Whats Hot On TV

With So You Think You Can Dance starting so soon after American Idol ended, it caused me to think of how they differ. With the singing show just finishing up its seventh season, and the dance show just beginning it’s fourth, it’s clear one of them had a head start. It would have been too easy to create a carbon copy of the show, replacing singing with dancing, but they seem to have worked to carve a separate path, knowing that in the end, dancing and singing really aren’t all that comparable.

While they’ve played with the formula of this a few times since the show started, instead of just auditioning, then getting a yea or nay from the judges, the auditioners on So You Think You Can Dance are presented with a few different options. The judges can either send them directly to the next round in Las Vegas, they can send them directly home, or they can hold them over to watch how they handle choreography, as in the end, that’s what will matter the most. They could be a great dancer with their own stuff, but provided with someone else’s routine, they might not be able to follow easily, or most importantly, quickly.

Just like American Idol, though, in this stage of the competition, to make it interesting for us viewers, we are shown the “bad” auditions, yet they don’t seem to dwell on them as much. Sometimes with American Idol, it seems to overrule the audition stage of the show, yet the producers there are smart enough to know that’s why some people tune in, so they give them what they want. On the other hand, viewers tuning into So You Think You Can Dance aren’t looking for that. It seems they just want to see some really good dancing and to be entertained in the process.

Another interesting thing I noticed, starting even as early as the auditions, is that we somehow get to know the contestants much better than we ever do on American Idol. It seems like they allow just as much back story in as American Idol does here, so I’m not sure what makes the difference, but it seems to be somehow in the mode of expression. There is something about expressing yourself through dance, that exposes more of the person than there is expressing yourself through voice. By the time of the final 20 announcement, we have gotten to know these dancers better than we know David Cook or David Archuleta who lasted until the final two of American Idol.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m still a devoted viewer of American Idol, and it still tops my list, regardless of the growing feeling I had this season of behind the scenes manipulations. But, I’ve come to appreciate So You Think You Can Dance in a such a separate way, instead of just Nigel Lythgoe’s spinoff dance show.

Tonight is the third night of auditions, with the final one being next Wednesday. A week from tonight we get to see what happened in Las Vegas, and we meet the final 20 for the first time, although by that time, we’ll know exactly who they are, and why we want them there.

Photos Courtesy of fox.com/dance

For more information on So You Think You Can Dance, see SirLinksalot: So You Think You Can Dance.