SYTYCD Season 6 Cheers and Jeers
Here’s Season 6 in review. Y’all brought up a lot of this stuff in recent comments (Mrs. D’s comment in particular), which gave me the idea to do a review of the season, what we liked and didn’t like. If you disagree with me (or agree), feel free to put your two cents in, as it’s all subjective and I’d love to know what you think!
Jeer:
This season felt more rushed that any other that I can think of. Between baseball, the Presidential address, so many audition episodes and an early end to the season because of Christmas coming up, I feel like this year’s Top 20 got shafted on actual dancing time. But not just the dancers – the choreographers got fewer chances to wow us. And the audience lost out, as well.
Cheer:
I loved that I didn’t have to wait till the summer for a new season. While America’s Favorite Dancer gets a shorter reign if they continue on the two seasons a year model, we had a shorter wait, which was really nice. After Season 5, I just don’t know how I would have contained my SYTYCD longing. Are the producers hoping to follow a Survivor/Dancing with the Stars model with the two seasons a year thing? If so, they should be just as smart about scheduling and not hesitate to move the finale to a separate night (like Survivor’s Sunday finale yesterday).
Jeer:
The new stage, or at least the screen behind it. It seems like we’ve transitioned from utter hatred toward the new stage, which always threatens to swallow up the dancers, to an acceptance that we’ll probably never get our intimate little stage back. Many readers have begun to say that the screen and imprudent use of it, is actually the bigger issue.
Cheer:
The group numbers were able to utilize this enormous space in really pleasing ways. It’s nice to think that SYTYCD can now command (and fill) a larger audience space. Maybe it’ll end up being a wonderful challenge to the choreographers (as well as the production crew, especially camera folk) to recapture that intimate feeling.
Jeer:
It was awful having three static judges (Nigel, Mary and Adam). No new blood! Adam seemed to be the only one who had something to say, most reliably at least. And when the three additional judges (Debbie, Lil C and Tyce) came in for the finale, it felt like an eternity since I’d seen them and that they were given favorites to pick rather than choosing from their hearts. Maybe that’s not true, and I’m sure they still kept up with the season, but their involvement didn’t have the same feeling because they never rotated in and out during the season.
Cheer:
Adam Shankman is a wonderful addition to the judging panel. I didn’t mind him being a constant, I only minded that there was no new blood. You almost always knew what Nigel and Mary were going to say, so he was a breath of fresh air (especially at the beginning of the season). Adam is funny and honest (he called out choreographers for bad routines!) and you get the impression that he’ll actually hire the dancers he likes (i.e. when Noelle got cut, I was okay because I felt Adam wanted to work with her), so he’s a valuable part of the panel.
Jeer:
Shane Sparks and Alex DaSilva‘s arrests (both for sexual crimes related to their dance students) are not only damaging to the choreographer’s careers, but also haunt the dance community at large and threaten to harm SYTYCD’s image.
Cheer:
The Dizzy Feet Foundation and gala do wonderful things for the dance community, SYTYCD and for us, as it unites our favorite shows, dancers, choreographers, crews in a really positive mission. It raises awareness and gives our favorites work! We can help, too!
Jeer:
How many injuries did we have this season? Mia Michaels was rushed to the hospital at the beginning of the season. Then, Billy Bell had to drop out due to illness. Noelle was injured in the first competition show while Ellenore and Ashleigh were both hurt during the Top 8 week and Russell was injured in the finale. Did I forget anyone??
Cheer:
Despite the overly-produced and rushed feel of the season, despite all the injuries, we had a wonderful Top 20 this season. As John pointed out, they had a great mix of styles and backgrounds. We saw some consistent excellence (Jakob and Ellenore, namely) and some great growth arcs (arguably, everybody, but notably Kathryn and Russell, in my opinion). We had some “characters” to get behind this season, in Legacy and the DiLellos in particular.
Jeer:
America’s SYTYCD lost Mia Michaels this season and her absence was certainly felt. Our loss was apparently SYTYCD Canada’s gain, so while it’s good that she’s working within the SYTYCD family, there’s a great big gaping hole where she was in our shows.
Cheer:
Mia’s absence gave way to a ton of “new” choreographers this season. New to us, at least. Like Sean Cheesman, Jason Gilkison, Spencer Liff and a routine from Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden. We had more Wade Robson, more Stacey Tookey, more Mandy Moore and more Travis Wall routines, which seriously rocked. More Sonya routines, many of which blew our minds, like the “Tore My Heart” 
routine with Ellenore and Jakob. Hopefully, we’ll get to see special Mia routines, maybe one or two a season, in the future. I don’t want SYTYCD America to be completely devoid of Mia Michaels, but I’m glad we had so many standout choreographers, new and recurring, this season.
Jeer:
This season had some really awful costumes…
Cheer:
And some really amazing music. But these two things are pretty typical of all seasons, I suppose. 
Jeer:
No mention of a Season 6 tour! Not even on the finale show! What are they thinking? There had better be a tour, or I will seriously cry foul. I’m keeping my feelers out, y’all, and using my contacts, to see if/when the tour will be.
Cheer:
I’m glad they mentioned auditions for Season 7 because it sounds like it’ll be another summer season. So that means that we’ll either have two seasons a year, or we’ll go back to our beloved summer format (probably the former). SYTYCD keeps motoring on, which is good news. And again, we don’t have to wait several months till fall, sounds like.
Jeer:
Hell no to the Top 6! I hope Fox and SYTYCD realize they can never do this to us again. This was the worst idea ever and I suspect the results might have been significantly different, if we’d had a normal Top 4 finale. Not cool.
Cheer:
The Meet the Top 20 episode was the biggest stroke of genius and the best of all the new ideas and concepts we dealt with this season. I hope they *always* do this from now on. It was sublime to see all of the Top 20 dancing within their styles without fear of elimination. Some of the best dancing of the entire season happened in this very first episode, as evidenced by how many of the judges’ favorites in the finale show were from this very episode.
I think that’s all I’ve got. I’ve run out of steam. But I’m sure I’ve forgotten something you hated or loved, so let me know what you think.
I think the top 20 feature worked because Nigel had asked through twitter (America’s) thoughts about it. They squeezed it in. Everything else that happened were things we didn’t ask for or get asked about.
Emilie:
You seem to have hit most of the points. Although i think in addition to the injuries, there were just a lot of “substitutes” that came in and out of this season. Substitute dancers, substitute choreographers, the only thing we didn’t have was rotating judges.
I think the injuries were one of the biggest downers of the season. It limited the viewership of a dancer’s ability and personality. Not only that, but combined with the slashing of the packages before the dance, we saw virtually nothing of them, not even in rehearsals.
I also feel that although it was exciting to see more SYTYCD, the fall season made it hard for viewers to vote. I end up DVRing the show and watching them later because I had less time than in the summer. Plus the fall season had to compete with various other shows. Glee seemed to overshadow SYTYCD despite the amount of promotion SYTYCD had provided.
I rewatched some of the previous season’s amazing dances just to be reminded about how they took my breathe away. Everything that was missing this season had worked so well in past seasons. Season 4 is one of my favorites and they had such great personalities, but such amazing dancers as well. (Who can forget Mark’s faces!) They just seemed like they were having fun and not really competing for the title.
I honestly believe there is no tour for this season. One main reason is hearing about Legacy auditioning for other stuff (good for him and I hope he gets whatever he is auditioning for).
Also I think Mollee was injured at some point (the night she had to do the can can).
There is a lot of talk about a joint tour. Okay I’ve said this before you really think that they would have had the top four during christmas week that is the only reason they cut it off at the top six. if they started a week or two earlier we would have had a top 4
Emilie you hit basically all the highs and lows that I had thought about during the season. One cheer for me was them backing off the focus on the Noelle/Mollee relationship that they filmed so much of during Vegas because I think it allowed them to grow separately instead of constantly being attached at the hip. One I would put as a cheer/jeer were the partnerships. Some were really good (Ashleigh/Jakob, Ryan/Ellenore, Kathryn/Legacy, Noelle/Russell) and other were not (Phillip/Channing, Karen/Kevin, Nathan/Mollee on some occasions). Once we got to the top 10 it got much better, but I think some of those bad partnerships didn’t help the show get off to the strong start that they wanted.
I say NO WAY to a joint tour w/ S6 and S7. I went to the S5 tour and it clocked in at just about 3 hours, a long time (though totally worth it) and they were still dances from that season that I wanted to see on tour. Putting 2 seasons together would force you to cut a lot of popular numbers in order to keep the show at a reasonable length. Plus you probably wouldn’t be able to have the dancers introduce each other which is such a fun part of the tour.
I’ve heard possible combined tour with season 7.. http://vimeo.com/8249993
Sounds like they need to work through a lot of logistics and details if they’re going to keep up the 2 seasons a year thing.
@Christine: You make a great point about voting and the increase in competition for the audience’s attention in the fall.
@Nicki: You’ve also got a great point about the fact that Legacy is auditioning not boding well for a tour. And you’re right – I forgot Mollee from the injured list.
@Amanda: I understand *why* we had a Top 6. My issue is that they could’ve planned the season better (started a week earlier) OR they could’ve done an alternative night for the finale, as Survivor does (the show is on Thursdays, but the finale is on Sunday in order to avoid conflict with Christmas week). It would’ve been confusing, but if they’d gotten their act together sooner and advertised it, it would’ve been fine. It’s not like we didn’t already have a confusing schedule this season.
@Margaret: I agree – I’m glad they cooled it with the Mollee/Noelle thing. I don’t think we would’ve liked either of them if they’d kept that up (which would’ve been a shame). They did a pretty good job of cooling it with the DiLellos, too, except near the end.
@Margaret & Danielle: I’d hate a combined tour. Season 6 has already gotten screwed – but to have to wait and share their tour? That’d be the icing on the cake if Fox/SYTYCD does that to them.
I think a combined tour would be fine. However, waiting almost a year for season 6 and then combining season 7 and running the tour while season 8 is playing feels a bit odd to me. A little bit too much SYTYCD for most people.
Now, if they decide not to do another Fall season, then I guess it can work. However, it will still be interesting to see who they can get to go on tour from season 6 if they wait until August for the tour.
My main Jeer for the season was the camera work.. it seemed to be better the last two weeks, but these wire cam sweeps during group numbers that dont let us see anything are just a bad idea..
Jack, that has always been a big jeer, no matter what season you’re looking at! The camera-men seem to want to be more artistic than practical…
Emilie, you did a great job on the cheers and jeers, getting almost everything except one: no group dances during the performance shows! In past seasons, there was at LEAST a top 5 girls/top 5 guys dance, and then the top 4 dance. Last year they did a couple more single-sex group dances, which I loved. I REALLY missed seeing them. I think they got axed because of time, same as with the pre-dance packages.
Personally, I hope they don’t try to do another fall season. Although it is torture waiting all year for another SYTYCD, part of my routine is obsessing about the season that just ended. I didn’t feel like I was ready for season 6 so soon after season 5. If they do do two seasons a year, I hope they put the second season in the winter.
Have your little top 20 episode. But those routines should not be allowed to be summoned for the finale. They weren’t part of the competition and were essentially the dancers doing what they do on a daily basis. There’s nothing mind-blowing about a bunch of highly trained tappers tapping or contemporary dancers contemporarying. When I saw them for the first time, it was satiating but lacked electricity. For whatever reason, I’d really prefer to see pieces from the competition as opposed to that tacked on variety show. The finale is a capper to remind of us of why we should be impressed and demonstrate how difficult the competition is and how awesome it is to be the winner.
@Stephanie: That’s a great point about the group routines. I really missed those this year.
@Quin: I’m glad we had the Meet the Top 20 episode, but I find myself agreeing with you that the favorite routines probably should’ve come entirely from the actual competition. Good point.