'So You Think You Can' Dance' heats up
Posted: Monday, July 23, 2007 2:43 PM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:
TV
Most of the panels at the TV Critics' summer press tour are just question and answer sessions. But Sunday's "So You Think You Can Dance" session included, as last year's did, a dance demonstration by six of the show's 10 finalists. (They didn't dance long, but I was most impressed by B-girl Sara, even though one of the older critics later confessed he thought "B-girl" meant "hooker.")
Most of the critics, however, seemed pretty familiar with the show, and the questions were often very specific. One asked why choreographer Brian Friedman hadn't returned as a judge. Exec producer Nigel Lythgoe explained that Friedman was busy in the U.K. working as creative director of "The X Factor," the Simon Cowell show that replaced "Pop Idol" there.
Finalist Lacey Schwimmer, whose brother, Benji, won last season, was asked if she felt that tie was an advantage or a disadvantage for her, since viewers might think one win per family was enough. Perhaps surprisingly, she said a possible victory didn't matter to her. "I'm not here to win," she said. "I'm only here to have the experience portion of it. I try not to compare myself to (Benji) because I'm not him." She also noted that her brother had turned down the one-year contract to perform with Celine Dion in Vegas that went along with his prize, saying he preferred to travel and perform around the world.
At one point, a discussion about the strength of the finalists as a group led into an interesting discussion of Lythgoe and Cowell's "American Idol." Melinda Doolittle fans who think your girl got robbed? Check out this Lythgoe quote: "I think also we realize that we made such mistakes on "Idol" last season that we didn't really show the personalities of the people. We were so engrossed with the mentors that were particularly good last season, and we focused on their stories and not really on the Melindas. And we didn't know them as much as we knew the Kelly Picklers from the season before."
Lythgoe said he felt "Dance" was doing a better job of letting viewers get to know all of the finalists, and then returned to the topic of next season's "Idol," saying: "We certainly do want to increase the emotional hooks for the audience next year, yes. I'd like to know the contestants an awful lot better, and I'd like our top 12 next season to be extremely strong, as strong as the contestants on "So You Think You Can Dance" are." (Ahem -- Sanjaya -- ahem.)
Lythgoe went on, however, to say he recognized that the controversal Seattle-area singer had been a boon for a rather uneventful "Idol" season. "I think Sanjaya helped the last season very well when we were sort of going down and everyone's going, 'Oh, the talent's not as good this year.' " he said. "Sanjaya came through for us." But he added, "No one needs to alter their hair on this program for any reason."
TIDBITS:
--Claire, who hurt her foot on last season's show and had to withdraw, had a baby, and thus did not return this season.
--Mary Murphy, she of the crazy scream and the "Hot Tamale Train," was asked if she felt like the Randy Jackson of "Dance," since the "Idol" judge is infamous for his "dawg" and "a'ight" usage. She laughed and said "For whatever reason, some quirky statement I make is out there and (known by) almost everybody on the streets now," relating a story about a four-year-old she met on a plane who knew the "Hot Tamale Train" phrase.
--The finalists were also asked about the difficulty of switching partners, and if the moment when they each find out who their new partner is had been rehearsed. They denied that, with Lythgoe saying "It happens straight after the show. As soon as we know who's on the show, it's done there. Cat has the hat. They go pick it."
