ask myself why?
5th in the World - 3rd in Europe - how does that spell failure?
I think Nicky's bad perm was to blame
I loved their Charlie Chaplin routine
Kevin Keegan springs to mind.
Agree about the Charlie Chaplin routine - showed their strength and talent.:)