Jim Smeal/REX/ShutterstockChanning and Jenna Dewan Tatum are our premier dancing couple, supplanting Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and whoever the top dancers were in the intervening 60 years. Now, they’re going to bring their dance expertise to a still-untitled dance competition project on NBC, Vanity Fair writes.
The competition series, which has neither a title nor a firm concept, will presumably join The Voice as the reality shows keeping the once-proud peacock afloat in the ratings. Channing will only make the occasional appearance, which means that Jenna will be doing most of the heavy lifting. Jenna, who met Channing on the set of Step Up and danced backup for Janet Jackson, will serve as a mentor and judge. It’s not a long jump to conclude that NBC plans to use The Voice as a model in terms of a long-running competition in which dancers are coached up and signed to some kind of contract. That said, The Voice model won't be 100% portable, since you have to actually see a dancer to judge them.
What will be interesting is to see if the show can create a class of celebrity dancers whose fame is attached to their dancing ability rather than singing or acting. America's Best Dance Crew and Dancing With The Stars have succeeded in bringing dancing into the spotlight, so what remains to be seen is if this show allow dancers to stand alone.
As far as where the idea came from, the pairing of Channing and Jenna on a dance TV show probably stemmed from this iconic performance on Lip Sync Battle.
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