So You Think You Can Dance Makeover Failed

Andy Dehnart of Reality Blurred wrote his season review of So You Think You Can Dance.

I think I share Nigel Lythgoe's frustration why the ratings have suffered when on paper, the radical changes looked a like a good idea. I think it's injuries and the awful stage that made the "look" of the show unviewable for two seasons in a row.

The Reality Makeover That Failed (Daily Beast)

The season concludes this week, and looking back, it hasn’t gone well. Fox is aware that fans aren’t as thrilled as they once were. Last week, Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly told me that changes, like replacing one of the judges, “stir the passions of a very passionate audience.” Some of that audience has fled: While ratings are up from last fall, they have fallen compared to last summer. The penultimate results show last Thursday lost another 10 percent of its viewers for a season low.

A plague of injuries left the (arguably) most-popular dancer, Alex Wong, out for the season. Wong’s early exit just exacerbated and highlighted the other changes. All-stars sometimes out-danced their partners on a stage that, ever since its makeover last fall, continued to swallow the dancers in its giant ribs that reach from the floor to the rafters.

Lythgoe wasn’t made available for an interview for this story, but he admitted to the media after Thursday’s results show that there were too many changes. Lythgoe called the response “frustrating” and said “I want to get it right for the audience, but at the same time, I don’t want to let down dance, and this season the dance situation has really been tremendous.” He plans to revert back to the previous Top 20 format but still bring in all-stars once it’s down to 10.

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