Starting with tonight’s first live performance episode, fans will have a new way of voting for their favorite dancers.
Zap2it reports the dance competition show has borrowed fellow Fox hit American Idol‘s successful “SuperVote” method for itself, enabling fans to cast 20 votes at once.
The “SuperVote” system allows fans to allocate 20 votes however they would like between the top 20 contestants as they watch the show, and then cast the votes all at once as soon as the voting window is opened. It’s quite a time saver for fans that are used to fighting busy signals as they try to call in 20 different times.
American Idol tested out the “SuperVote” this past season, with generally positive results.
There are four different ways for SYTYCD fans to cast their votes: online, through the FOX NOW app, text messaging, and toll-free calling.
There is one catch: Online and FOX NOW app voting is done using your Facebook account, and only 20 votes (combined, between the SYTYCD website and the FOX NOW app) can be made per account. However, you can cast your votes via text and phone as many times as you want.
Voting opens at the end of the broadcast, and will be open for two hours following the show.
While some question the validity of the new voting system, and fans’ ability to rig it in a certain contestant’s favor, the show’s producers and its independent vote management company are doing everything in their power to see that this doesn’t happen, even going so far as to remove votes they feel have been cast in a suspiciously large block.
We met the top 20 contestants last week. The top 10 girls are: Brittany Cherry, Makenzie Dustman, Hayley Erbert, Jasmine Harper, Jenna Johnson, Alexis Juliano, Jasmine Mason, Malece Miller, Mariah Spears and Amy Yakima.
The top 10 guys are: Alan Bersten, “BluPrint,” “Fik-Shun,” Carlos Garland, Nico Greetham, Curtis Holland, Paul Karmiryan, Tucker Knox, Aaron Turner and Jade Zuberi.
Tonight the top 20 will be paired into 10 couples to perform for America’s votes, both “Super” and otherwise, for the first time this season.