Open Letter to SYTYCD Producers: How to Fix SYTYCD
Dear SYTYCD Producers,
Here at PureSYTYCD, we’ve had several conversations lately about why ratings, Internet traffic and overall enthusiasm and discussion have been sinking season by season. Margaret says it can be traced to the infamous Fall season, Season 6, when our favorite show started changing swiftly and drastically. While some of the changes have been really amazing (All-Stars), some of them have been just dreadful (yes, I’m going to say it once again – the stage).
So Fox, Nigel, here are OUR pointers for how to fix the show (and readers, please, please add your own in the comments or tell us how you feel about ours and add your voice to the open letter).
1. Keep rotating judges and guest judges – just rotate Nigel right off the panel. We loved the guest judges this season (with the notable exceptions of Carmen Electra and Katie Holmes), especially the fact that we got a rotation of our favorite choreographers on the panel. We’ve learned that static judges are annoying, no matter who they are. Whether it was Nigel, Mary, Mia or Adam, we got tired of hearing the same voices when we already knew what they were going to say. Jean-Marc is a good (pervy) example of this on the Canadian show. However, Nigel almost never rotates out, so we’re extra tired of him. If you need guest judges to replace him, we’ll make ourselves available. Hey, why not? Fans of the show are good judges, considering the best of the celebrity guest judges were the ones who were clearly fans.
2. Speaking of Nigel, let’s talk about his producing style. While we can’t say we’ve ever produced a show and we can only imagine the numerous concerns involved, we get a little annoyed by Nigel’s heavy-handed pulling-the-puppet-strings style. While we admire that he’s always willing to try new things and some of those new things have really been excellent, the best producing is the kind that doesn’t draw attention to itself. Nigel keeps insisting on shoving the dancers and the show into this perfectly produced package. (Can we talk about how the judges kept the elimination after Top 10 and it was never acknowledged on the show? And how the girls were “beasts” slaying the boys THE WHOLE SEASON, probably to compensate for the Girl Slaughter of Season 7?) Melanie got dubbed America’s Favorite Dancer (by the judges) in the auditions and was never truly challenged or critiqued (by the judges) during the whole season. It could’ve cost Melanie the win she totally deserved if she hadn’t been so adorable and talented. We’re getting tired of Nigel deciding who’s going to win and then trying to make it so. Is it America’s Favorite Dancer or is it Nigel’s Favorite Dancer? Guess which show we’re not going to watch next season?
So how do we fix this, you might ask? John suggests that we need more charismatic dancers who are really good in one style and have to fight to conquer other styles (like Ivan and Russell, who won his season). Marianya says she misses seeing the dancers really challenged at the beginning of the show. Fans of SYTYCD love watching the unexpected partnership and the unexpected dancer struggle and then achieve, making themselves our favorites in the process.
Margaret: Part of what makes those first few weeks so interesting, besides watching partnerships that we really hook into (Melanie & Marko) is wondering how other dancers would work together. If Kayla & Max/Ashley & Kupono hadn’t been in the bottom during week 2 of season 5, Max & Ashley may not have been eliminated at the same time and we wouldn’t have gotten to see the surprisingly great partnership of Kayla & Kupono—which means we wouldn’t have gotten “Addiction” and it’s rated as one of the best numbers the show has ever had, rightly so.
So one way to fix this would be to go back to SYTYCD’s roots. We’ve had some of the most technically gifted dancers the last three seasons and sometimes we could hardly bring ourselves to care because while there was nothing “wrong” with a dancer or a routine, we just couldn’t get excited. This might mean more bad routines and bad dancing but will make us so grateful again for the truly transcendent moments. Which brings us to…
3. We need diversity in dance styles and choreographers. Doreana Sanchez is not the only person choreographing disco routines and Nakul dev Mahajan is not the only Bollywood choreographer. Go to Canada if you don’t believe me. What would happen if there were only one contemporary routine on any given show or maybe only one contemporary routine every few weeks? What if we HAD to depend on Afro Jazz, House, all of the Ballroom styles, Bollywood, Pas de Deux , etc. to fill in the episode?
And for diversity, we don’t even have to look any further than the other SYTYCD franchises. Canada and UK have phenomenal choreographers (and dancers!), as did Australia. Those are just the English-speaking franchises. What wonderful choreographers could we find if the producers imported from the Ukraine SYTYCD or the Turkish or Polish versions?
4. And speaking of one big happy family, why not create another Fall show, but make it different, perhaps a shorter super competition? What if we had SYTYCD SuperStars and all of the previous contestants from ALL of the franchises were eligible to come back and compete for the “World’s Favorite Dancer” title? Maybe this show is 2 episodes a week for only 4 weeks, just to make it special and so that it might not overlap with the World Series again? Dancers featured on SYTYCD don’t have a potential “product” like American Idol singers do when they release a cd, so anytime the producers can create a vehicle for these dancers that doesn’t overshadow the current cast, they’re helping create more of a career and presence for the dancers. The great thing about this idea is that it totally supports this next point…
5. Ditch the musical guests. Or ditch about 90% of them. Keep the 10% that are willing to use SYTYCD dancers for backup dancers (including the current cast! didn’t that happen one season?). Maybe the musical performances bring in money, or maybe you producers only think they do. The reality is, they usually suck and I’m only watching the dancers anyway. It’s like, on Dancing with the Stars, the ONLY reason I watch the musical performances is to catch the dancing that happens at the same time. I would MUCH RATHER see dance performances. It’d be a good time to show us alumni dancers re-dancing their iconic numbers as much more evolved dancers (think Kent and LoFro doing the prom number – it was only 8 months later and they’d already become such different dancers). Bring in performers from all the other SYTYCD franchises, like you did with UK’s recent winner Matt Flint. Pairing him with the all-too-soon-eliminated Nick and Jess in a tap routine that THEY choreographed? BRILLIANT. Easily one of the highlights of not just the finale, but of the season. Do it more. That’s the key to re-building your audience: when you do something we like, do it more. When you do something we don’t like, stop doing it.
6. Which means, bring back the smaller and more intimate stage. Season 8’s stage (or the camera work and lack of distracting backlights) was better than the Seasons 6 and 7 monstrosity, but only by a bit. Watching SYTYCD Canada reminds me of how amazing the original stage is and you really need to listen to us and bring it back. It was a big part of why we fell in love with the show and the Seasons 1-5 dancers. Do you know why? We were closer to them. There were more physical possibilities for the choreographers when it came to moving the dancers around the stage because it wasn’t a giant, uniform thing. When it comes down to it, the stage represents the entire SYTYCD producers vs SYTYCD audience disagreement. With this big uber stage (since S6), you are focusing on the package, the spectacle. The more intimate circle stage that we love and still mourn focuses on the dancers.
Margaret: I miss my stairs! There was something about the old stage and how it was round that made the dances feel like stories, not performances for an audience. We were able to get more closeups, feel the emotions, and the set was about enhancing the dancing, not enhancing the spectacle. My best example came from, oddly, the guy I think used the stage the best during his time with SYTYCD, Wade. With “Ruby Blue,” Brandon and Janette entered the story by popping up from behind a wall and coming down the stairs, and their ability to use the stage in that entrance played a major role in the believability of the movements. But, in Season 6, with the “inside Van Goh’s head” piece Wade did for Peter and Pauline, the ridiculous fractured painting that rotated and flipped on the projecting screen was super distracting and took away from what was actually a really well-danced piece, especially from Peter. It was a very cool routine and they danced it really well, but their technical success was overshadowed by the “overdoneness” of the set.
7. Instead of spending the money on the bigger stage and a lot of flash, we would rather that you spend the money to figure out how to release SYTYCD DVDs so we can re-watch our favorite seasons without resorting to YouTube and other means. There is a market for it, so figure it out. Whenever you focus on the dancers–current, alumni, International franchise dancers, whatever–you can’t go wrong with us. That’s the simple fact at the heart of the matter.
And now that we’ve critiqued you quite a lot, here’s a list of what we like and want you to keep.
1. The All-Stars – having them arrive at the Top 10 is the perfect marriage. Keep it up. Only, we want to see them re-dance their iconic routines and you missed a lot of opportunities to do this during Season 8. Fix that.
Margaret: Not only does this give us the chance to see dancers we love again, but use this as a way to plug their success. Allison & Ivan were All-Stars in the same week, how were they not asked to dance together?! Same with Chelsie & Mark! Those are two of the most successful partnerships, and some of the best personalities, the show has ever had, be proud of that, they are SYTYCD success to the highest degree.
2. The Meet the Top 20 performance – sheer genius. It’s been a highlight of each season you’ve done it. Especially since we get to see the dancers twice on the live show before anyone’s eliminated. Keep that.
3. We like the dancers you pick! We just want you to cut back on the contemporary/jazz and pick some dancers with different backgrounds. We want them to be challenged more and truly judged, all of them and fairly. And clearly they’re talented, because they’re going on to dance in movies, commercials, music videos, music tours, Broadway shows, Glee and DWTS.
Margaret: We also love underdogs, they’re fun to root for. Give us more Tads, Russells, Dominics, Jeanines, Evans, Nicks, even Lauren Froderman floundered her 1st week and was in danger of going home!
4. Cat is the one thing most of us can agree on. She smooths over the awkward moments and she uses her great sense of humor to keep things rolling. I love it when she gets to pick dances for the finale show.
Remember, no matter what, we love the show. We only want to like it again.
Sincerely (and xoxo),
SYTYCD Fans/PureSYTYCD writers
P.S. Sorry this is a little long – clearly we had a lot to say.
i totally agree with most everything. mostly, i miss them doing the dances from previous seasons in the finale! the past couple seasons have been so “bleh” i didn’t really care who won, honestly, cuz i didn’t really like them. nigel needs to take a break. i’m so sick of his pompous-ness. i do like them doing the highlights of the season, but what about the previous ones?! that was the only reason i watched the finale, was to watch those. only they didn’t do it this season.
and yes. no more katie holmes. that was annoying.
I like Mia as a judge.. her comments are insightful and have depth. It would be great to see her on the judging panel more.
Nothing to add; I agree with all above!
I love the show; it has been like one of four things my life has been about (for good and bad reasons) for the last couple of years.
Oh, and thumbs up for this site too! I rarely comment but love to read it!
The stage is the biggest problem with the show. It has created a physical divide between performer and viewer and it sucks. Everything has been done to make it appear smaller, but the audience is still too far away than we were trained to like in the first few seasons. The current stage is like watching the show in a diorama, I only see it from one side. Bring back the original set and studio. So much better and immersive.
This stage also leads to stupid camera movements that either A) don’t show the feet of the performer B) rock back and forth and make me want to puke or C) cut at the wrong moment and cause a much more disjointed product that we see in our living rooms.
I like Nigel’s commentary. Most times I think he is the only one who has a clue of what he is talking about. Most of the guests are too nice and don’t accurately critique the performance.
In my opinion, the all-stars hamper the likability of the current cast. If Kathryn is dancing, I don’t really give a crap what clod she is paired with. She is going to make him look good. I enjoy seeing her (and other favorites) again, but it makes me care about the rest of the current cast that much less. Using them so heavily (even starting at 10 dancers left) hampers future viewership in my opinion. I don’t care that much when a new season comes on because my investment in that upcoming cast isn’t going to be as deep.
Why not have an all all-star season that gives them a chance at redemption? Or only feature our favorite past acts every week? But let the contestants prove themselves with other contestants?
Anyway, I haven’t read much about SYTYCD stage issues and was excited to seem them here. I hate that studio and hate that monstrosity. Burn that place to the ground so they can justify going back to their old studio.
I’d also like to see a feature segment showing “Where are they now?” That’d be a great addition.
I agree with most of what you said. I think the stage this season was so much better than the last few that it didn’t really bother me. I loved having all-stars for the top ten because we still got the parterships we love but the all-stars really bring out the best in the dancers. Kaitlyn (Caitlyn?) was bound to dance better ballroom with Pasha than anyone else just because he leads so well. I also agree with rotating judges. The one thing I would be careful with is adding more diversity with the dancers. I really think they try but the contemporary dancers are generally better trained so they excel more in Vegas. I love when dancers like Russell and Tadd do well, but more often than not dancers with a different background don’t dance as well in other genres. It doesn’t seem fair to truly talented dancers to not get picked because they are not diverse enough and it isn’t fair to their partners to be paired with someone weak that might have a great solo. Just a thought.
I agree that the stage needs to be changed back to the original and that DVDs need to be released!!! i have wanted my favorite seasons on dvd ever since they finished, but now i have to go on youtube and watch my favorite routines. I know that many people would by the dvds and i think they would be a great addition. Also i wouldn’t mind if they got rid of the allstars. I think that the seasons without them were still amazing and that great routines can be produced without them. As much as i love seeing my favorite past contestants, i wouldn’t mind because i could connect with the new contestants
agree with mostly everything, BUT…
i am SO sick of people saying melanie had the odds towards her since the very beginning. reality is, people, she WAS the best dancer, and she CAN do pretty much anything! if the judges were to critique way more on her dances, they might have accidentally voted off the best dancer!
nigel so needs to go. anyone else notice he usually repeats what mary says? love mary. bring mia back. bring jtf and nph back.
agree with the girl beasts slaying the guys thing. they did the same on SYTYCDC on monday and i hated it. i feel like nigel screwed over tadd’s and especially marko’s chances of making it anywhere near the top 2 when in the finale he said a girl would win.
DVDs!!! PLEASE~ i know i will buy as many as come out! their marketing person should be seizing this oppurtunity- all they have to do is look at how many views there are on youtube for SYTYCDs.
@Maddy, about Melanie having the odds to win, I actually agree with you. Her talent and personality and her partnering speak for themselves. I think what people questioned is whether the judges critiqued her enough. However, I don’t think it would have mattered either way, people latched on to her, and that’s why she won. We connected with her on every level, same with Marko. That’s why they made it to the finals as a couple. Even in weeks where their dances were a little WTF (Ray Leeper’s jazz number about the dueling families is the best example) it was their dancing, partnership and commitment that kept us voting for them.
My personal issue was with the blatant “the girls are slaying the guys” theme this season. Nigel’s “inability” to decide who was his favorite, Melanie or Sasha, really began to get on my nerves. I may be in the minority, but I never connected to Sasha. I connected to her dancing, especially with Kent, Twitch & in her “That’s Life” piece with Alexander, but I never connected to her.
I agree with almost all of this letter.
The only thing is that I agree with Mark above on the All-stars. Sometimes they are used well, but quite often they distract from the contestants. Also, they provide a band-aid for the lack of diversity in styles among the contestants.
I disagree about most what you said about Nigel. His critiques as usually very solid even when I don’t agree with him. He does need to be careful of favoritism and trying to push his opinion onto the audience. I disagree with the comment (Maddy) that he follows Mary because they alternate what side of the table they start at so no one can do that.
Mary is the one I find rather useless, especially on Canadian version. All she does is scream and complement unless there’s obvious error or its her style. The screaming is so annoying.
On Canadian version all the judges need to critique as well complement. They’re doing tough number and they are not all doing it perfectly. Tell us and them what could be improved.
@Ellie, I do think what you’re saying is true. Nigel’s critiques are usually quite solid, my problem is that I often have trouble taking him seriously, especially with how much favoritism he showed this past season. Poor Marko and Tadd worked their tails off to get as far as they did, and to be told point blank “yeah, there’s no chance you’re going to win,” that had to sting. This is AMERICA’S choice, not Nigel’s choice, and I think he’s developed the tendency to forget that sometimes.
Nice letter. This has been my favorite show on TV, but I didn’t find myself that excited by this season and I’ve wondered why. I think the things you put in your letter sum them up well.
@Everyone: Thanks for your feedback!