NIGEL LYTHGOE
Executive Producer/Judge

• Season 8 auditions…
• Still seeing new stuff after 8 years…
• Format change to a Top 20 then All-Stars join…
• Going back to resident judge + rotating judges…
• Choreographers will be used as rotating judge, etc…
• Alex Wong will make an appearance this season…
• The common thread among the finalists and winners…
• It takes many things to be named ‘America’s Favorite Dancer’…
• National Dance day coming up on July 31st Tabitha and Napoleon...
• What he looks forward to this season…
• What happens personally to him when he gets on stage…

Nigel Lythgoe is the co-founder of Big Red 2 Entertainment, a newly formed company with CEO of 19 Entertainment, Simon Fuller. Lythgoe most recently served as president of 19 Television, and prior to his tenure there, worked at London Weekend Television, where he was Controller of Entertainment and Comedy. Lythgoe became a household name in the U.K. as “Nasty Nigel,” the judge on “Popstars.”

Lythgoe is co-creator and executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning series SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. His other executive producer/co-creator credits include seven seasons of AMERICAN IDOL, as well as “Superstars of Dance.” While serving as the show’s executive producers, AMERICAN IDOL was nominated for 47 Emmy Awards, and in 2007, received the prestigious Governors Award, the Television Academy’s highest honor, for IDOL GIVES BACK, which he executive-produced. Lythgoe also served as producer and director of the acclaimed Céline Dion/Elvis Presley duet featured in the special.

Lythgoe, along with Adam Shankman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Katie Holmes, recently founded the Dizzy Feet Foundation, a nonprofit organization that will provide scholarships and assistance to talented underserved youth to help them realize their dreams of becoming professional dancers and will also help elevate and standardize dance instruction nationwide.

He lives in Los Angeles.