I’ve not seen other seasons, so this is my first venture into SYTYCD. I’m assuming this is the first year they’ve left the top ten entirely up to voting by America? If that’s the case, I wonder if they’ll shift it back for next year. It seems weird having “judges” on the show, all completely rooting for one dancer, and she ends up getting the boot with no one being able to do anything about it. It’s worse on America’s Got Talent, where the “judges” literally don’t make a decision during the entirety of the top 20, but I think it’s somewhat annoying here as well.
Well, there’s a reason the winner gets the title “America’s Favorite Dancer” instead of “The Judges’ Favorite Dancer”. This has been the setup since I started watching, in season 2.
yeah, nothing new in the format – which I think works out pretty darn well. In the first half, the judges get a limited veto power over America’s whims, helping to mold the final 10 into the Best 10. After that, it’s popularity, but at least it’s the most popular of the best dancers.
This is just one of the many ways that SYTYCD is better than American Idol (which is interesting since they’re produced by the same company and have many of the same executives in common.) I’ve got a whole essay mentally composed, comparing & contrasting the two, and why SYTYCD wins every which-way.
Stunned by last night’s results, btw.
Wow–wowee wow. Seems Janette suffered from the curse of Evan. He drags down whoever is with him, but is so dern kyoot the voters make sure he gets to stay. I think Melissa greatly benefitted from the emotional breast cancer piece, and Kayla still struggles to connect with the audience. I think she’s a gorgeous dancer, but personality-wise, she doesn’t grab. Sweet girl, but she doesn’t grab.
I love Evan, I really do–but seriously, America. Seriously. He should go home next; no way should he be dancing in place of Brandon or Ade.
Curious, Dopers…are any of you actually calling in and voting? I will confess that I never have.
Depends on 1. if I watch it in time (I DVR), and 2. how strongly I feel about the people and performances on a given night. Sometimes I vote several times for multiple people, and sometimes I don’t bother. This past Wednesday, I watched it in time but didn’t bother.
I never have, because it’s a phone call – I do vote for “Dancing with the Stars,” since I can do that online.
No, I don’t have an explanation for why it makes a difference.
For me, Kayla was the strongest of the night.
Ade has been my favorite guy since last week, & I like Janette & Jeanine in general (though they were not that exciting this week). I’ve been ready for Melissa to go for a while, & I would have been happy to lose Evan. I just don’t care that much about Brandon for some reason.
So I voted mainly for Kayla & Ade, about half as many votes each for the J’s, & two token votes for Jason.
I figured Melissa would be saved by emotionality, but my favorite dance was the jazzy Broadway that Kayla & Jason did. So I’m gratified that Kayla was saved after knocking that out the park (yes, more than the hip-hop).
It doesn’t get easy at the end.
I’m with twickster. I’ll vote if it’s online, but won’t call for some reason. They haven’t been mentioning how many calls they’re getting so I’m wondering if they have been low.
Dancers, dancers. Evan has been a favorite of mine since auditions, however, I do feel he suffers with ballroom. He’s much better with lifts than I thought he’d be. At this point he’s up against some pretty stiff competition.
Brandon is beautiful to watch, but I think he doesn’t come across quite masculine enough off stage. (“I think of puppies and bunnies”).
Ade is a wonderful partner, but to me he seems more athletic than artistic during solos.
Of the girls my favorite was Janette and I was so shocked to see her voted off.
Melissa is so beautiful and I’ve liked her from the beginning. She smiles too much. I know that sounds silly, but I thought she looked so much more professional on Wed. in the cancer piece with a serious face.
Jeanine just seems too heavy when she dances.
Kayla is absolutely breathtaking when she dances regardless of the routine or genre. She comes across so differently when performing than she does when she’s talking. She sounds so superficial almost an airhead. So if I just ignore her during interviews and enjoy her dancing. She’s probably my favorite right now.
I just realized that we haven’t seen any Crump, or Krunk, or whatever, this season. I wonder why.
jasc1953, I think they’re saving that for next week to be the kiss 'o death for Evan.
(Sheer speculation, but I think if he were given that style, he’d look absolutely ridiculous–I’d take him about as seriously as I would if Ellen Degeneres was performing it.)
We also haven’t seen whatever-his-name-is–the guy who choreographed the krump last year, glasses, hat (often), agreed with Mia that Brandon was nothing special, speaks his own language–since like the first week or two. Wonder if the fact he totally screwed up his criticism of some ballroom dance embarrassed him or something.
Because they’re all thrown into a hat and it’s random what’s pulled out. That’s the nature of probability for you.
But Mia doesn’t think that now; I think her issue was like anything else in life: if something is hyped enough, no matter how good it actually is, it won’t compare to what you imagine it will be.
He’s a great dancer by any definition of the word, but has his limitations like the every other member of mankind. But that doesn’t detract from the abilities he does have.
Uh-huh.
I have no knowledge one way or the other, but I doubt they put all possible styles into the hat. I bet they decide they’d like to have disco, contemporary, paso doble, hip-hop and waltz this week, and randomly assign which dancers get those styles.
ETA: and the krunk guy with the hat & glasses…Lil’ C.
Yeah, there’s no way the lack of crunk is simply random. They have their choreographers for each week and assign them all out. It’s not like there’s a bunch of choreographers disappointed with nothing to do for random weeks.
My guess is that this season there was no crunk-style dancers in the top 20 (like Twitch last season), so they decided to give the whole genre a pass. The fact that several of the dancers would have looked pretty foolish doing it was probably a consideration too. I don’t think the producers would throw two complete crunk newbies into that and expect a miracle.
With really hard genres this season, they seemed pick a couple with one expert and let them help their partner get respectable (a la ballet with Melissa and Ade). Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this the first season when they didn’t show the couples drawing the genre out of a hat? It seems that a lot of the dance choices weren’t random this season.
Err, replace “crunk” in the previous post with “krump.”
I think. Kids today. With their loud music and complicated shoes.
I think Jeanette suffered because of the fact that Mia said she was her favorite…it’s the same problem that has happened on AI: the voters assume that someone is safe and don’t make the effort.
And I adore Evan. He’s ridiculously entertaining.
I don’t think it was being Mia’s favorite that did it–I think it was the general (completely reasonable) perception that she was so strong, talented, charismatic, etc., that she was bound to be safe. The gal vote was obviously closer than some expected, so all it took was enough people to be complacent about her to drop her to the bottom, and fast.
I’m also not sure who to root for now that she is gone. I’m leaning toward Melissa (because of the overall strength of her performances) and Brandon (who seems the most technically gifted). I like Evan, but at this point, he simply does not deserve to go any farther. Kayla does nothing for me but Jeanine and Ade (despite that god-awful pick) make a fine second-tier pair when it comes to my support.
Oh, and the back-to-back showcases for Ellen and Katie made this week distinctive in highlighting the most worthless judge and the most uninspiring guest dancer in the show’s history.
And I have voted in the past, but only on the last night between the Final 2 (and both times, my votes went for the winner).
Finally watched last week’s stuff over the weekend, and all I can say is, what the hell has happened to Ellen? She looked terrible. And Mia has been overdoing the happy pills.
Sorry to see Jeanette go, because quite frankly, she’s about the only dancer with any personality. None of the remaining dancers have much charisma. They’re likeable, but blandly likeable.
By horrible, you mean she doesn’t look like she’s 25 anymore? Ellen looks fine, and modern. She’s no longer a woman in her prime, whatever that really means, but rather a person who isn’t afraid of her age, and doesn’t take great pains to retain some misguided notion of perfection. She is who she is and she works with what she has, which means basically some light makeup, and a nice hairdo. I think she looked just peachy, and, well, you know, normal.
Mia, such as I understand it, is an “artist” of the good, yet tortured variety. She wears her feelings on her sleeves. I find it curious that you’d say she’s overdoing the happy pills particularly given the crying jags she wasn’t trying to avert to give a response to a dance.
Whatever Mia feels from one moment to the next, I think it’s safe to assume that everyone around her will be quite well aware of it.
Damn. I was routing for Jeanette. Now I have no fav.