Do you think you will ever unlist or unrpivate your csoi videos featuring Tessa and Scott? It's hard to find certain performances in hd other than 2018
I don’t actually have any CSOI videos personally, except one clip of a retake from 2013 and a clip from 2017. I was always more of a picture taker than video, on the whole. I don’t think I even ever took any CSOI video beyond these two bits - it’s not like I just never shared them lol. The most video I ever took was in 2017-2019, and that was mostly gala practices and TTYCT and RTR.
I think the core audience for skating shows outside of the Olympic seasons are general skating fans who are attending CSOI (or SOI) as a brand almost and will be happy to see whoever is put in front of them. Of course having a big name like VM or Nathan Chen in the US would bring more casual fans but I tend to think that the casting doesn’t matter a whole lot as the people who go every year won’t mind seeing the same folks over and over.
I was never a big Weapo fan when they skated competitively but they are a good show skating team. They tended to be strong in lifts and that plays well in the show programs. I’m sure the Canadanes would be excellent too and would love to see multiple dance teams rather than so-so singles skaters honestly.
That said, as long as CSOI is the dominant brand, it’s not likely another show will be able to supplant it. I mean even VM could only sell out one tour immediately following major viral success/fame. (I know the fandom likes to blame the drop in sales for RTR on personal drama, but the fact is that there isn’t a sufficient audience to support 2 tours annually, and CSOI was earlier in the year and the established brand — I went to both in 2019 and RTR was a far better show — better skaters, choreo, music etc., but it wasn’t enough. If anything, it shows what an anomaly the success of TYCT was.)
Maybe IAM needs to consider branching out to do more virtual shows or something?
I think most of the current line up are good show skaters including WeaPo (though I will say that having seen them during TTYCT I only enjoyed one of their programs), I just think that for many years SOI and CSOI truly gave representation to competing skaters and watching the current seasons where 90-95% of the CSOI line up have been (very) retired skaters just makes me sad for the current skaters, many of whom are some of the top in the world.
It is true that in North America there's barely room for skating shows in general, and only CSOI is barely surviving (emphasis on barely). TTYCT sold amazingly as well as CSOI 2018, both were close to sold out in many cities, but it makes perfect sense considering the success the Canadian delegation had in PyeongChang, they had a lineup completely made from World champions and Olympic medalists, it was incredible. RTR sold not as well but it also made sense and as you said it had nothing to do with made-up personal drama or how it was promoted, it was a tricky time in the year and skating is not as big and most of the lineup was international (which tbh was amazing and for me a much better line up) which also might have been tricky for some viewers. Either way, having successfully produced two tours probably showed TS that the market is limited and that it's more effort than it's worth and I totally not blame them for it.
Bottom line is that CSOI is basically the only remaining show in Canada and them having a lineup that is so disconnected from the current skating field just disappoints me.
I know that Scott did the choreography and looked all the ladies, and I know that this moment lasted for about two seconds. But my camera, for as much trouble as it gave me that night, knew what I really wanted and gave me all VM. ;)
(What really happened - x) ETA: Obviously, a different night, LOL. ;)