Variety Interviews Tom Bergeron and Nigel Lithgow About “Good” Reality Shows
Sorry, I can’t come up with the titles that Vogue can. š This is a pretty darn good interview – I’ve put an excerpt below, but I recommend reading the whole thing over at Variety.com. Click teh link! Of course, there is a whole lotta IRONY in the very first paragraph… š
Variety: What makes for a good reality show?
Lythgoe: Honesty.
Bergeron: I agree. In the case of āDancingā being a live show, theĀ cameraĀ is very unforgiving. If thereās a dishonest emotion attempting to pass itself as sincerity, youāll be found out. Honesty is what will endear you to and connect you to the viewer.
Lythgoe: And I think the more that stars now are going on to be judges, itās tougher for them to be as honest as a Simon Cowell, for instance, who really didnāt give a damn if you liked him or not. You werenāt going to buy his records and you werenāt going to go to his concerts. Now I think when some of the celebrities go out there, theyāre frightened theyāre going to lose fans.
Bergeron: I think thatās true.
Lythgoe: None of your judges are worried about that. Len (Goodman) is always honest.
Bergeron: And Bruno (Tonioli), God knows what heās on.
Lythgoe: Heās gotten more flamboyant!
Bergeron: I told him one time on the air, youāre about one emotion away from living in Pixar.
Lythgoe: Thatās a great line.
Variety: Whatās the hardest part of your jobs?
Bergeron: Waiting to do it again between seasons. Seriously. Iām never happier than when I can go on to that stage on a live TV show knowing that anything can happen. An Osmond faints, you go with it. This is going to be terrible for my next contract negotiation, but thereās no real hard part to my job. I love it.
Lythgoe: Being live and not knowing what youāre going to say until you see the kid dancing. And then realize that your mouth is a lot slower than your brain. And then the second hardest thing is sitting next to Mary Murphy. My ears bleed sometimes.
Bergeron: And our hearts for you.