"So You Think You Can Dance" Season 9 on FOXHD - Page 5

It's almost like they want us to believe that the video of him surfing, etc., was shot before he competed. They wouldn't "lie" to us, would they?


How so? We've got two hours in Atlanta on June 6 (DAN-903), two hours from Salt Lake City on June 13 (DAN-904), then it's off to Vegas on June 20 (DAN-905), then the Top 20 reveal and performances on June 27 (DAN-906.) The first performance competition of those twenty is on July 11 (DAN-907.) [There is no show on July 4.] The first two are voted out and the remaining 18 compete on July 18 (DAN-908.)

Skyehill, I fear they don't want to get TOO MUCH into the real reasons of how, why and WHAT went into the decisions of who to send to Vegas and who not to for some possibly EMBARASSING reasons.

If you recall, in Dallas when one male dancer said he's doing this "for his mom," who's losing her vision, and then Nigel asked if she could see from where she's sitting and she said "no," so he let her have HIS seat, then QUICKLY moved his cup out of her reach, admonishing her to NOT drink from it, because it was VODKA... Well, I've refrained from mentioning anything in that link I posted about Mary earlier, but it makes similar (and some much stronger) assertions about her various states of intoxication (not necessarily just alcohol) while on the show -- and I'm guessing if it's even partly true for the relatively short broadcast performance shows, for the day-long auditions, she (and possibly Nigel, as well -- if that really IS Vodka in his cup) may get "pretty snockered" by the end of the day.

I wouldn't even mention this EXCEPT that after the circus guy did his truly mesmerizing performance with his ring (which nonetheless didn't include any TRUE dancing, as we know it), Nigel said he should go to choreography, and Mary sort half-shouted/half-SLURRED he should "GO TO VEGAS," reined back in ONLY by Jesse, who said he agreed with Nigel about choreography. And I also know Mary went through some serious health issues a couple years back (I don't recall if it was cancer, or what), but things like that can change you, and sometimes folks can get addicted to painkillers they use to assuage the intense pain of either the disease or the surgery/treatment to get rid of it.

Don't get me wrong... Unlike some here I LOVE Mary Murphy. And reading that link I just discovered we're the same age, which gives me a certain "kinship" with her. BUT, if some of her and Nigel's (and who knows which other guest judges') decisions on who goes to Vegas, and then who in Vegas gets on the final show, are made while "under the influence," perhaps they really DON'T want us to see too much of THAT part of the process... so they show us other stuff, instead, like follow-up footage of surfers, circus performers and Chaplin-esque gay twins -- all of whom they knew BEFORE the program aired didn't make it past that round -- and ALL of whom they had to film that footage AFTER that round had finished...

And again, I REALLY DO think much of that is to "draw in" and/or keep audience members who aren't just interested in dance, for better or worse.

As for Iveta and her ilk. I was JUST SICK when she got cut in the second round last year, even though I saw it coming (was surprised she didn't get the axe on the FIRST round). It was, more than ANYTHING, her AGE! This show SAYS it has an age range of 18-30, but they're PRIMARILY looking to promote young dancers in the 18-22 range. You RARELY see anyone beyond 22 or 23 make it to the top 4 or 5... I'd been seeing Iveta audition -- and make it to Vegas -- for the previous SEVERAL years, ALWAYS wondering why she never made it to the show. And then when she finally did -- CRAP. Yet Nigel, with his own PERSONAL PREFERENCE for tap dancers, since he used to be one, will be easily persuaded to let one or more tap dancers into the Top 20. And NONE of them has really worked out.

Thus far, the ONLY ballroom dancer I can recall who even got into the Top 5 was, and still is, one of my all-time favorites: Chelsie Hightower. And I continue to contend she should have been there in that Final 4, rather than Courtney Galiano. Courtney, however, must be a hard worker, since they're still keeping her around -- along with Robert Roland -- as one half of their choreography teaching team. And when they did the tour that fall, Courtney got almost ALL of the mike time. She was A NATURAL comedian -- playing off Gev. I just didn't think she was half the DANCER Chelsie was... Katee, on the other hand, well, I was always too busy watching Chelsie to pay attention, so I'll defer to the rest of you who say she's one of the best of all seasons.

One other thing I find interesting/curious... I started watching in Season 3, and from that point on, they'd show clips of the current, or most recent season, as opening and commercial break-away montages. UNTIL Season 5 ended. Ever since then they've STUCK with the montage they made of Jeanine, Kayla, Brandon, Evan and whoever was 5th. While I agree that was a good season and that's a good montage, I still wonder why they just decided to STICK with that one... Maybe "just as good as any?"
Jeff

According to IMDb's page on season 9 there are audition shows on the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th. They could be wrong--what's your source of schedule (and what are those "DAN-xxx" designations)? BTW, it'll be a top 18 finalists this year--that reveal was discussed earlier in this thread.

EDIT: Okay--I discovered a schedule page at Fox's site, here, and IMDb is wrong (thank goodness!). The schedule at the site conforms to what you said, so there are only 4 more hours of auditions. They are saying that it's a top 20 on Fox's site, though we'd be told that it'd be a top 18; we'll see.

Yeah, to get as many of the finalists from Season 5 as I could -- I remembered the first three, but not Evan -- I just went to the SYTYCD Wikipedia page (which I find is an even much MORE thorough and comprehensive source for info. on this show than IMDB -- for one thing, it lists all seasons on one page, including winners and runners up, who the judges were that season, etc.)

It ALSO says there'll be 18 finalists and 2 (TW0) winners this year! As for ratings, Wikipedia says SYTYCD was the top-rated summer show its first year, averaging 10 million viewers. The following year, "America's Got Talent" began and ratings started to slip, and then other big summer shows came along and pushed it further down. The last couple years it's averaged about 5 million viewers per episode, and they said it doesn't appear the trend is going anywhere but down. (It's all these stupid shows with folks in chairs that turn around at the press of a button! They should spin at 10,000 RPM and send them through the ceiling like human drill bits!!!)

I refer to the Wikipedia pages on SYTYCD all the time, but they don't give a program schedule, which is what I was looking for at IMDb (also TV.com, but they weren't showing any schedule for future shows the last time I looked).

This is only the 2nd time ever that the competition started after more than 5 audition/Vegas episodes, but at least it'll only be 6 of them and not 10 like Season 6. I'm thankful that they've gone easy on the "let's-show-this-horrible-audition-in-its-entirety-just-to-humiliate-this-sadly-deluded-hopeful" stuff so far this year.

TED talks this week is a dance performance, which is pretty rare for TED.

I think everyone here will be interested in seeing this one. The wire work is very impressive.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/showat...ance/listings/

DAN-xxx are the episode production numbers. DAN-905 means the fifth episode of the ninth season, etc.

No kidding, Mac! Thanks SO MUCH for posting that link! I used to get all the weekly TED emails, myself, but somehow got off the list (I could have unsubscribed myself at some point, as my "in box" was filling to fast). But TED always has a talk or discussion or new concept or invention worth watching, although this was the FIRST time I'd ever seen anything like DANCE.

However, in reading the comments one poster GRUMBLED that the site is "TED Talk" and that this should be removed, immediately. A staff member was the first to reply, and he said TED stands for (I actually either didn't know this, or had forgotten) Technology, ENTERTAINMENT, Design. So showcasing an innovative music & dance group -- the guy on the violin is the co-founder IS part of its mission statement. I really haven't seen anything this creative outside of either SYTYCD OR brief clips of Cirque du Soleil I've seen on TV.
Jeff

Bump to the top for tonight's show [and trying to get used to the new forum].

Just trying to learn how to embed Youtube vids in the new forum....

[ Thhhhpt. f:p of course I'd go and pick a video that had embedding disabled... ]


OK. how about this?

that's better!
Edited by Mac The Knife - 6/6/12 at 3:30pm

Yeah--this forum software sucks pretty intensely. I wonder what the vBulletin people did to piss AVS off? There's not even a list of the mark-up codes anywhere.

These boards are kinda nasty looking aren't they? How was tonight's episode? I've removed it from my DVR until it moves into a phase I'm interested in. Mostly because I'm running out of space after my wife taped a ton of HBO shows.

some really good dancers so far. Can't wait to see how they do dancing other styles.

Mmmm bacon!
[actually I'm trying to see if I can post an image and what size limits the new forum has since they don't mention any limits]




Anyway, it was pretty obvious to me that Daniella was a fan of Sonya's during her audition. If Sonya had been there we might have seen her have a melt down like Shankman did when he saw Billy Bell the first time.

On a more serious note, this segment almost made me head out to the local 24hr mexican joint for one of their excellent carnitas quesadillas (mmmm fried pork)

I thought all 3 of the roomates in the Austin auditions were fun to watch, we'll see how far they go in the competition though. I don't understand why they put them right through without choreography, yet send others there that obviously have had some training.

Sorry, meant the Atlanta auditions. Can't figure out how to edit.

At the bottom lefthand corner of your posts there are a little pencil and an "X"; the pencil is for editing and the X is for deleting.

Yeah--I don't understand that policy either. They've always sent every ballroom dancer there, no matter how accomplished, including the incomparable Iveta Lukosiute. (Where are the ballroom dancers??? Some must show up--you'd think that they'd feature one or two, at least in the little "good dancers keep on comin'" montages). You gotta figure that most of the hip-hop dancers and pop & lockers are going to wash out in Vegas in the first round, where everyone does the same piece of choreograph and they generally cut half the contestants.

These audition shows are wearing on me--I only finished half of last night's before I lost interest and turned to do something else. I'll finish it, but it'll be hard to get through that last round. I keep thinking, "okay--this one's obviously got some talent; stop him/her and get your little comments over with".

These audition installments are too fleeting for my tastes. I understand that FOX primetime lasts two hours, so that is the theoretical limit for an evenings fare, but at least give us one more night, if not two more per week of the two-hour entries. They are pure delight for me. Love the dance contestants. love the interaction, love the comments, love the moves, love Nigel, love Mary, LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SHOW. Can't get enough!!! Two hours and every precious second provides great joy, but then too there is the certain knowledge that the show is slipping away from me second by second and my rapture is dwindling down until next week. Also too it means that low-entertainment-value Vegas show is on its way.

I don't necessarily think there is any particular contestant-to-Vegas selection system, it is Nigel's opinion primarily. I look upon the Vegas ticket as reward for bringing entertainment value, contributing to the show, impressing the judges, showing up with talent. He knows many of those thus rewarded will wash out, and that is OK -- the perfect system for encouraging the talent to come out and try for the automatic ascendance while ultimately keeping the show's integrity with the shake out, which is certain to be quite brutal given that many many more than they can use are going on. I trust Nigel's direction for this show, it is near perfection (we'll see if they can manage to make Vegas entertaining) -- at least at this stage, all is asa it should be....

Well, I'm happy that someone is enjoying it. They did win the night in the ratings so there are apparently others enjoying it as well (or at least watching it) .

I finally finished it; the 2nd hour wasn't any more fascinating the first. I just don't care about these people's back stories, particular since, if it goes to usually form, most of these people's to whose lives we've been exposed will wash out in Vegas at some point. (Why did I need to know that that girl loves bacon ? What kind of sick person doesn't love bacon??? ). Give me their back stories, if you must, on the "Meet the Top 20" show.

Has the decision process been talked about much. Has anybody ever been to auditions and watched how it happens.

I have the feeling that it is already known whether they are going or not before they hit the stage from producer research.
I also think the cute little method of announcing your going to Vegas has been decided as well.

Last night we watched some people have to go to choreography and others get the pass to Vegas and they looked pretty much the same. I think its because of the producer research up front has shown the extra points that got one through.

Difficult to believe that they do production research on each of the hundreds of people they show storming the auditorium entrances for these auditions.

It definitely seems like Nigel was much more inconsistent with who he put through to Vegas vs choreo this last episode. Some great performers for sure, but no choreo for those popper/lockers?

Also, as much as I hate to wish ill-will on another show, with 1.3 and 1.4 demo ratings for Fox's new Thursday shows Take Me Out and The Choice, perhaps we may see a results show yet this season. SYTYCD's 2.4 avg demo for 2hrs on Wednesday looks pretty good compared to those, and presumeably those new shows' ratings will drift down next week after their premieres.

I'm glad some others are noting the bit of inconstancy. I really didn't know what to make of who go to go straight through and who was sent to choreography. Nothing against the hip hop guys, but when they come off the street and that's all they do, no matter how good they are, I expect them to go to choreography. But then they send the Chicken Town girl with 14 years of dancing to choreography. Huh?

I can't remember his name, but the small town guy...if he makes it, he has the unfortunate task of not being the next Kent. He'll be compared the entire time. Hopefully he can find a way to make himself his own and not the 2nd Kent of SYTYCD.

They missed a bet not naming "The Choice" So You Think You Are A Slut.

WHAT THE &*^%$#@?!?!?!?

I lose my internet for a few days, and just LOOK what happens to the AVS forums!!! See, that's why they need folks like ME around to keep an on 'em.

Seriously, this is a bit of a new look. For one thing, I just renewed my annual paid club membership, which supposedly meant NO ads, but perhaps the finances required JUST A BIT of tweaking... No biggie to me. All I see is ONE ad near the top right, plus one for a dealer on the top of the page -- a Clevelan dealer, so that's really NOT gonna apply to most of us, then a list of major sponsors along part of the top right of the page, THEN a list of recent reviews... It just so happens that TWO of the speaker reviews are for Polk speakers I bought a couple years back but have never gotten around to hooking up (well, I bought one step down from the 70 series, but the review should be similar), so I may get some use out of them). I don't see much issue with that. Once the page gets past that, it goes full width again.

The LOOK of the forum itself is a bit different, but I really think it's also a bit more sophisticated/better, so I'm OK with that, too. I never really DID pay an annual membership fee just to get rid of ads on the page (didn't even know it would do that the first time). I mostly did it because I feel like I GET SO MUCH out of AVS I felt like I should SUPPORT the forum. I actually CONSIDERED paying the $200 for a lifetime membership at one point, but $$$ are kinda tight for me, PLUS it always said that was "for the lifetime of the forum UNDER CURRENT OWNERSHIP," and that scared me out of it, lol.

As for all the stuff y'all said about this week's show (and yeah, I actually had to order a PCI ethernet card to replace the TWO built into my motherboard -- will NEVER buy another Gigabyte motherboard, lol) -- had to use my laptop to get online to do that, I and I really DON'T like doing much on my laptop, so I'm finally back on the "big boy" now... Anyway, I agree 100% with the comments about sending ALL THREE of the strange hip-hop pop-and-lockers straight to Vegas, BUT making obviously-talented REAL dancers like the "chicken-girl," and several others, go through choreography BEFORE they get their ticket to Vegas.

There's absolutely NO indication that ANY of the three AMAZING pop-lockers can do ANYTHING ELSE, whereas we KNOW the trained dancers know other styles. Perhaps they just see this amazing stuff from some folks and figure there's a good "starting point" with them, and maybe they can "be molded" from there? I do know Nigel's like a broken record when it comes to saying he likes to "see something different." Well, they were all "DIFFERENT," for sure. But then "chicken girl" was, too... How many other dancers did "a chicken dance" on stage before their REAL dance???

All the same, I thought I saw A LOT of talent come out of Atlanta! I'm guessing would could end up with HALF the Top 20 coming from the Atlanta auditions (and that's NOT counting the three roommates).

Distorted, is "The Choice" that other show hosted by our "Cat?" I saw previews, and SHE was the ONLY thing I found appealing about the show. The fact that it actually had that scuzzball from "Jersey Shore" with the haircut that looks like someone used a whole can of hair spray -- AND A BOWL -- was MORE than enough to keep me away... And the ladies, well, I think you already made the point, IF we're talking about the same show.
Jeff

That's one thing I don't understand about this show -- why not send all of them to choreography? That's what they're going to be doing in Vegas so why send them there to fail? What committed dancer wouldn't want to spend a couple more hours hanging out with other dancers and another hour learning and performing a fun routine? It's like a ticket to Vegas right there gives them some sort of advantage when they get there when it's probably the opposite.

BTW, this new forum software makes me feel like I'm using my old 33.6K modem again.

It all has to do with the storyline. Three roommates, all doing basically the same thing. They would rather bounce them in Vegas because they can milk the story a bit more......

Yup. Same here.

I think maybe some here are forgetting that this is first and foremost, a TV show, then a dance competition.

No doubt that the producers want characters; meaning, someone that's entertaining, likeable, talented, unique, etc. The world's most gifted dancer (but with the personality of a rock, was born with a silver spoon, isn't very attractive, etc.) won't appeal to the masses like someone with lesser talent but has the gift of gab, a nice backstory, good looks, etc. As an example, I'm sure that many would love to have Danny's undeniable talent, but don't want to be him. They likely want to be Twitch, or Kent, or Alex. Also, they're looking for diversity. Nobody want to watch a Top 20 that has nothing but ballroom specialists that are great "at what they do," but flail about in everything else.

If I'm Nigel, I do exactly what he does. Some poor kid from the streets is fantastic at hip-hop, but probably lacks in every other style. He's got a great attitude, it's apparent that he's dedicated, and he inspires others. Why not give the kid a small treat and let him sample a taste of the world of professional dance? Same with others that have some truly unfortunate series of events that have crushed their lives. A tiny gift in the form of a "working vacation" costs the show very little, but may change that person's life forever. I feel like this show rewards people who LOVE and LIVE dance, and I'm all for that, regardless of the oddsmakers that predict "Contestant X has only 100:1 odds of surviving Vegas." Bryan Gaynor had absolutely zero chance of even making it to choreography, let alone Vegas, but has inspired countless others to dance, regardless of ability. THAT is what this show is about, people...and I wouldn't have it any other way.