Wow, this is terrible news.

I just checked the SOI website under "cast," and there's no mention of any eligible skaters participating. When I saw the show in Manchester, NH last year, Emily Hughes was a special guest star. IIRC, she did one number (she might've done two; I'd have to go back and check my program), and she came out at the end to take a bow. She wasn't in any of the group numbers.

It's possible some of the current eligibles may be slotted in as guest stars for some of the post-Worlds dates. I can only hope Johnny is one of them. I'm glad I see the show in Manchester, which is one of the last stops on the tour; hopefully we might see one or more of the current eligibles--if not Johnny, someone else.

As for why COI is being discontinued, it might just be that the revenues generated aren't enough to cover the expenses of running the tour. I remember reading that a lot of dates in the past year or two have had to be cancelled due to low ticket sales.

The ticket prices might be prohibitive for a lot of fans. From my own experience, I don't really have enough money to see SOI and COI both, so we've been sticking with SOI (though last year's show was so awful I was seriously considering switching to COI for my live skating fix; now, it seems it's not an option--sigh!).

Maybe the silver lining to all this will be the infusion of some badly-needed new faces into the SOI lineup.

--EA Week