Season Nine Finale

As per usual, the evening began with the judges picking their favorite routines of the season. I was wondering how deep they were going to have do dig for this one, considering how lackluster the season was as a whole, but I forgot that along the way there were actually some decent pieces. Not many, but some.... and some truly great ones didn't make the judges' favorites (Mia's fighting rams piece, Spencer Liff's shadow routine, etc.), and they allowed the dancers to pick favorites this year as well. Plus there were some new routines too...  oh, right, and they announced the winners.

Season Nine, Week Eight: Final Four Performances

We wrap up the lamest season ever of So You Think You Can Dance with a mostly boring assortment of lackluster dances. For the first time in the history of this show, I really couldn't care less who wins and can't wait for the season to be over.

Season Nine, Week Seven: Top Six Performances

Somehow we're already at the top four, and no one will be going home next week (which will be on Tuesday night) for the performance finale... so who got there, and how'd they do it? Time to cut.

Season Nine, Week Six: Top Eight Performances

There has been a lot of talk online this season about how the show has become almost unwatchable, and I can't help but agree to a certain extent. Between lackluster choreography, could-be-better dancers, a mish-mash new format,  and boring guest judges, the show is a shadow of its former self. This week took some good steps toward rectifying that by introducing some new blood to the show in new choreographers and bringing back one of the most personable judges from the past, Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Still an uneven episode, but with some great moments.... so let's get cutting.

Season Nine, Week Five: Top Ten Performances

I just have to start with a question: where do the producers find the guest judges? Last year they had Debbie Reynolds, Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris, Megan Mullally, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and other easily recognizable faces... this year we're getting obscure choreographers. I get last week's judges, because they are the focus of a spin-off show airing on Ovation network (A Chance to Dance, Fridays at 10:00... it's decent, you should check it out). And they had never seen the show before, so they were better equipped to give honest critiques of the redone Mia Michaels routines, since they had no frame of reference. But Benjamin Millepied (Natalie Portman's husband and baby daddy, as well as the choreographer/co-star of Black Swan) is strictly a ballet dancer... he's not going to draw in the audiences or give fun critiques the way someone like Cheno or NPH would. Just a slight gripe

Anyway, we're back to all stars! And this time they're actually people we like! Yay!

Season Nine, Week Four: Top Fourteen

Welcome back! And what better way to get us back into the swing of things than with the first ever episode dedicated to the work of one choreographer: the fantastic Mia Michaels? Dancers will be reinventing classic Mia routines and dancing an all-new group number. In theory, this is amazing. Who doesn't want to see these amazing pieces brought to life again? But in practice, it's tremendously unfair to these dancers because some of these dances are iconic and completely inextricable from their original performances. With that in mind, let's get started.

Season Nine, Week Three: Top Eighteen Performances/Elimination

Following a terrible episode last week and before going on a two-week hiatus, everyone tried to step up their game tonight on So You Think You Can Dance.

2012 Emmy Nominations

Congrats to So You Think You Can Dance, which was nominated for six Emmys today!

• Outstanding Reality - Competition Program
• Outstanding Host For A Reality or Reality-Competition Program (Cat Deeley)
• Outstanding Choreography (Stacey Tookey, Christopher Scott, Spencer Liff)
• Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series

Below are the dances nominated for Best Choreography; I wouldn't have chosen most of these, but that's just me (view the nominated routines after the jump!). I'm shocked that Sonya was not nominated, if only because she had such a breadth of work to submit that you'd think something would stick. But Christopher Scott got nominated over her, for God knows what reason. Travis Wall was also nominated in the same category but for work he did on Dancing with the Stars, and one-time guest choreographer Josh Bergasse was also nominated for his work on Smash.

I'm thrilled for Cat Deeley's second nomination; hopefully she'll take it this year since Survivor's Jeff Probst, who has won the award every year since it was introduced in 2008, was not nominated. But Cat is the most personable host on television, so I'm pulling for her.

Season Nine, Week Two: Top Twenty Performances/Elimination

Welcome to one of the most boring episodes of So You Think You Can Dance in memory!

There's a serious problem when the cast of Step Up Revolution, the fourth film in a series that was never very interesting or original and which has limped along for about six years without much fanfare, is better than your top twenty dancers in almost every respect: better energy, better performance, better choreography, better musicality, better presence, etc etc. So let's do some cutting!

Season Nine, Week One: Top Twenty Performances

Ok, let's talk about how the voting is going to work.

Tonight, people will vote for individual dancers, not couples. Next week, three boys and three girls will be in the bottom. But they will still learn a week's worth of choreography and perform next week. Then two boys and two girls will be eliminated at the end. What a fucking waste of these people's time.