figure skating

Tonight is the night that NBC has been waiting for: the gold medal showdown in ladies' figure skating. American Sasha Cohen enters tonight's free skate on top, but by only .06 of a point over Russian Irinia Slutskaya. Expect to stay up until midnight for the outcome of that competition (or you can get the results from any news website).

Also tonight, to fill the time between figure skating competitors, the women snowboarders compete in the parallel giant slalom. Curling, hockey, bobsledding and marathon speed skating are also on the schedule:

Do you know what song I'm talking about? It's called Gabriel's Oboe from The Mission movie soundtrack. It's a very beautiful piece of music that was originally composed by Ennio Morricone, but none of the skaters have used the original version. I think I heard a version featuring Yo Yo Ma during the pairs skate. In any case, I think I've heard it more this week than I have heard NBC's Olympics theme song.

Think I'm exaggerating? American Matt Savoie used it for his free skate. American pairs skaters Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem skated to it in their short program. And, Italian Carolina Kostner used it for her short program last night.

None of these skaters performed very well so I think it's fair to say, while beautiful, the song may be cursed.

The event that usually garners the most talk is women's figure skating, and it begins tonight with the short program. With Michelle Kwan out of the competition due to injuries, American skater Sasha Cohen gets the spotlight. And, Emily Hughes, the younger sister of 2002 Olympic gold medal figure skater Sarah Hughes, will also hit the ice. No pressure, Emily. Despite all the excitement over Sasha's modeling contracts and Emily's famous sister, Russian skater Irina Slutskaya is still favored for gold.

Also on the ice tonight, speed skaters Chad Hedrick, Shani Davis, Joey Cheek and Derek Parra race each other in the 1500m. Hedrick, Davis, and Cheek have all won gold medals so far in these games.

Here's the schedule on all of NBC's networks:

Ice skating returns to NBC primetime tonight with the finals in the ice dancing competition where an American team is in contention for a medal. But, the real interesting action on the ice is over at the speed skating track. Americans Chris Witty and Jennifer Rodriguez are both going for the gold in the 1000m. Expect to see and hear a lot about Witty from NBC tonight. She has overcome some pretty intense personal problems since winning gold in Salt Lake City.

Also tonight, the women's freestyle aerials competition, and the two-man bobsled. Here is the schedule for all of NBC's stations:

Michelle Kwan, you just gave up your Olympic dream. What are you going to do next? After Michelle dropped out of the Olympics this week (because of strained muscles), she turned down NBC's offer to stick around as a commentator, but she accepted Disney's multi-year offer to be its spokesperson. 25-year-old Michelle will appear in Disney television and print ads and will even be included in some original programming, though it's not clear what that entails. I didn't realize this, but Michelle Kwan has a history with Disney which includes a series of fictional books called, Michelle Kwan Presents Skating Dreams.

Oh joy. Ice dancing begins tonight on NBC. That's one event that I just can't watch because it looks too much like high-school-drama-club-on-ice to me. They can't jump or do lifts, so they wear weird costumes and look longingly into each other's eyes. This is much more of an artistic event than a sport. Why is this still in the Olympics?

If you can stomach the ice dancing, there are some other interesting events on television tonight, including the premiere of women's snowboardcross. I saw the men's race last night and it was pretty darn cool. It's like motorcross on snow. Once again, the American women are the favorites.

As usual, there is plenty of hockey and curling on NBC's other stations:

This could explain a lot. Star Magazine and the gals on The View are reporting that Skating with Celebrities pair Kristy Swanson and Lloyd Eisler are now an item. On Monday's episode, these two really sizzled. Kristy seemed a lot more comfortable with Lloyd than she had in the past episodes. She almost kissed him on the lips at the end of their routine, but he turned and she got his neck instead. I know she's an actress, but she looked totally smitten with him during that whole routine. Whatever it was, something changed for those two between the fourth and fifth competition. If it is true, it's not all happy. Lloyd's wife is eight months pregnant with their second child.

Hmmm. CSI or Men's Figure Skating gold medal finals? Russian favorite, and Tom Jones fan, Yevgeny Plushenko is the leader after the short program and he goes into tonight's competition with the expectation that he will win.

A lot of people will probably put up with the figure skating in order to watch a new event in this year's Olympic games, the Snowboarding Cross. Think of it as Freestyle Skiing, but on a snowboard. Snowboarders will have to navigate a course against a clock, but also pull some nifty maneuvers out to impress the judges. American men and women are favored in these races.

If none of that interests you, MSNBC has hockey all day long:

That's right, sports fans. We're already on day five of the Olympics. Tonight on NBC, the men take to the ice. You've got to check out Russian skater Yevgeny Plushenko just for his inflated ego. With his quadruple jump combinations, the guy comes in as a top contender for a gold medal. He is also the star of the Sex Bomb exhibition where he skates in a flesh-colored costume and dances to Tom Jones. I kid you not.

Also tonight, overexposed American skier Bode Miller is back on the slopes in the men's combined downhill and slalom. Hopefully he got to bed early last night.

Here's the schedule on all NBC stations:

We're down to three teams: Kristy Swanson and Lloyd Eisler, Jillian Barberie and John Zimmerman, and Bruce Jenner and Tai Babilonia. I think it's pretty obvious who the weak skaters are here, but we'll see what happens on the ice.

Just a quick recap: last week we bid farewell to the not-very-graceful Dave Coulier and Nancy Kerrigan. Before that, Deborah Gibson and Kurt Browning were out, and the first team eliminated was Todd Bridges and Jenni Meno.

The Russians are well on their way to winning a gold medal in pairs figure skating tonight. After a flawless short program, Totmiyanina and Marinin enter tonight's long program almost four full points ahead of the next team. Also tonight is the women's halfpipe snowboarding competition. The U.S. men already claimed a gold last night, thanks to an awesome run by Shaun White. Tonight, Americans Gretchen Bleiler, Hannah Teter and 2002 gold medalist Kelly Clark all have a good chance at getting on the podium. Also tonight, more speed skating as American Casey FitzRandolph races in the 500m, for which he won gold in Salt Lake City. And the American women and men each take on Norway in curling.

Here's tonight's schedule on all of NBC's networks:

My favorite athlete from the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City was Sarah Hughes. She wasn't expected to win a medal, but she piqued peaked at exactly the right time. She skated a flawless final program and, thanks to some bobbles and falls by her teammates, she ended up on the top of the medals podium. But, where is Sarah today? She was only 16 when she won gold so she's not too old to skate. Heck, Michelle Kwan has been a part of the Olympics since Lillehammer in 1994 (sadly, she had to withdraw from the games yesterday due to injury).

I did a little nosing around the internet and found Sarah. She's a student at Yale, where studies come first, boys come second, and figure skating is somewhere after that (although she has been hosting some skating events for charity). Sarah will be in Italy for the games, however. She'll be doing some sideline reporting for MSNBC and she'll be cheering on her little sister, Emily, the alternate skater who will take Michelle Kwan's place.

The winter Olympics begin this evening with the opening ceremonies on NBC. That means, for the next two weeks, you'll hear a lot of people chanting, "USA! USA!"

Personally, I love the Olympics. I let myself get caught up in the drama and the action, even though I'm definitely not a sports fan any other time of the year. The most popular sport during the winter Olympics by far is figure skating, specifically women's or pairs skating. Here, I'm listing the other sports that I will definitely be watching:

Now that Deborah Gibson and Kurt Browning are gone, the playing field seems pretty evenly matched. It looks like the remaining teams had a lot of falls during the last few practices.

Did host Scott Hamilton get taller since last week? Summer Sanders doesn't seem to tower over him as much tonight. Or, maybe I'm just used to seeing them together now so the height difference doesn't bother me as much. Well, the "witty" banter still sucks.

Let's get it on...

Like many TV viewers, I get a little miffed every couple of years when the Olympics take over a network's schedule. I don't begrudge the athletes their TV time, it's just that the Olympics take a couple of weeks, and that means that shows you like are going to be preempted.

NBC has the Olympics again, starting February 10 and running through the 26th. Which means that shows like The Biggest Loser and Joey and E-Ring are taking a couple of weeks off. Oh, wait a second, maybe this isn't a bad thing...

Of course, I'm kidding, because NBC also happens to have The Office, My Name Is Earl, Scrubs, and The West Wing too (the Surface season finale airs this Monday). But if you're not into the Olympics, it's just something you'll have to live with until late February/early March, when the shows return on a regular schedule. (Of course, I say this, but I know I'll get sucked into the Games...)

So, are you watching the Olympics this year? What events are you most interested in? Are people being too hard on Bode Miller? And if you have no interest in the Olympics, what shows are you going to miss the most?