Abby Lee Miller and Cathy Nesbitt-Stein are taking their dance rivalry back to the small screen.
In this case, it’ll be the really small screen, as the former Dance Moms stars have teamed up with ShortVydz, which touts itself as “a talent-forward new mobile-first streaming platform for shortform reality television,” for a new dance competition show. Abby vs. Cathy: Hit the 8 finds the two dance pros on the same judging panel for the first time. Along with professional dancer/choreographer Lorenzo Hines, they will be judging a dance competition against each other in a single-elimination bracket. A total of 128 dancers, ages 8 to 16, face off across seven rounds, with one final dancer walking away with the title of winner and $10,000.
The idea is to unfold the action in “fast-paced” two- to four-minute episodes that are designed for mobile viewing, which is how many viewers — especially younger viewers — watch their content now. (The series debuts Tuesday on ShortVydz alongside another new show, Crashing Out With Kail, which goes behind the scenes with former 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom 2 reality star Kailyn Lowry as she embarks on her international Fatherless Behavior tour. The pair of shows mark the first original offerings for the new platform.)
Ahead of the Abby vs. Cathy debut, Miller and Nesbitt-Stein spoke with The Hollywood Reporter over Zoom for a wildly entertaining interview — their funny banter, good-natured jabs and obvious chemistry had this reporter laughing — about their new series and what they hope viewers take away from the show.
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Can you talk a little bit about how the show came about and how you got involved with it?
CATHY NESBITT-STEIN I got a call in January, and it was presented to me as, did I want to do some work with Abby? And I said, of course. … It actually didn’t start to really take a lot of momentum until July when we actually filmed in Houston. But I was on board from the get-go.
ABBY LEE MILLER I had talked to Michael Hammond, the producer, of LA Story Entertainment, a bunch of times back and forth, asking me, “Would you want to do something?” And then he finally presented the project to me and he said, “But — I want to get Cathy.” I went, “OK.” I think he was expecting me to say, “Oh no, I don’t want to do it.”
NESBITT-STEIN Did he even know that we had social media made up?
MILLER Yeah, we did a YouTube video together. She came down to my boot camp. We talked; [on Dance Moms], all of the fight, animosity, ill will, if you will, was because of production. We were friendly before the show. She was a member of an organization in Ohio, and I was in the same organization in Pennsylvania.
NESBITT-STEIN You came to my dance camp, twice.
MILLER We would see each other at Nationals, and so we were colleagues before the show. And then the show started and she was on it, and I thought, well, OK, [Nesbitt-Stein’s daughter] Vivi-Anne’s going to have a hard time, Mackenzie [Ziegler] too — they were little. I didn’t think they were really cut out for that type of thing [because of their age]. And then the trouble started when they gave her her own team and they let her pick the kids, and I’m like, well, geez, if I could have picked my kids, it’d have been amazing.
NESBITT-STEIN I honestly think the only the reason why that happened was because I didn’t want to be on the show. I kept saying I wanted to leave. And so they were just trying to accommodate us. But our new show is completely different. Very refreshing. I use that word over and over and over because we had such professionalism, and it was so pleasing for both of us. And of course, our legacy is to be snarky with each other. But it’s not snarky rude, it’s snarky fun.
MILLER And it was such a treat to work with people that were respectful and wanted to make a great show. Their whole objective of the day wasn’t to make us cry and humiliate us. It was to better the show and to better the talent.
NESBITT-STEIN I don’t know if people have said this to you, but over the years, people have said to me, “On your previous show, it would have been great had there been always more fun in the antagonism than viciousness.” We’ve got fun antagonism this time, which makes it really enjoyable.
MILLER Yes, because all of the banter takes place front in front of the kids. They’re standing there on stage, so we can’t say mean, hateful things to each other. There are little kids standing there.
NESBITT-STEIN And we disagree with each other. It’s not like we’re, you know, Shirley Temple eating lollipops. We definitely disagree with each other. She liked some contestants that were Snoozeville to me, and she fought for them tooth and nail — and I won. (Smiles.)
MILLER (Playfully.) You didn’t win any. I think the best part about this, considering there are so many dance competitions in the United States right now, is that the parents got to come and bring their child for free, no entrance fee.
NESBITT-STEIN And then they got to listen to us give them critiquing for free, and many of them have taken what we’ve said and are expanding on it.
MILLER Yes, and the child that ended up winning won $10,000 didn’t have to pay in. So, for me, I think this is a gift to kids out there that compete, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for season two.
NESBITT-STEIN I think that what’s going to happen is that kids are going to really look at it as a goal, like, “I want to be on that show.” And it is tangible for them. You know, I can say, “I want to be on Dancing With the Stars,” but that’s not tangible for me. [Hit the 8] is tangible for them.
MILLER That’s a good word.
NESBITT-STEIN It’s tangible for them to audition and get on this show. We start out at 128 kids. Even if they get cut immediately with round one, what a great experience.
MILLER Yes, and they’re still on the show: “Abby BEATS Cathy: Hit the 8.”
NESBITT-STEIN No, Abby VERSUS Cathy: Hit the 8. I don’t know what she’s thinking.
MILLER (Whispers.) Abby Beats Cathy.
You are so funny together, and I think some of that comes through on the episodes that I saw. Even though you’ve got this competition with each other, it’s really fun to watch.
NESBITT-STEIN I dress better than she does.
So you have a competition in real life too.
NESBITT-STEIN She has better hair.
Can you talk about the show’s format? They are bite-size episodes, just a couple of minutes, designed for mobile viewing. That really appeals to today’s younger audience and reflects how they consume content now.
MILLER It does. That’s what we wanted. We both deal with children. She teaches in our studio day in and day out. I travel the world teaching. We’re working with children, and they have to have it in the palm of their hand, on their iPad, on their phone. They’re going to watch it in between classes. They’re going to watch it right after school. They’re going to watch it before they go to bed at night.
NESBITT-STEIN And it’s only going to take them two or three minutes to watch it. Then they’re going to keep wanting more and more and more. It’s a great format.
And yet you still feel like you’ve got a full story about these kids despite the brevity of the episodes. I still felt like I got to know them.
NESBITT-STEIN And you wanted more, didn’t you?
What’s also interesting is, for example, my daughter is really big into dance and she watches these types of shows and picks up tips from them too. So you’re not only helping the kids on the show, but you’re kind of helping other kids who are watching.
MILLER Absolutely, and I always say this when I teach, when I give a correction in class to a kid, the smartest dancer in the room is listening to that correction. Everybody should listen and check themselves, you know. Maybe I didn’t see you do it wrong. But this kid, I’m teaching her this is wrong, this is right. Fix this. And everybody else should do it too. And I think that’s key that you just said that. So when we give corrections on the show, Abby vs. Cathy: Hit the 8, we are correcting everybody out there. So listen, pay attention, apply the correction and get better.
NESBITT-STEIN (To dancers.) You look at that student that is over here. That’s a gift I just gave you as well. Even though I’m correcting Sally, Betty, you should be listening. There are many dance teachers out there that don’t have that type of ethic or that type of knowledge we have, and I think that’s why we’ve been successful with this. Because we both know good talent.
MILLER And right from wrong and what you can do. So many young dance teachers out there, you know, it’s staging, and they don’t look at the number from different angles and you know, you don’t start facing the back. You don’t get up with your butt to the audience [as a dancer does in one of the episodes].
NESBITT-STEIN Well, I don’t agree with that, but anyhow.
MILLER Dance teachers as well should be watching this to learn.
NESBITT-STEIN And we do good corrections. We do amazing corrections.
You’re describing a show that is educational, entertaining, informative and insightful all at once.
MILLER And no one’s drunk and swearing and screaming.
You talked about how you made up on social media, and how your previous show kind of pitted you against each other. How would you describe your friendship today?
MILLER Well, I think we were colleagues before the other show. We were colleagues, and we were instructors and educators, and I think this show brings it back to that. It says that we are colleagues; we don’t always agree, and we have that snarky repartee between us, but in the end we want the best dancer.
How much creative input did you have in the format, the competition, the show, etc.?
NESBITT-STEIN I think that they pretty much had their lineup of what they wanted to do, but it was strictly whatever we wanted to say in reference to the kids.
MILLER It was so nice.
NESBITT-STEIN And nobody was giving us direction in what we had to say.
MILLER And nobody made anybody cry. It was so nice to work with a professional showrunner and producers and directors that really cared about the finished product — and really cared about us as people and the children.
NESBITT-STEIN Of course they’re going to applaud when we say something funny to each other. But we’re like that in real life. It was very organic.
MILLER They let us do whatever we wanted, put it that way, and it worked, and they were very gracious. My story is that I wanted Long John Silver’s for lunch. And then everyone wanted it. When you can order whatever you want for lunch, it’s amazing on set. On the old show … [the lunch order] was wrong every day. [On the new show], they got the order right. We’ve made it, Cathy!
NESBITT-STEIN We’ve finally arrived!
It’s the little things that make a big difference.
NESBITT-STEIN Yeah, it was those crumbs that did it for us.
I know you’re talking about your experience on Dance Moms, and I’ve seen your videos too, where you talk about what really happened behind the scenes, but obviously the show still endures with younger generations discovering it. My 14-year-old daughter still watches it today.
MILLER OK, well, she’s going to stop watching it because we don’t get any residuals, so she’s going to watch my YouTube channel at The Real Abby Lee Miller. I’ve just dropped two legs-and-feet videos, and I do acrobatic videos.
NESBITT-STEIN And she should watch Hit the 8.
Why do you think Dance Moms and these types of shows endure?
MILLER I think since day one, the kids get it. Parents, adults: “Oh, she’s so mean. She yells at those kids, and you’re so quirky and blah blah blah.” The kids get it. The kids always got it, that I wanted those children to be the best they could be, and I’ve heard so many kids that have grown up and they said, “You know what, if I would have had you as a teacher, I would have been amazing,” and I think the kids always saw through others to say, “Abby wants them to be the best. She’s trying to make them win, and if we had that, we would win.” I’ve heard it.
What kind of interaction do you have when you meet fans on the street or at events?
MILLER They chase us.
NESBITT-STEIN I’m actually kind of laughing because there have been at least four or five people that have come up to her this morning for her picture and they’ve walked right past me. My sister-in-law, who’s accompanied me to help me and be an assistant to me, she said, “I’ll bet you it’s because they aren’t even thinking of Abby and Cathy being together, so they’re walking past you, not even realizing, there’s Cathy.”
MILLER Absolutely, yeah, I get it all the time. I was just in Buffalo, New York, and I had 430 kids on Saturday and 418 kids on Sunday in a class. It was insane. Try to do acrobatic class with that many kids. It was crazy.
Is there one last thing you’d like to add about the new show that we haven’t touched on yet?
MILLER Make sure that you keep your fingers crossed for season two.
NESBITT-STEIN The kids are going to love it.
MILLER I want parents to know that it’s very safe and family-friendly for their kids to watch.
Who is the target audience you’re hoping to attract?
MILLER I think it’s going to be the kids, and I think it’s also going to be those kids that are now young adults that have graduated from high school and college that are the age of the kids from the old show, but they’re still interested and they still love dancing.
NESBITT-STEIN Everybody wants to see Abby and Cathy together, so they’re going to tune in to see what goes on between the two of us, but it is not a vicious level at all.
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Abby vs. Cathy: Hit the 8 debuts Tuesday on ShortVydz.
Original Article on Hollywood Reporter