TV THOUGHTS 2024, PART II: SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, SEASON 18

Boy, have they ruined this once-beloved show for me!!! Since when did So You Think You Can Dance become about which dancers can get work this very second, as they keep telling the contestants it is?

But, if you are a working dancer, and have ever interacted with one of the judges before, you can’t be accepted onto the show! So the producers need to make-up their minds on this issue.

And also, how do they define “work?” A dancer in Broadway shows may not be able to get work as a background dancer for a hip-hop performer. And conversely, a break dancer certainly cannot do Broadway, except for maybe a specialized show. And ballet dancers usually can only get work in a ballet company, even though dancers in no other, perhaps more popular, discipline can!

So, making this season of So You Think You Can Dance be about getting professional work is just ridiculous.

The almost equally-dumb tagline in the past has been about finding “America’s Favorite Dancer,” a misleading moniker if ever there was one! The show is really about watching uber-talented people choreograph and dance fabulous numbers! And becoming fans of theirs, and voting for them. They may wind-up being the *voters’ favorite dancer, but that’s it. Dot, dash, end of story. *[Note: But we can’t even vote anymore! More on that in a minute.]

This year’s format is actually pretty depressing. The entire season was shot at some weird brick building in Atlanta, which reminds me of an abandoned bread factory where gangsters shoot people and hide the bodies. (Okay, I admit that I may be watching too much The Cleaning Lady.) The televised auditions were held on a flat floor, as opposed to a stage, with no audience. That means that the charm of seeing dancers cheer for one another, and meeting their family members, and having some partners audition together, went out of the series.

On top of all that, part of the new season is that the Top 10 dancers live together! Who cares about that??? At all!!! Just let the people dance and give the audience the vote back!!! I hate to predict it, but this new nonsense just may signal the demise for the series. (Bite my tongue!)

As for the new judges, while there is a ton of dance experience, employment, talent, and knowledge among them, there’s absolutely no charm or humor on the panel anymore. They haven’t made me even smile once so far!

In general life, I like Maks Chmerkovskiy, (for both his dancing and personality,) and Allison Holker, (even though I get sad seeing her because it reminds me of the tragic suicide of her husband, Twitch, who was both a former contestant and then a judge on this show,) but she’s not a great judge and he lowered himself down to the level of the two females, the other being Comfort Fedoke, (who was there for only the auditions,) who has never been a special dancer herself. She’s just survived on SYTYCD over the years because, sadly, she’s actually been the only female hip-hopper. When she was a contestant back in the day, she got eliminated twice in a row!!! (After she was eliminated in twelfth place, another girl got sick and had to leave, so they brought Comfort back in the next week, only for her to be voted off again!!! Not great credentials. But to be fair, I hear she’s a choreographer these days. So there’s that.)

And this week it got even worse—for the rest of the season, which is comprised of all pre-recorded shows featuring the Top Ten, JoJo Siwa, one of the most annoying people to ever be on a television screen, has replaced Comfort on the three-person judging panel. (She stepped in when Paula Abdul accused perennial judge, and creator of the show, Nigel Lythgoe, of sexual assault. As the Executive Producer, as well, he took himself off the panel this season.) On Monday night’s show, JoJo told the contestants, “I’ve been in your exact same position before…” No, she has not! She has never been a dancer on this show!!! So, she started off with a lie. Charming.

Speaking of Nigel, if anyone knows how they cut him out of the audition shows, please let all of us in on it. I think they had to re-shoot the judges’ comments during the auditions because Nigel appeared to be on the panel during them originally. Some people think they digitally removed him, but then his spot at the table would still be there. I think they left the dancers’ performances intact and just reshot the judges reactions and comments. But what a supreme pain in the butt that must have been!

The worst part of this whole new stupidity is that…we don’t get to vote! How is it fair for the winner to be chosen by just those three judges??? It’s so annoying. Why did the producers, (or perhaps the network execs,) feel they needed to mess with success???

And they have a tiny group of family and friends as the audience during just the one dance the Top Ten do at the top of the show, and then during the solos of the bottom contestants. It all looks so sad.

The contestants need a real audience in the arena to cheer them on. And they’re not dancing in pairs anymore, which is where the fun always was. They’re being assigned to different kinds of dance “work.” This week it was two groups of them doing fake music videos. It’s all so inane. I’m sure this cast is just happy to be on the show, but the whole thing seems unfair to them. And to us, the loyal viewers.

The entire season has been pretty rugged so far, but I love to see dance, in general, so even though the whole thing is giving me the creeps, on the krump-dancing Mr. X and I will plug.

But I advise that if you’ve ever been a fan of this show, enjoy it now because we may never see it again. Shame.