Skating Fans Rejoice: NBC Greenlights Figure Skating Comedy from Adam Rippon

A few of us here at The Geekiary are massive figure skating fans, and we are lamenting the loss of the traditional season thanks to…you know…everything that’s going on. And while we wait for absolutely any information about the definitely exists but way overdue Yuri On Ice movie, we have this news to chomp on: NBC has optioned a figure skating comedy series developed by Adam Rippon.

We at The Geekiary are also, coincidentally, big fans of Rippon. Aside from the fact that he’s a previous US Champion and Olympic medalist (Team USA won bronze in the team event at Pyeongchang 2018), Rippon was one of the only out athletes not just in figure skating but at the Olympics in general. I was fortunate enough to meet Rippon at last year’s BookExpo, where he was promoting his memoir, Beautiful on the Outside.

Rippon did a panel both at BookExpo and BookCon in 2019, and he was charming and funny, so I have some pretty high expectations for a comedy series from his brain. While he won’t be writing the script, he will be coming up with the story, and I have no doubts it will be as entertaining as he is.

Joining Rippon as co-creator, story developer, and executive producer is Susan Kittenplan, who in addition to being a media executive, editor, and writer is also the president emeritus of the Skating Club of New York. Billy Finnegan (Grace & Frankie, Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23) is another co-creator and executive producer. He will also be writing the script. The studio is 20th Television.

The series premise, according to Variety is:

Set in the off-the-wall world of adult figure skating, the series is said to tackle the oversized ambitions, underwhelming talent and boundless heart as one woman fights her family, failing knees and every other skater on the ice.

I am definitely excited about this figure skating comedy, more so than I was about the Netflix series, Spinning Out, which was developed by former figure skater Samantha Stratton and canceled after one season. (To be fair, I haven’t yet seen Spinning Out, so I am not passing judgment. I should probably add that to my ever-growing list of stuff to watch.) Anything that will bring figure skating back to the mainstream and convince NBC not to relegate its competitions to side networks or streaming-only packages.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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