Battle of the Blades (or BOTB for short) is a Canadian figure skating reality show and competition that airs on CBC Television.

During the first two seasons, contestants were strictly male hockey players from the NHL, paired with female figure skaters.

In Season Three, Tessa Bonhomme was cast as the first female hockey player contestant,[3] making her partner, David Pelletier the show's first male professional figure skating competitor.

[5] On April 19, 2012, CBC announced that due to budget cuts by the Canadian federal government, Battle of the Blades had been put on "hiatus" and would not appear on the 2012 fall schedule, stating that the network could not afford the high production costs of the show.

[7] With the loss of Hockey Night in Canada rights to Rogers Media,[8] Battle of the Blades was officially cancelled by CBC on April 10, 2014, due to federal budget cuts, declining advertising revenues and television ratings.

On Monday, the bottom two teams are revealed and they skate their Sunday night program once more in the Skate-Off and are then scored by the judges.

Four-time World Figure Skating Champion Kurt Browning is an "Elite Battle Expert" correspondent, providing colour commentary.

Season Two saw the departure of Button and the addition of retired NHL player Jeremy Roenick as the second regular judge.

Season six saw another complete overhaul of the judging panel with Olympic ice dancing gold medallist Scott Moir, Olympic ice hockey gold medallist and season 5 runner-up Natalie Spooner, and Junior Canadian figure skating champion Elladj Baldé as regular judges.

The winners of season one, Jamie Salé and Craig Simpson, had CAD 100,000 donated to Spinal Cord Research.

In season two, all competitors were guaranteed $25,000 donated to the charity of their choice and $100,000 for the winners Ekaterina Gordeeva and Valeri Bure.