All the best dance crews will be battling it out on the stage behind me, but only one of them will take the spotlight at the MTV VMAs. We're going inside the set of America's Best Dance Crew. Hanging out with Frankie Grande. All of you out there in the internet already know who he is, right? Yeah. Um what I love about you is that you're always so understated.

Yeah, you know, let's shine bright like a Frankie is definitely my motto in life, which means um be really subtle.

I like how you just grabbed my mic.

I'm like, "And I'm like, hi." Um be really subtle and you know, never make any noise.

Hanging out with Tiana, who is also a judge on ABDC. I do not envy your position. It's a tough position to be in.

It's super tough. And then, of course, because they're all stars, it's only going to get tougher and tougher. Um I just don't want no parts, you know. I just want to watch and enjoy the show like everybody else. Just everybody at home. We're actually sitting on a ledge right now. So if I fall and you don't catch me fast enough, T-Pain, Well, it's all your fault.

I won't do that. I won't do that. Take me down with you. I'm not doing that. So no.

Oh, I, I've got strong arm muscles.

I'm we engaging our cores right now? This is like an ab workout.

Oh, I am engaging my core right now. I'm kind of you made me afraid to fall now, so I like it.

Jason Dundas. He's got a great Australian accent. He is MTV history in the making. Don't take two. Let's keep going. You're very good. Come on, let's give you a tour. And you guys, Frankie, Jason, you're going to give me a tour of your TV home.

Yes. Yeah. This is this is on set of ABDC.

Yes. They come and try to like slip you money to give you give them good um scores.

No, I'm a completely unbiased judge. I really am because like, you know, I understand like there's a lot riding on this. You know, you can't have, you know, previously formed opinions. But at the same time, it's like, you know, I'm just going to react to whatever happens out there.

But what if they're wearing glitter? Like,

Then then they can stay. That's it.

In the in the hallway where all of our dressing rooms are, you can tell when he's arrived because there's a glitter trail. Yep. Right. That's how if he goes missing, you just follow the glitter.

Oh, the lights. Give he responds to the music. Oh my god. Can you do that, Jason? Oh, get it. Get it. Oh, there we go.

I can't go that hard. Oh, no. I think we have a ringer on that one.

Yeah. You are a performing artist. You know what it's like to be on that stage. So, is it hard for you to be critical of of these crews? Of these dance crews?

Oh, no, not at all. Because I know what I want to see. Point blank. And if you're not giving me life, if it's not nothing that I can live for, then I'm going to have to read you, regardless.

The hard part is all the uh agility and random exercise that everybody's doing on stage. So, no, I got the easy part. I mean, as a as a young male, I form opinions about people every day. So, this is pretty this is pretty easy. This is pretty much in my nature.

You know, in any other reality TV show where you're kind of like, "Oh my god, I guess I kind of know who's in the top and who's in the bottom this week." It's like, no, you have no idea. Because they're all so talented and they're all bringing their game so hard.

You start this way. I'm so glad you're doing this with me, Jason.

Yeah, we'll do this. Then you just turn it. Oh, I have to keep these together. There you go. The Asian in me wants to be like this.

Well, that's still like Did you get it? Okay, no. Yeah. Do it again. Do the dance count. Five, six, seven, eight. Oh, he was late. He was late. Oh, I missed the count. He gets he gets cut.

Okay, you count us in then. All right. On the one. Five, six, seven, eight.

Are you listening to like what Tiana and what T-Pain are saying and taking that into account or are you just kind of like, "No."

No, I mean, absolutely. We're uh we're definitely working as a group, as a unit. Um and, you know, so far, I've agreed with everything that we've all said with each other. I'm excited for that one moment where we actually like, "I disagree." But I don't know, so far, it's been like completely like, it's like, "Yep, yes. Amen. Yep. Preach. Say it. Correct."

How's T-Pain hanging on the judges' table?

And I mean, I've known T-Pain for years. So, it's just with him, it's never a dull moment. Like if I was trying to give face, I wouldn't be able to do that sitting next to him because everything is always so funny. You know what I'm saying? So it's like it's like Robin's like, "Ah." And I my laugh is so ugly. So it's not even like a cute laugh. So I'm just like, "Yo, T-Pain, you got to chill because it's just I can't serve face with your silliness on the side of me." So it's like, it's the best of both worlds. It's never a dull moment.

What is your critical eye kind of looking for?

I'm looking for mega amounts of passion. You know, a lot of people um look for you know, the entertainment of it. And sometimes it's not going to be entertaining because that's not your style of dance or anything like that. But it you know, it's the passion, though, how much you put into it, how willing you are to, you know, go beyond your comfort zone.

I say like I'm like Paula and Simon in one. Cause I'm like, "Oh my god, I'm having the best time." Time to critique. You know, like I got like very like I have to pull it, I rein it in. Oh, I have to be British. You're a little sloppy.

That's pretty good.

Thank you. I'm also British. When I want to be. Sometimes I'm British, sometimes I'm not. You know, it's very confusing being me and many different people.

Can you do Jason's accent?

Jason Dundas. Hello, this is Jason Dundas of America's Next Best Dance Crew.

So you're going to take me up to the VIP spot. Okay. Oh, this is where the dance crews go up to perform. Uh huh. So, put yourself in the mindset, you're going on stage to battle in front of millions of people around America. Oh. Okay, so this is the set. So we are here just to rehearse. Beautiful.

Yeah. So, for this season, for the first time, you see you've got these risers. So, the crews can break out from the circle and they can dance up and down the risers. And then they can dance on this platform. So, unlike other seasons, they can open up their choreography.

Right. We're just having some fun backstage. Where do you get your eyebrows done? This is no.

I get I get I'm in a different area. I'm not allowed to fraternize with the contestants. I'm allowed to say hi. I'm like, hey. Yeah. Break legs. Do things. You're going to be amazing. You're going to be fantastic.

Now, do you ever sneak back here in between?

No, I never come here. No. I'm only here because of you. I don't even know if I'm allowed to be here.

Okay, you're You keep going. Let's motor so so nobody catches you.

This is my dressing room. Um I sometimes go by my alias Marco. Bye. Thanks for coming. Oh, no. You can't. Nope. Doesn't fit a Frankie. No, it does. I'm just I decided not to show you that I go there a lot. The super secret hidey hole.

Out of all the judges, who's the best dancer? Because you've been on Broadway, you've done this for real, real.

Yeah. Uh T-Pain. Just kidding. No. Just kidding. He does. Um I mean, I know that Tiana has definitely danced a lot. Like her music video, she's dancing for her life and she's a choreographer. Well, me, of course. I mean, I can't speak for everybody else. You know, Pain getting a little old. I don't know. I don't know if I don't know if Pain still got it.

Is that how it works? You guys do a little you know, back and forth. That's it. Oh, it goes all the way around. It does the whole thing. It goes everywhere. It's it's I mean, it's like a six-axis type of thing. It it does a lot. It's Is that how you are? You just are you like a neck-up dancer? Is that what this is?

No. No, I'm actually a really I'm a pretty good dancer. I'll probably Me and Tiana have battled before. I think I won. This was like this was like 2008 though, so. Okay. I was much more thin.

But what about you? You You That's what you know they're getting old. You know, he's got his little one move. Love him to death, but you know, I don't think he want to battle me. I think that was, you know, back when he was my age. He was able to move around like that, you know. #AllShade. You've seen somebody do a backflip. You ever seen a fat person do a backflip? I have. And it's See how much more amazing that is? You just got to gain some weight and just do simple things. And people think it's amazing for some reason. That that's my trick. So, yes, of course, I'm the best dancer. I'm the biggest. I've been on Broadway twice on two different shows and um I've also, you know, I was a dance major in college. So, I've studied all different kinds of dance. I was in

So, I would have wanted you. Let's let's be real here.

Afro-modern contemporary company based in Philadelphia.

So, I'm not saying anything. It's T-Pain. You just Let the work stand for itself. Right? It's T-Pain.

What about you versus Frankie?

Oh, I see. See, Frankie does a lot of uh high-flying stuff. I don't know. I've just never been on a Broadway stage before, so I couldn't tell you the uh difficulty level of the things he does and you know, hair flips, and I don't know how you know, you bring all that to the game, full up, full splits. Like I can't I'm about to now. Okay. And he's got glitter in his eyebrows. I mean, just And glitter everywhere. Let's talk about glitter, everybody. Just stop using it. Everybody. Not just Frankie. It gets everywhere. On Big Brother, they locked him in a house. And on this show, we lock him in a pen that we call the judges' area.

Yeah. This is actually they actually have to lock me in and strap me down because I try to leap onto stage throughout the performances. You're going to go insane.

So, what's it like up here?

Um, you do feel very regal. Um I definitely feel like a a need to kind of like prop myself up and be very like. Yeah. Stand up very straight. Yeah. Engage the core. I feel very I feel very judge-like. Uh huh. Like I understand why it's called your honor now. Because it's an honor.

I think the only thing left to say is tune in and watch ABDC. On MTV.

Yeah. What day is it?