Where is airing: FOX
For what age: 7+
How many episodes in 4 season: 23 episodes
This two hour season premiere starts with auditions in Los Angeles. Contestants have 1 minute to impress the judges, and then wait to see for the judges to make one of three decisions - if the dancer is good enough they go straight through to Vegas, need to stick around to prove themselves by learning choreography, or is so bad they're sent straight home. In this 90 minute action packed show we get to see the best of the best and judges reactions to the very worst of the worst!
The Salt Lake City auditions see choreographer and new guest judge Mandy Moore joining Nigel and Mary. Salt lake sees the judges wrangled up 42 extremely talented dancers to send to the next stage in Vegas. Some stand out performers include Chelsie Hightower and Kelli Baker, Kelli is the the daughter of Bonnie Story, an Emmy award-winning choreographer for High School Musical. Joining Nigel and Mary in Dallas was Adam Shankman, the genius behind Hairspray. some highlights here were Arielle Coker whom the judges instantly fell in love with, and pagent girl Paige Jones.
The auditions continue with hundreds more hopefuls taking their turn on stage in Charleston, South Carolina and Washington, DC, in hope of impressing the judges, Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy, and continuing on to audition in Vegas. This week Nigel and Mary are joined by special guest judges Tyce Diorio in Charleston, and Dan Karaty in DC.
The final stop in this round of auditions is Milwaukee, WI. Judges Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy are joined by choreographers Napolean and Tabitha.
Over 200 dancers have made it to the Las Vegas Callbacks. They will perform various types of choreography and be judged by a panel of six judges to determine who will be in the Top 20. The panel consists of Nigel Lithgoe, Mary Murphy, Mia Michaels, Debbie Allen and husband and wife hip hop choreographers, Napoleon and Tabitha. The top 10 men and the top 10 women are chosen.
After five two-hour audition shows, it was down to the final 20 performers who will vie for the title and 0,000 on the fourth season of "So You Think You Can Dance- After a topsy-turvy intro in which each of the finalists got a few seconds to show off their moves (Dramamine, anyone?), host Cat Deeley laid out the process: the top 20 will be split into 10 couples and each week they'll pick their dance styles randomly out of a hat. They'll perform and the voters pick their favorites. On Thursdays, the three lowest vote-getting couples will be announced and those six dancers will perform solos before the judges decide which guy and which girl is going home.
The first results show of the season on "So You Think You Can Dance- started with a bizarre group dance that included judge Nigel Lythgoe getting kidnapped, bound and gagged and left at the center of the stage awaiting host Cat Deeley to free him.
It was down to the final 18 Tuesday on "So You Think You Can Dance- as Mia Michaels joined judges Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe. She promised that this season is going to be "benoodles", which she explained meant "insane". She said there are a few dancers in the final that she won't be sad to see leave, but the majority are fantastic.
After a slamming hip hop routine to open the show - it ended with Gev holding a headstand for what seemed like five minutes, and host Cat Deeley couldn't even throw him off by tickling his ribs - it was time to eliminate two more dancers on "So You Think You Can Dance-
It was down to eight couples Wednesday night on So You Think You Can Dance? as choreographer and general friend of the show Adam Shankman joined regular judges Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe. Mary said this would be the shows best year ever because at this point in past seasons they've generally had a better idea of who the front-runners are. Nigel took a moment to pay tribute to legendary dancer and actress Cyd Charisse, who died last week. He and Adam suggested that folks go rent some of her classic movies, including Singin' in the Rain, The Band Wagon, Silk Stockings and Brigadoon. Nigel called her a remarkable woman and real star of dance.
After some kind of freakish group dance routine that's definitely going to cause some nightmares, it was time to find out which two contestants would be sent home on "So You Think You Can Dance- on Thursday.
Host Cat Deeley promised at the outset that the final 14 dancers will face some changes and the competition would get more difficult for the final seven couples. She soon explained that each of the couples would have to dance twice for the first time this season.
After a wild opening Broadway routine choreographed by Tice D'Orio, it was time to cut two more contestants on Thursday's episode of "So You Think You Can Dance- But first, viewers were treated to a montage of D'Orio ripping into dancers during the earliest audition rounds.
Host Cat Deeley reminds viewers that the final six couples will be competing for a place in "your" Top10. We're introduced to the final 12 dancers, followed by judges Mia Michaels, Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythegoe.
Host Cat Deeley is decked out ominously in black as she welcomes us to the show and tells us the judges will have to eliminate one more guy and one more girl.
"Finally", host Cat Deeley tells us, we're down the final ten. Cat adds that now America's voting will be the only factor in who advances and who is cut.
Before we get going, Jessica comes out and informs Cat that she has broken a few of her ribs and is out of the competition. Left with an odd number of female dancers, the show has decided to bring back the recently booted Comfort for tonight's show.
Just two weeks away from the finale, eight contestants remained on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance- Four girls and four guys continued in the competition for the title of America's favorite dancer. The dancers picked new partners and routines out of a hat for this round of the competition. Every couple would perform twice and every dancer would perform a solo. Translation: Fox has two hours to fill!
Thursday night's episode of "So You Think You Can Dance- spelled the end of the road for two more dancers who pulled in the lowest number of votes. The opening dance was a cool, futuristic hip-hop looking deal that was pretty captivating. Guest judge Toni Basil's speech about how she got into dancing, not so much. Host Cat Deeley asked Basil to talk about how much of a challenge it is for the dancers to learn all the different styles they have to know on the show and Basil's response was, essentially, that there are all kinds of dance and you'll never be able to master them.
With just six dancers left, we finally reached the glorious time of the summer when even "So You Think You Can Dance- couldn't stretch itself to two hours. That meant instead of a bloated 120 minutes, viewers were treated to a packed 60 minutes as each couple performed twice and each individual dancer offered up a solo.
Just six contestants remained, but that number on Thursday would be trimmed to the final four dancers still in the running for the title of America's favorite dancer on "So You Think You Can Dance-
It was the first part of the two-night finale on "So You Think You Can Dance- and host Cat Deeley threw a curve ball at us from the start. In an effort to change things up - and perhaps to stretch another episode into two hours! - each of the remaining dancers would perform with every other dancer. That meant the two girls would dance with each other, as would the two guys. Suddenly, those rumors of Lance Bass pairing up with another dude on "Dancing with the Stars" don't seem so special, huh?
Kicking off the bloated, two-hour finale of "So You Think You Can Dance- host Cat Deeley noted that the season had consumed 35 hours of television. Gotta love summer TV.
