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As someone who has followed So You Think You Can Dance ever since from Season 1 I have never seen a more absurd elimination concept on ANY reality competition shows I've had the chance to watch.
For a show that become higher in quality of dancers and choreographies but lower in ratings, the new elimination concept is a daft one to choose. It feels like they want to lose even more viewers. The show is probably nearing its cancellation so for them to choose such a concept of elimination seems way off. Let me tell you a little about this new elimination concept. I'm sure you'll agree with me as to how cruel it is.
Basically in the first week, top 20 dancers danced with their assigned partners for the first time. This was usual of course. The next week, as soon as the show started they did a top 20 number which was fantastic. But immediately after that bottom 3 guys and bottom 3 girls were announced. And after this announcement Nigel asked these dancers to dance for their lives. Up until this point it doesn't sound so bad and we as viewers can at least tolerate it but now it becomes even worse. When these dancers danced for their lives Nigel immediately calls out 1 guy and 1 girl to tell them that they are cut. Now comes the true cruel part: Nigel asks these dancers he cut to keep on dancing for the very same week to "support" their partners. Well excuse me but how can they dance with their partners knowing that it'll be their last dance ever? It could also affect their partners cause the dancers who are cut will lose all the motivation and focus to put their best out there. And this is completely natural.
This concept has to be altered if the producers want to keep their viewers. I see 3 viable options.
1. Deal with elimination at the END of the show after all the dancers have performed so this way the judges could also base their decisions on their performance with their partners.
2. Announce the bottom 6 dancers at the START of the show, but then ask for them to dance for their lives at the END of the show AFTER they have performed their routines with their partners. This way they could put more into their routine performance to impress the judges even more to save them.
3. Announce the bottom 6 dancers at the START of the show and then ask them to dance for their lives. Then WITHOUT announcing who will be leaving, let them do their routines with their partners and also decide according to those performances too. Again this way the bottom 6 dancers would be more motivated to save themselves and give their best in their routines with their partners. I'd personally choose this option as I believe that it would encourage the viewer to watch till the very end, basically it'd add more tension to the show. Also if a dancer thought his/her solo was weak at the start, this way he/she would be aware of how important the routine performance is and then perform accordingly.
Who knows maybe when bottom 6 dancers are announced at the start of the show, maybe we will see some more magical routines that otherwise would have been a disaster.
This concept has to be altered if the producers want to keep their viewers. I see 3 viable options.
1. Deal with elimination at the END of the show after all the dancers have performed so this way the judges could also base their decisions on their performance with their partners.
2. Announce the bottom 6 dancers at the START of the show, but then ask for them to dance for their lives at the END of the show AFTER they have performed their routines with their partners. This way they could put more into their routine performance to impress the judges even more to save them.
3. Announce the bottom 6 dancers at the START of the show and then ask them to dance for their lives. Then WITHOUT announcing who will be leaving, let them do their routines with their partners and also decide according to those performances too. Again this way the bottom 6 dancers would be more motivated to save themselves and give their best in their routines with their partners. I'd personally choose this option as I believe that it would encourage the viewer to watch till the very end, basically it'd add more tension to the show. Also if a dancer thought his/her solo was weak at the start, this way he/she would be aware of how important the routine performance is and then perform accordingly.
Who knows maybe when bottom 6 dancers are announced at the start of the show, maybe we will see some more magical routines that otherwise would have been a disaster.
On a side note, as much as I like animation genre and Jade, I strongly believe that Carlos should not have been cut. His performance in his very first week was almost impeccable and despite what Nigel said I loved Carlos' solo. As for Jade; however, what he did was not "dance for your life" at all. It seemed like he was giving a workshop on how to do waves. I expected so much more from his solo, so when I saw how weak it was I got angry and couldn't understand why the judges decided to keep him considering that his first week performance was below average. Don't ever forget last season's finalist Cyrus' solos. They always had that wow factor and never stopped to impress the judges as well as the viewers.
As to which couple I thought was best this week was Hip-Hop dancer Fik-Shun and Contemporary dancer Amy. Their Hip-Hop routine was beautifully choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon as always. I've never seen a so so routine from these two highly talented choreographers. Fik-Shun and Amy also did this routine justice. It could be expected of Fik-Shun but Amy was just as good! She did a fantastic job of keeping up with him. You can watch the full performance including the judges' comments below.
I strongly believe that Fik-Shun will at least make it all the way to the finale if not win the whole competition. He has definitely got the personality for it, he's brilliant at his genre. We also saw that he's brilliant in other genres like contemporary (Who could forgot last week's performance?) as well as other genres he was asked to dance in Vegas week. If I had a chance to vote in my country, I'd give all my 20 votes to him.
What do you think about this new elimination concept? What kind of changes do you think would make it better for the show and more dancer friendly? And what was your favourite routine? Please feel free to share your opinions.
I completely agree with you, this system makes no sense at all as it gives no motivation to the person who has already lost and his/her performance will affect surely the performance of his or her partner.
ReplyDeleteEliminated ones should leave at the same day and the new pair reformed automatically for the next show.
Thanks Nikos, I hope Fox is going to realise what a huge mistake they have made and change this concept.
ReplyDeleteI understand that due to low ratings they can't have a second day to do elimination round but that doesn't mean the system can't be altered to function on only 1 day of air time.