JoJo Siwa is set to replace Nigel Lythgoe as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance after Lythgoe was accused of sexual assault.
Fox issued a press release on Friday, January 26, announcing Siwa, 20, would return for season 18 of the dance competition series, which premieres on Monday, March 4, after previously appearing as a judge on season 17. Allison Holker and Maksim Chmerkovskiy will complete the panel. Cat Deeley, who has hosted the show since 2006, will return as emcee.
The addition of Siwa to the season 18 lineup comes shortly after Lythgoe, 74, exited the series in the wake of multiple sexual assault lawsuits. Us Weekly confirmed in December 2023 that Lythgoe, who served as a judge and executive producer on SYTYCD since its premiere in 2005, was being sued by Paula Abdul.
In court documents obtained by Rolling Stone, Abdul, 61, claimed that Lythgoe assaulted her multiple times over the years while the pair worked together on American Idol and SYTYCD.
Abdul’s suit alleges that Lythgoe “verbally insulted and belittled” her prior to taking her American Idol gig and that he continued to bully her during her time on the singing competition series. It also claims that he sexually assaulted her in a hotel elevator while traveling for Idol auditions. (She did not specify when the alleged incident took place.)
“Abdul attempted to push Lythgoe away from her. When the doors to the elevator for her door opened, Abdul ran out of the elevator and to her hotel room,” the court documents read. “Abdul quickly called one of her representatives in tears to inform them of the assault.”
Following her time on Idol, Abdul briefly joined the judging panel of So You Think You Can Dance. Elsewhere in the lawsuit, it claims that she witnessed Lythgoe sexually assault one of her assistants without consent.
Lythgoe has denied the allegations. “To say that I am shocked and saddened by the allegations made against me by Paula Abdul is a wild understatement,” he said in a statement to Us last month. “For more than two decades, Paula and I have interacted as dear — and entirely platonic — friends and colleagues. Yesterday, however, out of the blue, I learned of these claims in the press and I want to be clear: not only are they false, they are deeply offensive to me and to everything I stand for.”
He continued, “While Paula’s history of erratic behavior is well known, I can’t pretend to understand exactly why she would file a lawsuit that she must know is untrue. But I can promise that I will fight this appalling smear with everything I have.”
Earlier this month, a second lawsuit was filed against Lythgoe by two contestants on the 2003 competition series All American Girl. The two women accused him of forcibly trying to kiss them after a wrap party in 2003.
