Kwan could heat up figure skating coverage

NBC will both stick to the status quo and try to shake it up in its first year broadcasting the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

The network will announce Wednesday that Bob Costas will be host of what longtime skating producer David Michaels called “almost an NFL-type pregame show,” with former skaters Dick Button, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier as contributors. Costas and Button will close the telecasts with commentary.

“I’m experimenting here,” Michaels said of his plans for the three Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 shows, two in prime time.

If that’s the case, why not take the experiment a step further and shake up the primary broadcast team of Tom Hammond, Scott Hamilton and Sandra Bezic?

If NBC wants to raise skating’s visibility and ratings, wouldn’t using the sport’s biggest name over the last 15 years have made more sense than the same old, same old?

Why not Michelle Kwan?

“I’m definitely interested,” Kwan said in a telephone interview.

That is a change from Kwan’s attitude after she withdrew from the 2006 Olympics because of an injury.

Then, she declined an opportunity to work for NBC because she would have felt uncomfortable commenting on skaters she had been preparing to compete against. Now Kwan feels she has enough distance to be an objective observer.

“You have commentators that can be really critical and really mean, and I’m not that type of person,” Kwan said. “You can say, ‘Her leg was at an odd angle, and it doesn’t look right,’ or you can say, ‘This looks ugly.’ I will never be that kind of person that will criticize in a very negative way.”

Michaels said he met with Kwan after NBC made a three-year deal as U.S. skating rights-holder last spring.

“I just felt like she was going to the University of Denver and was busy with that,” Michaels said. “There are no closed doors with Michelle. There may be some time when she will be able to do things for us.”

Kwan, who plans to get her degree next December, said she was prepared to take enough time away from school to work for NBC.

Unlike any of the commentators NBC will use, Kwan has experience trying to compete with and train for the sport’s new scoring system.

“I could give the insight about what the process is,” Kwan said.

Why not have her replace Bezic? The bottom line for Michaels is he likes Bezic’s TV work. She impressed the producer with her strong opinions about the pairs result at the 2002 Olympics, saying, “I am embarrassed for our sport.”

A skeptic might note bias in Bezic, a former Canadian pairs champion and noted choreographer, going over the top in her criticism of the controversial judges’ decision that placed Canadians Sale and Pelletier second to Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. (They later were declared co-champions.)

It is fact, not opinion, that Kwan has infinitely greater name recognition than Bezic. In a sport that risks being edged out of the sports landscape, Kwan’s value in promoting the telecasts should not be underestimated.

Michaels feels the viewing public finds what is said at least as compelling as who says it.

“There is a guy [Piers Morgan] judging on ‘America’s Got Talent,’ and no one knows who he is, but he has interesting opinions and it seems like he knows something,” Michaels said.

There is no doubt, of course, that Kwan knows plenty about skating, just as there is no guarantee she would be a good TV commentator just because she won nine U.S. titles and five world titles and two Olympic medals.

Wouldn’t it be fun to find out?

Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.