Women's Figure Skating Has Never Been So Unpopular

In her short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Jan. 11, Gracie Gold soared, landing a technically difficult triple lutz, triple toe-loop combination. Too bad no one was watching. The NBC broadcast garnered a low 0.7 rating among 18- to 49-year-olds, the most important group to advertisers. By comparison, Teen Mom 2, a huge hit among the young women who might also be into skating, regularly gets a 1.7 rating in that demographic.

America used to care more about figure skating. Michelle Kwan, who reached sweetheart status by medaling at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, appeared in ads for Coca-Cola and Chevrolet. As recently as 2009, she appeared on market-research firm Harris Interactive’s top 10 list of America’s favorite female sports stars. Figure skating’s popularity peaked in 1994, when Nancy Kerrigan, who had endorsements with several major brands such as Walt Disney World and Campbell Soup, got whacked by a thug sent by Tonya Harding’s ex-husband. Twenty years later, people are still talking about it: In mid-January, ESPN aired a documentary about the sordid saga, titled The Price of Gold.