SYTYCD Season 9: How will voting work?

The major question that has been on everybody’s mind is: how is voting going to work for Season 9?

In the past seven seasons (excluding Season 1 since that was a one-episode per week season and I don’t remember how that season went)
– performances commenced on Wednesday evenings
– the public call in their votes for an hour or two after the end of the episode
– on Thursday evening we find out who are the Bottom Three couples
– the dancers of the Bottom Three couples are asked to “dance for their solo”
– judges choose who to let go

Since Season 9 is only going to have one episode per week as opposed to two, how is that going to affect the flow of the show. In a previous post I mentioned the possibility that So You Think You Can Dance may run in a similar vein as that of America’s Best Dance Crew.

According to the following interview between Nigel Lythgoe and DancePlug :

So what is going to happen is the following:
On Wednesday, July 11th
1: The Top 20 will have their first partnered performances
2: After the show the public will be allowed vote for the dancers that want to keep on the show. All the dancers will be voted individually as opposed as by pairs

Then on Wednesday, July 18th (in order)
1: The judges will announce who are the bottom three guys and bottom three girls at the top of the episodes
2: The dancers (including all the bottom guys and girls) will dance their partnered routines
3: The judges will decide who will leave the show… if the judges are still unsure they would ask the bottom three guys and/or bottom three girls
4: The voting public will be allowed to phone in their votes for the following episode

Rinse and repeat.

Not exactly confusing, but definitely different from what we are used to. What might be noticeably different is that the dancers do not appear to be dancing solos to prove that they should be considered to be kept on the show. I think a major reason that the “dance for your life” solos are eliminated is that because the bottom three guys and bottom three girls are already announced at the top of the episode they have their partnered routines to prove to the judges that they should stay on the show. To me that kind of makes sense as to why having a solo thereafter would almost be overkill. But that’s my opinion.