Watch My Show: Why VH1’s ‘Hit the Floor’ Is Good Enough for Beyonce

VH1’s Hit the Floor hit the television screen last month for a third season, furthering the story of fictional pro basketball team the Los Angeles Devils and team dance squad the Devil Girls. As the new season opened, the Devils were coming off the championship, while Lionel (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) had become the boss. Dean Cain and Kimberly Elise also star, while Billy Baldwin is among the season’s guest stars. Executive producer James LaRosa filled out our “Watch My Show” showrunner survey to explain why viewers should give Hit the Floor a shot.

I’ve got room in my life to watch just one more show. Tell me why it should be yours.
LaRosa: Tell me how your life got so hectic?  I’m worried about you.  Hit The Floor is a show that cares.  And steals your man, then frames you for his death, then dances on both your graves.

Who should be watching?
LaRosa: Fans of soaps, emotional whiplash, love, hard bodies, dance, sports.  And anyone not getting it at home. We’ll warm you right up, come here.

What happens if we don’t watch your show?
LaRosa: The last person who stepped out of line got thrown over a balcony AND buried at a construction site. Launched a whole messy murder mystery. Don’t put your friends through that.

What’s the best thing anyone has said or written about your show?
LaRosa: Beyonce is a fan. I went deaf after that.

What’s the worst thing?
LaRosa: That it’s a guilty pleasure. I would hope people don’t think, like, they’ll burn in hell for watching.

Who was right?
LaRosa: Okay, with all the sin on the show you MIGHT burn in hell for watching. But I’d still be way more bummed if the Beyonce thing wasn’t legit.

What’s an alternate title for your show?
LaRosa: Pretty People Doing Terrible Things.  With Wig Snatch a close second.

Give us an equation for your show.
LaRosa: Scandal + So You Think You Can Dance – Mary Murphy + SportsCenter x the original Melrose Place to the 100th power ÷ Shakespeare (the good stuff, not the crap). With a dash of Queer As Folk for taste.

Come up with a premise for the spin-off.
LaRosa: Zero and Jude adopt a baby from Vietnam, live near Jude’s surly father Oscar and his younger sassy wife Lionel, and get into shenanigans with Sloane and Pete who struggle with their own offspring who can’t seem to stay out of trouble. I’d call it Modern Family.

What credit of yours would you prefer we forget?
LaRosa: I was an assistant director. on a movie called All The Rage; they needed a close-up of a hand putting a dollar in this greasy stripper dude’s G-string and they asked me to do it. I’d prefer to forget that.

Tell me one thing about your cast.
LaRosa: They’re the nicest most fun most amazing people I’ve ever met. They have my heart. According to Google, one of them also has my hand in marriage. Search Kimberly Elise and I’m listed as her husband.  I’m in no rush to correct that.

What other series would you most like to be an executive producer on?
LaRosa: Whichever one Shonda Rhimes snaps her fingers and points at. The woman is a glorious freak of nature.

Let’s scare the network. Tell us an idea that didn’t make it on to the screen.
LaRosa: Much like Kyle, VH1 never says no.  If you don’t believe me, watch Season 3.

Finish this sentence: “If you like _______, you’ll love our show.”
LaRosa: Saying “oh no that b**** didn’t” and then drop-kicking the television.

Pick another show, any show, to start a fake feud with.
LaRosa: RuPaul’s Drag Race. They’re probably the only other show on television where they wear five pairs of lashes at once, so the spoils of war would be epic. I smell a lip-synch dance battle, or a sequin fight. No RuPologies.

What other show would you like to do a cross-over episode with—and how would that go?
LaRosa: Empire.  Jelena and Cookie clash over territory then join forces to bottle and sell their exit lines, for the gal who needs a mic to drop whenever she leaves a room.

How will your show change the face of TV as we know it?
LaRosa: I mean, have you seen our faces?! ;)

Hit the Floor airs Mondays at 10/9c on VH1.