Cat Deeley on 'Teddy Bear' Maks Chmerkovskiy Joining “SYTYCD”: 'He's a Big Softie' (Exclusive)
The dance competition show's longtime host also tells PEOPLE there are "two major changes" coming for season 18 of Fox's 'So You Think You Can Dance'
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Cat Deeley and Maks ChmerkovskiyCat Deeley has nothing but praise for new So You Think You Can Dance judge Maks Chmerkovskiy.
Ahead of the Fox dance competition show’s season 18 premiere on Monday, the television host, 47, tells PEOPLE that the Dancing with the Stars alum, 44, is an “amazing” addition to the show because “he's quite strict.”
However, Deeley reveals fans will also see a different side to the dancer and choreographer, saying, “He's a big softie as well. He's a teddy bear too.”
“It doesn't matter. He'll dance with anybody, he'll mess about. He's a softie, but he'll tell it like it is,” she adds.
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Cat Deeley at the 2022 Creative Arts Emmy Awards press room held at the Microsoft Theater on September 3, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.Deeley recalls how Chmerkovskiy can take things in stride no matter the situation, sharing, “There was one girl who came on the show. She was only 5'2, she was cute as a button, so beautiful. But she was a jiu-jitsu master because her dad ran a school, and literally she took down Max like that…He said, ‘I don't know what happened. I came over to her and next thing I know, I'm on the floor.’ I was like, ‘I love you.’”
Chmerkovskiy is not the only new member hitting the SYTYCD judges panel. Allison Holker Boss — who was an all-star on season 7 of SYTYCD alongside her late husband, Stephen "tWitch" Boss — will also serve as a judge for season 18. They will be joined by JoJo Siwa, who is replacing Nigel Lythgoe after sexual assault allegations. She previously appeared as a judge on season 17.
Deeley describes Holker as “the most amazing dancer,” adding, “But it's not just technical. She feels it from a very emotional place. When she dances on stage, you hear her breathe. It takes you, transports you somewhere entirely different.”
Frazer Harrison/Getty; David M. Benett/Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty
Allison Holker Boss and Cat DeeleyRelated: Allison Holker Shares Why She's 'Grateful' Filming So You Think You Can Dance as a New Judge
She notes that Holker’s “emotional capability that sets her apart from other dancers” and says that she is “very raw and very emotionally available” when discussing her late husband.
"I think the more we can keep those conversations happening, the less people feel they are alone,” she adds.
Deeley also teases “two major changes” in the upcoming SYTYCD season. "Firstly, we're going to put them in a house together and we're going to film them backstage," she shares.
"So normally, what happens on the show is we just don't have time to fully tell people's stories or fully have time to do that," she continued. "I get to know them all really well, but now we want the audience to do that as well."
She adds, “So, there's going to be that side of it where the audience will feel as though they personally know every single person on that show.”
The television personality says “the second massive change” is that contestants’ challenges will represent the experiences “a normal working dancer within the entertainment industry would face.”
“And whether that's on Broadway, whether that is a halftime football game, whether it's a video, whether it is a stage performance, whatever it is, we're going to give them all these different challenges,” she continues. “So, therefore, when they leave the show, they can go on and have a super successful career.”
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Season 18 of So You Think You Can Dance premieres Monday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.
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