Category — Nigel Lythgoe

Nigel Lythgoe has said he will take So You Think You Can Dance Australia off Channel Ten if they are not going to show it.

According to the Herald Sun Nigel said:

…. he wanted to see the show back on Australian television, and was prepared to draft in MasterChef producers Shine rather than Fremantle.

“If the Ten Network don’t want it we’re going to have to take it off them and take it to Seven or Nine with another production company,” he told Dance Informa magazine.

I would love to see it back on TV but with some casting changes. However I suspect one of the reasons Nigel wants it on again is so his former wife Bonnie can be on it.

I would keep Matt Lee as a judge as he was the only one actually giving considered advice last year. I would flick both Jason Coleman and Bonnie, but would replace with Kelly Abbey and Jason Gilkison. Or rotate different judges through to get different perspectives and discover new talent.

I don’t care either way if Natalie Bassingthwaite is host she was OK in the last two seasons, not memorable but not disastrous.

Above is a preview for SYTYCDA from You Tube, in it you will see  Nigel Lythgoe who is a special guest judge. While he was here he gave his thoughts on SYTYCDA to TV Week (unfortunately no soft copy).  I was pretty excited to read that Mary Murphy is coming back and one of my favourite US SYTYCD choreographers Mia Michaels may visit.

TV WEEK:How did you find the Aussie dancers?

Nigel Lythgoe: To be honest, I was a little shocked on the first day because Kelley Abbey, who is a great choreographer, was doing a routine that all the dancers found really difficult. I was disappointed, to be frank. But the next day, they were terrific! they must have gone home thinking, “We were terrible” then gotten their nerves together.

TW: Do you think your presence would have been an added stress?

NL: Well, they said so, but I’m always shocked at that. People build up barriers and they’re really hard on themselves as dancers in Australia. I had to say at one point, “Stop beating yourselves up – this is not the end of the world!”

TW: Did you watch last season’s SYTYCDA?

NL: Do you think, what with being married to [judge] Bonnie, that I would have been allowed to miss it?! That goes without saying. I also met your winner, Jack. We put him in touch with Mia Michaels, who chroeographed him in LA, and they loved each other, I have to say. He’s a very, very talented boy.

TW: Will we see any of the US judges or choreographer make an appearance in season two of our show?

NL: I know they want to bring [husband and wife choreographer] Napoleon and Tabitha D’Umo down here. [Judge] Mary Murphy is coming back, and I know that Mia would love to choreograph something here too.

TW: Will you return the favour with any of our Aussie Choreographers?

NL: I very much like Kelley Abbey, but I’ll just keep my eye on the season. I’m fully invested in the dancers now, so I”ll have to watch on YouTube, I guess. I might even wipe a little tear from my eye when certain people leave the show. Your girls are superb this year  – I think they have great character, as well as being fantastic dancers. and the boys have the opportunity of growing. It’s going to be a very interesting year.

I am so confused about the whether Nigel and Bonnie Lythgoe are still together, they are sending out mixed messages.  In this article in the Herald Sun it states that Nigel is begging Bonnie to get back with him. In another article I read ( I cannot find it at the moment) Nigel said Bonnie had asked for a divorce. And in a previous post I wrote he was seen with Sophie Monk, but Bonnie was saying SYTYCDA had saved their marriage.

Anyway what ever they are doing I hope Nigel is coaching her to speak in soundbites.

Also looking at the above preview Matt Lee appears to keeping with his signature look of ill fitting headwear, however big thumbs up for Jason Coleman’s funky new hair style.

This season on American Idol the producers have added in a fourth judge, Kara DioGuardi. Nigel Lythgoe thinks this is not such a good idea.

“I don’t like fourth judges,” Lythgoe told The Post yesterday. “I think once you’ve been told ‘You suck,’ you don’t need to be told another three times.”

Australian Idol had a season of four judges and it was not great, they quickly reduced it again to three this year. Mark Holden being the one to be sacked.

Also Nigel Lythgoe gives Simon Cowell a little tickle up, as it appears to have been Simon’s decision to add the extra person.

“But he’s [Simon Cowell] never produced anything on television,” says Lythgoe.
“As an executive producer, he can be an adviser and I think that’s fair enough because he knows what he’s doing.
“But at the end of the day, you have to leave it for the producers to produce, because if you’re in it, you’re seeing it from a completely different perspective and he’s going to need to realize that.

“Sometimes you can’t see the woods through the trees and you tend to lose the most important thing, which is so often forgotten: common sense.”

New York Post article here.

In other Nigel Lythgoe news he reveals to TV Guide that he is developing a new dance show. It would be along the lines of the dance Olympics where dancers from different countries would compete against each other in their specific dance genres. They would then be scored. I presume there would be cash prizes rather then gold medals!

Nigel Lythgoe in an article in The Western Australia speaks about the rumour of him dating starlet Sophie Monk.

The two were photographed together recently by paparazzi in Los Angeles, prompting rumours they were dating.

“It’s the old thing of whoever you’re photographed with you’re having an affair with them, so I’m going to be hanging around Sophie Monk more and more if supposed to be having an affair with her,” he said.

“I’ll have her baby, for god’s sake.

“Why she would want to go out with her grandfather I’ve got no idea.”

Oh he also said it was time to move on from reality TV – personally I thought the Sophie Monk stuff was more interesting.

Link is here.

In February this year I wrote a blog that Bonnie Lythgoe and Nigel were going to reconcile. They had split after 33 years of marriage and Nigel had been doing the wild thing with plastic fantastic Priscilla Presley. I am not alleging marital infidelity.

I thought this had all gone pear shaped when it was revealed he may have been having a dalliance with Sophie Monk..

However in interview today in Sydney Confidential (sorry at this stage I cannot find the link) Bonnie Lythgoe is again saying by appearing on So You Think You Can Dance Australia she has saved her marriage.

She said ” Without question I have found myself….. that is what I needed to do because when you have such a high profile husband you work so hard in you own right but can be left behind in the shadows,” Lythgoe told TV editor Erin Mc Whirter.

-Now I am my own person again, that has helped [our relationship].”

“It’s great for Nigel because I am not whining or moaning any more. If I don’t agree I say so. I have found my voice again.”

Nigel is in Australia to see his family who live on the Gold Coast, and also to hold a reunion of sorts with his wife. He will also record a guest spot on the local dance show.

“He is a very big part of my life and always will be” she said. “Nigel is in Australia at the moment and I am seeing him tomorrow. It will be a great moment and I can’t wait to work with him again, because we work well together.”

Nothing in what she was saying indicates they are back together, but I get the feeling she would like them to be. Maybe Nigel his happy to keep things this way as he may not want to divorce her as there would be a significant property settlement.

Sydney auditions are at the Overseas Passenger Terminal this weekend.

Darren Hayes Disappointed With His Idol Pick Sophie Patterson.

Darren Hayes who will be mentoring the Australian Idol’s this Sunday where the performers will have to sing Australian hits. What are the chances Luke Dickens will do a Barnesy number? However in an interview he said Sophie had become too ‘slick’. Hayes had been at the London audition where she was found.

Personally I think Sophie is trying to be sexy when she is not. I don’t get why Dicko goes the whole Bridgette Bardot route with her. She needs to go back to be a bit more the folk singer like Brooke White was in this years American Idol.

Hayes says he is impressed with Roshani Priddis and Wes Carr. Full interview on News.com.au

Charlotte Dawson In Talks To Become The Host of Australia’s Next Top Model
In non surprising news Charlotte Dawson will be meeting with Brian Walsh, the head of Foxtel today to discuss her future with the show.

After stepping in at last minute to host the live finale when Jodhi Meares choked she deserves to be first crack at the top job. Anyway Jodhi never really made a success of that role she was far too scripted something Jennifer Hawkins should learn from. Full story here.

Speaking of Jennifer Hawkins…
In tomorrow nights show of Make Me a Supermodel the wannabe models will be training with AFL footballers, Brodie Holland and Ryan O’Keefe. If you want to see a nice picture of Shanina Shaik click here.

This year’s Idol’s and Bobby Flynn to Meet Up At The Basement tonight
Bobby Flynn will be playing at The Basement tonight and tomorrow night to promote his new album. If that Idol fix is not enough this years Idol contestants will also be there tonight with cameras in tow.

In other Idol news – Carl Risley will be singing at The Vanguard at Newtown tonight. Shannon Noll is also releasing a Best Of Album. Can you do that if you have only been around for five years?

Also the Australia contestant from this years American Idol, Michael Johns, will be in Perth as a guest star on a telethon.

For the truly Obsessed US So You Think You Can Dance Fan
Yes I am one of them. Here is an excerpt from the LA Times about them hanging out at the post Emmy party.

The “American Idol” / “So You Think You Can Dance” table was in a festive
mood despite “Amazing Race’s” continued dominance of the reality television
category. “Idol” / “Dance” overlord Nigel Lythgoe reported that he used his
first few moments without a show on the air this year to launch the dance show
franchise in South Africa. Telling of his travels, he marveled about that
nation’s talent.

Across the table, “SYTYCD” judge Mary Murphy was asked if the
party rates a ticket on the Hot Tamale Train (her highest level of praise on the
show).”Oh, no,” she drawled in a deep Southern pitch, “You can’t get a ticket on
the Hot Tamale Train if there’s no dancing.” She gazed out forlornly at the
empty patch of dance floor in front of the bandstand. So why are these things
called balls if there’s never any dancing? “Maybe because there are so many more
losers than winners,” she said.”A party with Mary Murphy is a scream!” Lythgoe
said from across the table, referring to his colleague’s penchant for
full-volumed praise on the show.

But Murphy didn’t take the bait; no piercing trademark shout came forth to crack the chandeliers across the ballroom.Making his way out of the party, Ryan Seacrest stopped by to greet his “Idol” family.

The famously early-to-bed, multiple-job-holding hosting titan is out awfully
late, maybe his latest ever? “Well, let’s see,” he said, looking at his watch,
“the big hand is on the 2 and the little hand is on the, what’s that number?
I’ve never seen that before, 1 and 0 . . .” He looked up and gazed around the
room. “So this is what normal people do at night . . . I’ve got to try this
again.”

What the hell I will take the egg beater to it as well. Bauer Griffin Online has photos of Nigel Lythgoe and Sophie Monk arriving together by private jet from Las Vegas into LA. Apparently they had a limo take them to Caesar’s Palace so of course they must be shagging….

Nigel is nearing 60 and Sophie is 28 so he continues the age old rule of multi millionaires that you should not be with anyone over 30 once you divorce your first wife (his wife Bonnie Lythgoe and him are separated).

Theories on why Nigel and Sophie are together include:

• Both are both stars of reality tv – he So You Think You Can Dance, her Popstars so maybe they have that in common;
• She has enjoyed a high profile and deluxe lifestyle with Benji Madden and wants to continue this lifestyle and Nigel is the way to ensure this happens, as lets get real did she really date Ryan Seacrest or was she a beard?
• Maybe he is the producer of her rumoured reality tv show which she will star as a young starlet trying to make it in Hollywood – not sure if her proposed playboy shoot for $1 million dollars will be included on this show.

The US version of So You Think You Can Dance has hit our screens again on Channel Ten. Their series is as usual a cracker, with their strength being the high quality of their judges who manage to be funny, supportive without being patronising. Something the Australian version has yet to master.

Nigel Lythgoe the supposed ‘nasty’ judge in an interview in the SMH said that success has come at a price. “Since I’ve been [in America] I’ve had a heart attack, I’ve lost the back of my heart, I’ve had peritonitis, I’ve lost 15 feet of my intestine, my marriage has broken up and I’ve lost my wife,” he says. ” And the gag now is, I miss my intestine.” He says he is on good terms with his estranged wife Bonnie and thinks she did an excellent job as a judge on the Australia version of So You Think You Can Dance.

But Lythgoe has no regrets “If anyone had said to me, ‘If you go to America this is going to happen’ I would still have come. I would still have gone through everything. I have been very, very lucky. I could be in corporate hell at ITV.”

He enjoys all stages of judging but particularly likes the cruelty of auditions. “That’s because I know how hard it is to be successful and these people just think they can walk in and say , ‘Give me my million dollars.’”

“There’s a whole thing nowadays of just being entitled. I think we’ve forgotten about stars now:we create celebrity. I’m to blame, too, for doing that. But with the web nowadays anybody can be a celebrity: you’ve just got to record yourself and put yourself on there.”

This season, the SYTYCD judges are being more “creative and constructive” , he says , pointing out contestants’ technical mistakes, especially in later rounds. “They’re in our top 20 because we believe they’re going to be really good, they’re going to improve and we’re there to improve them as well.”

Finally Nigel is choreographing a routine for the show (article did not say whether it was the group routine) but it will have to be good considering the criticism he has meted out on choreographers in the past.

Greatest Conspiracy Blog Ever on SYTYCD.
Marndizz Goss Blog has this great theory on how So You Think You Can Dance was a scam. Now I am a conspiracy theorist but this person beats me hands down.

Her theory which goes into some detail, says the she did not even think the final was live, as there were no public tickets available, which is unusual for those type of show.

She also raises how the routine prior to the announcement of the winner was the one between Jack and Rhys, and how the girls had not had a similar dance together. I have to pay that.

Anthony Ikin Tore Shoulder Muscle – So Had An Excuse For Bad Disco Routine In Finale

It was reported yesterday that Anthony Ikin tore his shoulder muscle right at the start of Laura and his disco routine. Which would explain a lot as it looked pretty shoddy. Poor bugger as Laura is probably the biggest (tallest) girl in the competition to lift. Her part of the routine was not to good, but then she was probably wondering if she was going to get dropped doing the lifts.

Nigel Lythgoe told Bonnie Lythgoe Not To Dance In Group Dance at the Finale.

Now this was a spurious rumour that was posted by a reader on http://www.bloggingsytycd.blogspot.com/. It said that Nigel told Bonnie not to dance in the routine as she would make a fool of herself. Nice to know that even after their separation he is still trying to reduce her self esteem.

Interview with Rhys here

Interview with Jack Chambers here he states the person he would turn straight for would be Beyonce – I cannot get that image out of my head, she would squash him.

Interview with Demi here and one with Kate here.