Exclusive Interview: Nigel Lythgoe

Nigel Lythgoe has been a pioneer of the modern talent-competition show. Starting with Popstars and Pop Idol in the U.K. and then American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, whether as a judge or an executive producer, Lythgoe has shaped the genre. He began his career as a dancer, a discipline so dear to his heart that he is actively involved in promoting and supporting dance.

TV FORMATS: American Idol will go into its 11th season next year. What has contributed to its success and longevity?
LYTHGOE: I think it’s the very strong talent that is here in America. It’s the fact that we’ve grabbed an audience that loves to feel that they are a part of giving somebody the break of their life and turning them into a star. Obviously, Simon Cowell was a major part of it when we originated the show and the new judges now have energized it in the tenth season.

TV FORMATS: When you knew Simon was leaving, how did you maintain the core features of the show and come out with a very strong show?
LYTHGOE: It needed reenergizing; it had been around nine seasons. So we wanted to change things around. We had wanted to do that for a long time, but of course while anything is successful nobody wants you to touch it! So this gave us an opportunity to relook at the middle rounds of the competition; it also gave us the opportunity to sweeten the show up. If we had found another baddy like Simon it would have only been a pale imitation of Simon, so what we ended up with was two artistic judges [Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler] that could see the contestants from a different angle and who were much warmer and much kinder.

TV FORMATS: So You Think You Can Dance is also very successful, and it has won much critical acclaim. What are the secrets to that show’s success?
LYTHGOE: It is about the art of dancing. People have come to realize just how wonderful dance is and how it has progressed over the years. It has a new integrity to it, it’s athletic, and I think people are actually loving the fact that choreographers are creating these wonderful numbers as well. So it comes from different angles. It comes from obviously a judging angle. It comes from the young dancers attempting stuff that is not in their genre, and succeeding most of the time, and it comes from the artistic choreographer.

TV FORMATS: Early in your career you choreographed for Shirley Bassey and Gene Kelly. I certainly agree that dance has become more athletic. How else do you think dance has evolved over the years?
LYTHGOE: It’s evolved so much I would hate to be a dancer now! It’s just become so much more technical. I was a dancer when I first started in the business and if I did three pirouettes I’d be jumping up and down for weeks, saying, “Hey, I did three pirouettes!” Now they can do 10, 11, 12 pirouettes and not think anything about it. Dance has grown technically. Boys are much more relaxed now going into dance. Fathers now accept the fact that boys are going to dance and realize that it’s tougher than being a quarterback in football here in America. Physically it is so much more demanding than it was in my day. My idea of a warm up-was to sit on a radiator with a hot cup of chocolate and a cigarette.

Click through to read about Lythgoe’s passion for dance, his vast philanthropic activities and his thoughts on receiving the International Emmy Founders Award.

TV FORMATS: And a cigarette, I love that! I actually danced in my early years, too, and I remember the saying, “Not all athletes are dancers, but all dancers are athletes.” But nowadays that has been taken to the nth degree, hasn’t it?
LYTHGOE: Hasn’t it? So did you use to do a morning class to warm up or did you use to sit on the radiator with a cigarette, too?

TV FORMATS: I did a lot of sitting on the radiator, too, but leg warmers were great—they could do the warming up for you!
LYTHGOE: Yeah, leg warmers were great!

TV FORMATS: How have live talent-competition shows evolved in the last ten years? What has the audience come to expect from these shows?
LYTHGOE: They’ve come to expect the very best talent and the very worthiest talent. They still enjoy those auditions that show the deluded contestants that come along and have been told all their life that they are a good singer and they are absolutely tone deaf! The audience enjoys that in the first part of the competition, but at the end of the day, they just want really great talent. It’s a bit like horse racing: you bet on your favorite and you continually vote for that person; you are invested in them and you are invested in how they develop across the series. It’s also just the same as following a soap opera, or following a drama. The characters on dramas have been written by somebody, while the characters on reality television are real—that’s the only difference, but it’s just as appealing. People ask me all the time, “Will reality television remain?” Absolutely, it’s part of our television diet.

TV FORMATS: And there is an emotional investment that is made between the viewers and their favorite contestants.
LYTHGOE: It really is an acutely emotional investment. And when the judge is tough or harsh on that person, goodness me, viewers weigh in on those judges. If you read Facebook or Twitter or websites, you see they are very, very heavily invested.

TV FORMATS: As a viewer, I feel the pain of that contestant when he hears that harsh judgment.
LYTHGOE: Yes, and it’s also that we would all like to be in a position to be given an opportunity, because there are a lot of talented people out there; many of them are never given the opportunity to better themselves. And I think we as an audience see the opportunity that’s being given and we can associate it with our own lives. If I had been given the chance I would have done it. Mind you, I would have never gone on So You Think You Can Dance because I would have never thought I could dance with these kids.

TV FORMATS: No, I think you would have done fine. Tell me about your dedication to keeping dance and the arts in general at the forefront of the public’s attention.
LYTHGOE: I started National Dance Day, that got picked up by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. She put it through the House of Representatives and now every last Saturday in July we are going to have a National Dance Day in America. Hopefully that will just get people up having a bit of fun; even if one or two of them start dancing through that, then it’s all been worthwhile. But the idea is to use the initiative to raise money for different charities. As well as that I’ve started the Dizzy Feet Foundation with [director] Adam Shankman, Carrie Ann Inaba from Dancing with the Stars and Katie Holmes. That is to try to give young, very talented students scholarships so they can remain in school and continue their work. We call up Juilliard, Alvin Ailey, the American Ballet Theatre and other schools in ballroom and tap dancing and ask what students they have who need a scholarship, who need money to continue, and we’ll supply that money.

TV FORMATS: That must make you feel very good.
LYTHGOE: It does make us feel very proud. We gave something like 200 pairs of tap shoes to a school down in New Orleans, which was really important as well. I remember as a little kid doing English country dancing and it just allowed me to hold the girl’s hand and dance around with her and know how to treat her and not punch her! It just gives you social skills, it gives you confidence, it improves your rhythm, which we all need in our lives, and whether you go on to be a dancer or not, that doesn’t really matter to me, the fact that you’ve accepted dance into your life does.

TV FORMATS: Later this year you will be receiving the International Emmy Founders Award. What does this acknowledgement mean to you?
LYTHGOE: It means a great deal. I would very much like an Emmy for either American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance, too! I’ve received the Primetime Emmy Governors Award for Idol Gives Back, and I will receive the Founders Award in November. I’m delighted. With the Founders Award they’ve recognized not just my work in television, but also the charities I’m involved in and being the chairman of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) here in Los Angeles.

TV FORMATS: There certainly is a ton of British talent on American television these days. It’s like the Brits want to recolonize!
LYTHGOE: We’re playing the long game! They thought they had won back in 1776, but no, we thought we would come back a couple hundred years later and start to take over!

TV FORMATS: What can you tell us about season 11 of American Idol?
LYTHGOE: We are not making any huge changes that we’ve thought about at the moment. We are continually talking about what we can do, what we can improve and what new ideas we can bring. Last year we did away with all those middle rounds. We did a shoot in an aircraft hanger. We did a shoot at Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE in Las Vegas, and we will need to replace those this year. We are being very creative every time we sit down and talk with the entire team.