Cheryl Scott was at a restaurant in London last year, when a worker who recognized her approached for a chat.
That sort of thing happens frequently for the ABC7 Chicago meteorologist, but more typically in the Midwest. You'd imagine the tableside visitor might have wisecracked about miserable English weather or asked Scott for a personal forecast.
Nope.
"I can't wait to watch your New Year's Eve!" the man gushed.
By that, he meant the tightly choreographed, high-octane mini-movie productions that air during the popular "Countdown Chicago" special each year and feature Scott and news anchor Terrell Brown (and a local troupe) dancing across the city.
Viewers who've caught (and liked) the routines online have written in from Japan, Dubai and all over the United States — such is the popularity of the event, which began when a producer suggested Scott and Brown have an impromptu on-air dance-off.
"So we went for it, and it was a complete and utter disaster," Brown said as he was working on the 2025 show's final edit in mid-December. "We walked away from that experience going, 'Why don't we take our time if we're going to do something like that and actually produce it and put some effort behind it?' "
Neither Scott nor Brown, who is the "Countdown Chicago" show's executive producer, had any prior professional dance experience.
"I grew up dancing when I was little — just your typical jazz, tap and ballet classes," Scott said.
That might come as a surprise to fans of the show, where the quality of the dancing rivals something you'd see in the latter rounds of "America's Got Talent."
Scott, Brown and their creative team start mulling themes and scouting locations for the show a year in advance (their first dance was in 2018). Brown writes a shot-by-shot screenplay. They work with choreographers and dancers from Puzzle Box Dance Studio, a company on the North Side.
Last year's segment featured an invasion of AI robotic creatures attempting to take over the city. Sister Jean Dolores Bertha Schmidt of Loyola University Chicago — aka “Sister Jean,” then 104 — made a cameo (in silhouette) as the head of mission control who dispatches the city's "finest agents," Scott and Brown, to neutralize the robots.
Dancing breaks out on a CTA train, the Merchandise Mart L platform, on a Wendella tour boat.
The whole thing is shot in 12 hours at night, after a year's planning.
"So that when we get to that night, every minute, every moment of the shoot is planned detail by detail," Brown said.
Productions have been filmed at the Field Museum, in the grand lobby of the Civic Opera House, at Navy Pier and on State Street. It doesn't always go smoothly. A Chicago visit by President Joe Biden meant the crew had to reschedule a drone shot above the Field Museum because of restricted air space.
And sometimes, the dancers film in frigid conditions — as they did last year.
"I don't want to say for sure it was 35 (degrees), but the temperature dropped dramatically that night," Scott said. "We had a front move in and then it started raining. So we're dancing on this boat and the surface is super slippery. So we have to pause production."
In this year's video, the duo's seventh, Scott and Brown show up as "teachers" jazzing up a dull high school dance at St. Ignatius College Prep on the Near West Side.
Brown said scouts visited high schools across the city and suburbs for about two months to find one that would work. The team needed a school close to downtown and one that would be willing to accommodate a production crew making multiple visits.
"They had their students line the hall (at Ignatius). They had posters with our names on them. It was like a pep rally when we walked into the school," Brown said.
Brown and Scott already are entertaining ideas for next year's production. Would they be up for jumping out of an airplane?
Sure.
"We both flew with the Blue Angels," Scott said.
How about something even more daring, like wire walking — the way Nik Wallenda did a few years back, across the Chicago River?
"Except we'd have to dance on the wire," Brown said.
A production set in the Cook County Jail? (After all, actor Hugh Grant's prison dance number in “Paddington 2" was a show-stopper).
"Probably not," said Brown, with an indulgent smile.
"There are certain things that wouldn't bring joy to Chicago," Scott said.
Given that both seem to be known as much for their dance moves as the work on their day jobs, has either given any thought to a career change?
"I cannot sing, but, hey, you never know. A guest appearance on a Broadway show in Chicago for Terrell and I could be fun one day," Scott said.
