CBC's Battle of the Blades cancelled

The CBC's Battle of the Blades is hanging up its skates.

The Canadian TV ice-dance competition is the latest series to face the axe as the national broadcaster announced on April 10 that it would be eliminating 657 jobs and budget cuts of $130 million due to declining ad revenues and TV ratings, and a loss of $115 million in federal funding.

Battle of the Blades was similar to the competition format of Dancing With the Stars, in which celebrities were paired with professional dancers. In this show, hockey players were paired with figure skaters to compete in figure-skating routines to raise funds for charities.

Hockey Night in Canada's Ron MacLean hosted the show.

The show was put on hiatus in 2012 but returned in 2013 for a fourth and final season.

The series will be replaced by less expensive shows.

Meanwhile, George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight ended its 10-year run and won't be replaced. Stroumboulopoulos will join Hockey Night in Canada.

Other previous TV series cancellations include the drama series Arctic Air and Cracked, and The Ron James Show.

Comments

57 Comments

Kathy

Apr 14, 2014 at 2:30pm

No wonder nobody watches this network. Ad revenues and viewers are down so lets cancel the only shows people actually watch! Why not just shut the CBC down completely? Quite honestly Battle of the Blades and Arctic Air were the only 2 CBC shows I watched so I for one now have absolutely no reason to support our National network. Fire the top brass because they are oblivious to what people actually watch.

We can't compete

Apr 14, 2014 at 3:18pm

We can't compete with brainless drivel that is American style TV.

So its simple, make CBC a government watch dog the way they have acted, and the way the media should be.

Its not about the amount of idiots that watch the circus, its about what they take from it.

Myrna

May 4, 2014 at 3:23pm

CBC has finally cut its throat. I feel sorry for those that live in the North as they don't have much choice. Thank goodness for DVD players as I can play my recordings of the very few fav CBC programs I liked. Battle of the Blades was the only CBC show that I have watched in the last 6 years as CBC never had any programming I found worth watching other than Battle of the Blades!!

Kristl Fernandez

May 26, 2014 at 3:49pm

Battle of the Blades was so very enjoyable, I cant believe you cut it. But seeing you are also cutting Hockey Night out, you deserve to go out of business. You should cut the top guys down, you could save yourself lots of money.

Susan Berry

Jun 1, 2014 at 6:55pm

I think the comments above don't take into account that it is the politicians who decided to cut the CBC budget who ruined Hockey Night in Canada and Battle of the Blades, by funding the CBC $70 less per person than the BBC is funded. Personally, I would gladly pay $70 per year to get back Battle of the Blades and Hockey Night in Canada, and all sorts of other great programs they can't afford to do right now.

Leena

Jul 28, 2014 at 3:50pm

If you have no funding through advertising, it is time to expand, not to cut the best you have! Ad new and exciting shows, advertisers will come. Now that you have eliminated your most popular shows, you just shot yourself in the leg. Too bad you have worthless executives who have no clue about sales. Give people what they like and give your executives a pay cut. Hire the real sales go getters, not your family members.

Ralph Cramden

Jul 29, 2014 at 6:20pm

Too bad....a show our family watched every Sunday,
and really enjoyed.

RT

Jul 29, 2014 at 8:26pm

It is very sad that such a great show like Battle is no longer on CBC. What is wrong with the CBC. I believe in the organization but someone needs to take the lead.

AP

Aug 3, 2014 at 1:27pm

It is time for the Government of Canada to sell the CBC and let it run as a private television network and not funded by tax payers dollars. Then maybe we will have programs that won't be cut due to political budget cuts.

GCD

Aug 16, 2014 at 2:13pm

I am very sad that Battle of the Blades will not be returning. I think that was one of the best shows on TV. CBC just lost a lot of viewers. I do not even wantto watch anything on CBC any more.