'So You Think You Can Dance' host Cat Deeley talks about the new season (Part 2)

So You Think You Can Dance's tenth season premiered Tuesday night and is set to air another one-hour episode on Wednesday at 9PM ET/PT on Fox.


The reality dancing competition's tenth season continues to feature Cat Deeley as host and Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy as regular judges on the panel. Guest judges for the series will include actress Minnie Driver, actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, comedian Wayne Brady, All-Star dancer Stephen "tWitch" Boss, and Adam Shankman.

Like last year's edition, So You Think You Can Dance's tenth season will once again combine the contestants' performances and eliminations into one two-hour episode each week.

During a recent conference call with reporters, Cat Deeley talked about the upcoming season of the show and what viewers can expect to see. Below is the concluding portion of Cat's interview. Click here to read the first half.

What is the most challenging part of being involved with So You Think You Can Dance?


Cat Deeley:  You know what it is?  It's about making -- when we're live and in the studio, it's about making decisions live onstage as to what to do next.  Because so often, you know things can get funny.  Things can get out of hand on the judges table.  Things can be emotional.  People can cry.  It's all these different things that are brilliant for the people at home to see and to watch and to make the show.

You know, the idea behind this show is to surprise, delight, and entertain.  That's what we want to do.  As a host, it's about knowing the timing.  It's about knowing where to take the show, when to move on, when to change the subject, when to hold onto a subject, when to push the clock over. 

You have to kind of make those decisions on the spot, you know, immediately.  That, for me, it's about making those calls and you've got to be in the moment.  But at the same time, you've got to remove yourself slightly from it.

Just for an example, say for instance there was a routine and everybody was crying and it was incredibly emotional, undoubtedly, I will feel emotional too, but I can't fall apart and I can't allow the moment to just go on and on and on. 

I've got to be able to rein it in and for it not to feel self-indulgent and for us to be able to move on to the next thing.  That for me, it's about being in the moment but also being out of the moment too and being able to look at the show in its entirety.  I don't know if I've explained that properly, but I hope I have.


On a personal level, do you think there's something that you could do in your life that you could challenge someone and say, "So you think you can...?" 

Cat Deeley:  You know what?  I always think, "So you think you can scare yourself?"  I love it when you do something different, when you take a new challenge, when you do something as an adult that scares you a little bit and takes you back to being seven-and-three-quarters again.

To me, that's the best thing you can possibly do and it makes you challenge yourself.  It takes you out of your comfort zone, and quite often, you discover new things that you love or new things that you're good at or you're passionate about.

It's kind of a funny sort of dance phenomenon last year, so I was just wondering how much of Gangnam style will we be seeing in the auditions?

Cat Deeley:  I actually don't think we saw any Gangnam style, you know.  I think it's very much its own entity.  I don't think anybody would rival the main man himself.  Do you know what I mean?  I don't think there was any Gangnam style.  Maybe Nigel will break into it at some stage or another.  Probably, knowing him.


Sort of another hallmark of the auditions is those really touching performances.  So is there something you can tease about an audition that made you cry or really touched you or made all the judges cry?

Cat Deeley:  There were definitely moments that did.  There were.  It always tends to be if somebody's got a story.  There's a really cute moment between a girl and her father, and the father brought the girl up on his own.  He was like a total dance dad and followed her around and then took her to dance lessons and ended up falling in love with her dance instructor and marrying.  Now they're all like one big, giant family, and he takes her everywhere.

In amongst this gaggle of kind of dance moms, stage moms, there was always the dad.  He'd sit there and go with his daughter and it was just a lovely.  I don't know, they kind of really stuck together, you know, through thick and thin, and then the outcome of it all was so lovely.  The whole fact that he got together with her dance teacher was incredible.

How do you still continue to be passionate on and off-stage about So You Think You Can Dance when you've been hosting it for 10 seasons. I'd think it would be like going to the same concert over and over again. Do you still have the ability to be wowed by what you see?  How do you keep yourself fresh?

Cat Deeley:  That's a really good question.  It's essentially two parts; firstly, the adrenaline kicks in.  The adrenaline kicks in, somebody performs, and it just -- it's your body kind of pumping this chemical.  You know, it's almost like you're putting your body into fight or flight mode where you could really screw up.


And so, what your body does is it's actually a chemical reaction where it pumps adrenaline to help you cope with the heightened situation you're about to put yourself in.  There's a chemical reaction that happens by your body, and if you embrace that, you kind of get there anyway.

Actually, it's really funny.  I actually did an interview with U2 and I asked them the very same question. You go touring all the time and you do all these things, and I mean bare in mind they're playing stadiums so their adrenaline goes through the roof, but even still, it must sometimes get -- and Bono actually said a really smart thing and he goes, "You know what you do?"  He says, "You fake it until you make it a little bit."

I go, "What do you mean?"  And he said, "Get it going, your adrenaline pumps, you go with it, go with it, go with it.  Then you start it and you just get yourself into the gear of it, get yourself in to the, you know." For him, it's like, "Hello, Wimbly," or "Hello, London."  Do you know what I mean?

You get yourself there, and then your body takes you to the next place, because actually you're doing something that you absolutely love that you get so much enjoyment out of.  Your body's helping you out at the same time you get there.  It's the funniest thing.  It happens.

It's like "fake it until you make it."  You fake it just to start it off, and then your body shifts and you genuinely go into performance mode and you're like, "I am having a blast. Nobody on this planet loves what they do more than I do."  Do you know what I mean?


Could you give us another natural beauty tip?

Cat Deeley:  Another natural one.  What else do I do?  Well, I guess I use eyelash curlers.  Loads of people don't use them because they look really, really scary.  They look almost like old-fashioned torture devices that were kind of back in Sixteenth Century England.  But an actual fact, if you can master the art of the eyelash curler, and then put on mascara, you look so much more awake.

If you can just do it, brave it.  Do it, go very, very gently first of all.  Then just learn how to do it.  It's amazing.  I don't know a makeup artist who doesn't do it.  It doesn't cost you anything.  You just do it really quickly.  Put your mascara on and it makes you look so much more awake.

What about when you're having like these 40-hour weeks, just like it's nonstop.  What's your secret to having good constant overall energy?

Cat Deeley:  I actually take B-12.  I take supplements of B-12 because I have quite low levels of B-12 anyway, so if I take them, it gives me plenty of energy.  I try and remember as much as possible to drink water.  Wherever you can grab a bottle, carry it with you, because it's one of the worst things we can possibly do is dehydrate ourselves. 

For me, I love doing yoga too.  I like to do just a little bit of exercise every day.  Even if it's just a bit, I can walk -- I'm in a canyon, so I just stick on a pair of sneakers, take my dog, walk down to the bottom of the hill, and walk back up again, put my music on and have a little thing as I go along. 


I'm outside and in the sunshine.  I'm exercising my dog.  It gets all your metabolism up and working, and I do it in about 40 minutes.  Then, just jump in the shower.

If you can do a little bit every day, I think it's so much more beneficial -- not just in terms of keeping you slim and getting your metabolism going, but also in terms of keeping you in the right head space, making you breathe, getting the blood pumping, getting everything moving.  I think it's the best thing you can do.

If you can just give yourself 30 minutes.  For me, if you can work out the best way to do it is in just 30 minutes-40 minutes.  You know, I don't do anything, I put my hair in a ponytail, and that's it.  I'm down the hill and back up, and then I'm in the shower and I start my day.

Do you have anything besides So You Think You Can Dance coming up that you'd like to mention?

Cat Deeley:  Yes.  We're doing a show on TLC as well called My Dream Wedding.  I give budget brides the day that they've dreamed of, which is kind of amazing.  I get to be a fairy godmother for a day, which is lovely.

When does My Dream Wedding debut?


Cat Deeley:  It's going out in the autumn sometime.  I haven't got an actual date yet. I am [hosting].

Above is the concluding portion of Cat's interview with reporters during a recent conference call. Click here to read the first half.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski