Oh, Mary Murphy. Can there be a more divisive figure in the world of televised dance? This shrieking banshee of a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, herself an accomplished dancer and choreographer, can either be taken as completely insane or brilliant. Or both. Whatever the case may be, she and her hot tamale train have become staples on this show. It just wouldn't feel the same not to hear her screaming after an amazing performance.

After the taping of last night's final performance show, Mary Murphy sat down with BuddyTV's John Kubicek, Dave Lake from MSN TV and Daniel Malen of TheTVAddict.com to discuss this new crop of finalists. Also, in the interview, Mary gives further clues about which So You Think You Can Dance judge or judges will possibly be hitting the dance floor on tonight's season finale, which Cat Deeley alluded to in her interview yesterday.

Below, you will find an audiofile and a complete transcript of the interview.

BuddyTV: So how has it sort of been compared to previous seasons with these four dancers?

Well, I think this year was the first year that we couldn't really tell who was ahead of the game, at all. It kept changing up from week to week. Especially when Kherington and Will got voted off, who I preconceived probably being in the finale, I didn't know what was going to happen after that. At that point it was really out of our hands. But even going back to when we were in Las Vegas and I saw the first 200 up there on the stage doing hip-hop for the first time, I can tell you I looked down, I was way in the back of the theater, and I looked out and they were all getting the choreography. Which in years past, that was not the case. It looked like a serious bad marching band accident with people going left and right and back where they shouldn't be going. This was the first time on day one of Las Vegas, everyone looked like they were getting it. Most of them were getting the foxtrot for the first time.

A lot of them hadn't cross trained, most dancers don't really honestly have the time. They want to be on the show, but to spend the time and the money to cross train is almost impossible. They know they can get on this show if they're extraordinary in one division. If they have a little bit else in their pocket, that's great. But not necessary to be on the show.

Look at Twitch, for example. Freestyle, hasn't had formal training, and here he is on our finale. You can't underestimate someone's heart, determination, and perseverance. The kid's been up to bat before, auditioned, shut down, maybe once, maybe two times. I know once for sure, and I was just sad about that. So I'm so glad he was a fighter too and came back. Joshua and hip-hop -- this is the first season ever that we've had two hip-hop dancers in the finale. It's amazing, it shows everybody out there too, “Hey, I got a chance now.” These kids are huge inspirations.

I mean the lyrical dancers, contemporary, the ballet dancers, they come from a place of real training. The hip-hop dancers usually start street and then move into a trained form of hip-hop. Just because you're a free styler doesn't mean you can pick up hip-hop, just because you're hip-hop. We've had a lot of people, including set people like Cedric from last season, that had a hard time picking up hip-hop. Twitch has not been that case at all. Joshua of course just went into almost every single style just flawlessly and he's mainly hip-hop, he's had maybe some small training, I don't really know Joshua's background. Katee of course well trained, Courtney of course well trained dancers.

Sometimes if you're used to picking up choreography, it's still not easy to go to another style, don't get me wrong. Especially ballroom, because a lot of these dancers haven't danced with a partner before. So to go in and have these connections, and anybody that's a ballroom dancer -- even myself, just dancing tonight, and I haven't danced in years and years I have not performed, I have not even taught dancing hardly at all since season 2 when I was choreographing. Because I'm so busy with the show now that I'm no longer performing, so I got a taste tonight about what those kids went through when I had to throw on dance shoes after having not performed in over ten years, and go, “Oh my god.” Even in my own style -- and we haven't had much more than five and a half hours of training either -- and I'm just sitting there, “This is my own style!” You think sometimes, this is like riding a bike. In dance, it's not really. It takes years, it takes a lot of time to build up the stamina to do this. Yes, your mind knows what to do, but your body doesn't deliver when it's trained over and over. You're telling it, point that toe, turn that foot out, put more pressure -- and it takes so long. The more you rehearse and practice, of course, that fires through those muscles and you get it faster.

These kids don't have that opportunity, especially when they go completely out of their style. Now that one number tonight, that Russian thing, holy Toledo. I could have never done that, by the way. There's no way, you would have definitely had to take me to the hospital after that. And I wouldn't have been able to take one more step, without a doubt. The stamina that it takes to do what they have to do is unbelievable. I almost had to go tonight, shoot I'm still sweating!


BuddyTV: Is there a favorite or a sense that this person has a better chance of winning this whole thing?

I don't think so, I don't see it. There's been every week where I hear people across the country, “Well, I just love Twitch.” I just went down the line outside, “Who do you love?” It was Twitch, it was Katee, it was Courtney, it was Joshua. It was pretty even outside, so I have a feeling that it's probably going to be the closest race in So You Think You Can Dance history because there is no clear winner here. I think all of them are going to be happy whoever wins, and I'm certainly going to be proud of whoever wins with this top four that's for sure, holy smokes. Whew!


MSN TV: Do you think the right person usually wins?

Yeah, for the most part, yeah I do. Yeah I do. It's not always the technical dancer, probably if it was left to the dance judges we really want it all. But all of these kids technically in their own fields are extraordinary. And I have to say they stepped up to the plate, even someone like Twitch in a different style like Viennese waltz, I mean he just blows away. In the Broadway numbers, he looks like he could step right into Broadway. So does Joshua. I mean, come on!


BuddyTV: Moving forward, because there is now going to be a season 5 --

I know, how exciting is that?


BuddyTV: Are you guys going to start to do anything different or do you think this formula is working? Like, American Idol switched it up after awhile to let instruments in.

I certainly don't, and I hope, that we don't have people that are going to start singing next year. I think that has been done. I think what will probably be introduced is more different dance genres, like we had Bollywood and of course the pas de deux and the Russian number. I think we might see more things like that to mix it up. The formula certainly works and is very entertaining. I know I can't wait every Monday when we film the show to find out what these kids are up to, and today was a huge surprise with the new dance genre, I had no idea they would throw something like that in. And I had no idea that the kids could do it. And again, it just proves to me how extraordinary they really are. If you guys want to try any of that for like 30 seconds, you'll find out what I'm talking about. It's really crazy, it is! Gee, though I'm still smoking, I'm sweating, and it's been a half an hour now since I danced. And I only did one little number for a minute and 15!