Shakira to host TikTok-inspired dance competition show

TV shows about dancing have been around for a long time, and at the risk of having a reductive take on an entire artistic medium, is there really anything new to do in the world of dancing and TV shows about dancing? Apparently there is, at least according to NBC and Shakira, who are teaming up for a dance competition show called Dancing With Myself that’s inspired by viral TikTok dances—like the ones Shakira inspired with the “Girl Like Me” video last year (a video that was inexplicably inspired by anime classic Akira).

The basic premise of the show is “what if, instead of dancing for fun on TikTok, people dance for judges on NBC?” and… honestly, there have been weaker TV show concepts. It’s all very COVID-friendly, at least, which is better than just barreling in and pretending like everything’s okay. According to Deadline, contestants on the show will be “isolated in their own pods” and given “a short time” to learn specific dance routines created by judges like Shakira, then they’ll add their own “unique flair” to the moves and “perform their hearts out in front of a live audience.”

At some point down the line, the studio audience (maybe it’s less COVID-friendly than we thought?) will vote on the best dancer and they’ll win “the cash prize.” Deadline doesn’t say how big that prize is, but it sounds like this will be an episode-by-episode competition and not a full-season thing, so it’s probably not something astronomical. (Though the show’s built-in potential for viral social media marketing could help NBC make some good money with it.)

Skepticism about dance shows aside, Dancing With Myself comes in the middle of a big of a dance show drought: Deadline points out that NBC’s own World Of Dance and Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance are both done, so maybe there’s plenty of room for another after all.