So you think you can do what now?

So You Think You Can Dance
Channel: FOX
Date & Time: Wed. at 8pm, Thurs. at 9pm
Rating: Everybody

So I would like to complain about the latest season of So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). It pains me to do this since I love this show so much. My biggest issue this season doesn’t necessarily lie with the people chosen to be on the show (oh I have issues with that but that will be discussed later) or with the fact that Mary Murphy is no longer a constant presence (I actually kind of love that). My biggest problem has to do with the structure of the competition. Too many things have changed.

Let me take you back, if you will, to past seasons. In the past 6 seasons, after the auditions, the judges will choose 20 dancers to make the show, 10 boys and 10 girls. Each boy would be matched up with a girl and they would dance as partners for a certain amount of weeks and then they would switch up partners to make things more interesting. Each week one boy and one girl would be voted off. Seems like an easy enough formula. One that has been working for six seasons. One that has proved to yield favorable results. Well this season they threw a big part of that formula out the window. Instead of 20 dancers, they only chose 11. Yeah 11 folks. Seems they couldn’t quite make the tough decision to cut one more person. So we are left with six guys and five girls. Now I’m sure you all are wondering how they can pair up this uneven number. Well there is the other part of the change. Now the dancers aren’t paired up with other contestants. They are now dancing with “all-stars” (past contestants of the show). What in the world is this about? I don’t understand. I don’t like it either. I think I know where they are going with this whole thing. I guess next to these great and wonderful all-stars we can really judge how well the contestant danced. A good dancer can’t be dragged down along with a bad dancer if their partner doesn’t get it. But this messes with the whole fabric of the show. The threads that hold the show together. Just this past episode they had the dancers dance once with the all-stars and then again with another contestant. So they are kind of leading it back to the original premise.

What is with the smaller amount of contestants this season? Is it because FOX only allotted SYTYCD a certain number of weeks and they decided they couldn’t fit all of it in considering the time constraints? If there are going to be fewer contestants why can’t they be paired up with each other from the beginning? Why the all-stars? There wasn’t really any kind of an explanation as to why this is happening. I love seeing those past contestants. They dance beautifully and bring a level of professionalism to the performance. But why are they there?!?! Why can’t these contestants have the same experience as the all-stars? There are just too many questions and very few answers.

The contestants this season I don’t completely agree with. They aren’t bad dancers or overwhelmingly annoying. They just aren’t people I think should be there instead of others. Now if they had 20 dancers this season these 11 probably wouldn’t bother me as much because some of the other dancers that I think were better would be there too. I must say that these dancers have held their own so far alongside the all-stars.

The one thing I do love about the changes though is that I don’t have to hear that annoying Mary Murphy scream and act like an ass all the time. Matter of fact, I have hardly seen her this season. I don’t know if they explained why she hasn’t been there every episode. I don’t need an explanation though. I need the address of Nigel so I can send him a fruit basket or something as a thank you. Mary always got on my nerves. It was so bad that I would mute the television every time she would speak just so I wouldn’t have to hear her voice and her screaming and the stupid stuff that she would say to the dancers. Now I’m not wishing harm on her or bad times. I’m sure she’s a perfectly lovely woman off the show. But on the show, man, I wanted to make it so she no longer had a voice box so we wouldn’t have to hear her anymore. I wanted a permanent mute option.

Well, hopefully with the new change of them dancing one dance with fellow contestants will come more dances in that vein. I want less all-stars and more season 7 contestants. I want more dancing and less Mary Murphy. Let’s see where the rest of the season takes us. At this last show they were doing the top 8 so we have many more shows to go.

I'm giving this season 3 1/2 stars so far. They have changed too much. But they can still redeem themselves.


Sorry I don't have an updated video from this last episode, but since it just aired last night no clips were available. This is the recap from last week's episode. Enjoy!
Top 9 - FOX Broadcasting Company - So You Think You Can Dance - Videos


Well, until next time kids, this has been Hava!