Q&A with So You Think You Can Dance's Nigel Lythgoe

SS: It seems some of the choreographers can be pretty cruel.

NL: You have to be really good, really talented, and we take it from a very professional audition attitude, so when ... Mia Michaels lays into somebody, she is not doing it for her own benefit, even if it appears that way. She is doing it to let the dancer know they are on record; they’re on call here to improve in her eyes. And I love that—I love that we’ve all got different opinions. You’re going to get tough choreographers. I mean so many people say, "She is so mean, she is so cruel, so was so this, she was so that." She just demands from everybody else what she demands from herself. And if that standard is too high for people, then it’s too high. I am certainly not going to lower Mia’s standard to suit a television program. The television program has got to come up to Mia’s standard as far as I’m concerned.