NBC Hosts Live Daytime & Primetime Coverage of U.S. Figure Skating Championships Throughout the Weekend

Olympians Ashley Wagner and Gracie Gold highlight NBC Sports Group's 30 hours of coverage of the 2017 Prudential U.S. FIGURE SKATING Championships from the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. Coverage begins this Thursday, Jan. 19, live in primetime at 5:30 p.m. ET with the pairs' short program on NBCSN followed by the ladies' short program at 9:30 p.m. ET. NBC hosts live coverage throughout the weekend, beginning this Saturday, Jan. 21, at 3 p.m. ET with the pairs' free and free dance programs, continuing in primetime at 8 p.m. ET with the ladies' free skate.

Universal HD will present live coverage of the men's short program this Friday, Jan. 20, at 8:30 p.m. ET, as well as encore coverage of NBC's broadcasts. NBCSN will present coverage of the short dance program Friday at 6 p.m. ET. In addition, NBC will present the Smucker's Skating Spectacular exhibition gala on Saturday, Jan. 28, at 2:30 p.m. ET.

The 25-year-old Wagner, who is the reigning World silver medalist and a three-time U.S. champion, could become the oldest woman to claim the title since 1927 (Beatrix Loughran). Gold, who along with Wagner won team bronze at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, is the reigning U.S. champion, and also won the title in 2014. Wagner and Gold are joined by 2008 U.S. champion Mirai Nagasu and Mariah Bell, who finished second to Wagner at Skate America in October.

Highlighting the men's field is Grand Prix Final silver medalist Nathan Chen, who at 17 looks to become the youngest U.S. men's champion since 1964 (Scott Allen). Chen is the first U.S. man to earn a medal at the Grand Prix Final since 2009. He will be challenged by 2015 U.S. champion and 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist Jason Brown, and 2013 U.S. champion Max Aaron.

In ice dance, reigning U.S. champions and World silver medalists Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani will be joined by two-time Grand Prix Final silver medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and three-time U.S. ice dance bronze medalists Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue. Tarah Kayne and Daniel O'Shea look to defend their U.S. pairs title, featuring competition from 2015 U.S. silver medalists HAVEN Denney and Brandon Frazier.

The U.S. Championships serve as the final qualifying competition before U.S. FIGURE SKATING selects the 2017 U.S. World FIGURE SKATING Team. Team USA will send three ladies, two men, two pairs teams and three ice dance teams to the 2017 ISU World FIGURE SKATING Championships, March 29-April 2 in Helsinki. The 2017 World Championships will determine the number of entries for each country at the 2018 World Championships and the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

NBC Sports Group's lead FIGURE SKATING commentary team of play-by-play announcer Terry Gannon, 1998 Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski, the youngest person to win a U.S. Championships title at 14, and three-time U.S. FIGURE SKATING champion Johnny Weir, will call the 2017 Prudential U.S. FIGURE SKATING Championships and Smucker's Skating Spectacular, with four-time U.S. champion and 1984 Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton offering analysis and insight throughout NBC's coverage this weekend. They'll be joined by 2006 Olympic ice dance silver medalist Tanith White and reporter Andrea Joyce on-site at the Sprint Center.

NBCSports.com is providing a destination for fans dedicated to behind-the-scenes and social media driven content through its U.S. FIGURE SKATING Championships ALL ACCESS page on NBCsports.com/USFIGS. U.S. FIGURE SKATING Championships ALL ACCESS includes live scoring and leaderboards, video features, fan polls and a social media aggregator with the latest Tweets from NBC Olympics, the broadcast crew, experts, and skaters.

NBC Sports Group's U.S. FIGURE SKATING Championships schedule (all times ET, subject to change):

Date Time (ET) Event Network
Thurs., Jan. 19 5:30 p.m. Pairs' Short (LIVE) NBCSN
Thurs., Jan. 19 9:30 p.m. Ladies' Short (LIVE) NBCSN
Fri., Jan. 20 6 p.m. Short Dance (LIVE) NBCSN
Fri., Jan. 20 8:30 p.m. Men's Short (LIVE) Universal HD
Sat., Jan. 21 3 p.m. Pairs' Free and Free Dance (LIVE) NBC
Sat., Jan. 21 8 p.m. Ladies' Free (LIVE) NBC
Sun., Jan. 22 4 p.m. Men's Free (LIVE) NBC
Mon., Jan. 23 8 p.m. Pairs' Free and Free Dance Universal HD
Tues., Jan. 24 7:30 p.m. Ladies' Free Universal HD
Wed., Jan. 25 8 p.m. Men's Free Universal HD
Sat., Jan. 28 2:30 p.m. Smucker's Skating Spectacular NBC
Sun., Jan. 29 8 p.m. Smucker's Skating Spectacular Universal HD

The U.S. FIGURE SKATING Championships will be streamed live on NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app via "TV Everywhere," giving consumers additional value for their subscription service, and making high quality content available to MVPD customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms. Powered by Playmaker Media, the NBC Sports app is available on Apple iOS, Android and select Samsung devices, as well as on Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Win10, and Xbox.

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