English Entertainment
After ABC it is Fox’s turn to dance
MUMBAI: A few months ago BBC’s smash hit Strictly Come Dancing debuted in the US on ABC. That show helped ABC solidify its ratings position. Now rival Fox has announced that it will kick off its own show So You Think You Can Dance on 20 July.
On the show America’s top choreographers will put dancers through their paces
Dancers skilled in everything from ballroom and ballet to salsa, jive, hip-hop and krumping, all compete to be named the best. Dancers must impress the judges with their moves and rigorous routines in order to survive the auditions and be invited to Hollywood. Producers travelled to Chicago, New York and Los Angeles in search of dancers who represent the soul and rhythm of America. Some dancers wow the judges, while others leave them speechless.
One of the judges of Fox’s music based reality show American Idol Paula Abdul may take part in the dance show. American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, who is also producing the dance show says that he does not want to reveal details at this point because there is no guarantee that Abdul would agree.
On the show 50 dancers who survive the auditions will go to Hollywood to work with five of the top choreographers in the business: Alex Da Silva, Brian Friedman, Dan Karaty, Mia Michaels and Mary Murphy. During the Hollywood Week the semi finalists will dance their hearts out, as they learn challenging routines and hope to impress the choreographers.
The concept was created by Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and comes from 19 TV and Dick Clark Productions.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
