So You Think You Can Dance will alter the way they reveal the eliminated contestants, after receiving negative feedback from fans about the first live results episode of the season.
Last Tuesday saw season 10’s first two eliminated contestants: Carlos Garland and Brittany Cherry, eliminated at the beginning of the show. After learning of their elimination, they still had to dance their prepared routines, in support of their partners, Mariah Spears and Dorian “BluPrint” Hector, respectively, who are still in the competition.
Both Carlos and Brittany were good sports about it, and danced beautifully in their later routines, but the whole order of things left a bad taste in many fans’ mouths.
But starting with next week’s episode, the bottom six dancers will be revealed at the top of the show, with the judges making their final decision at the end. This way, the contestants in danger have a chance to show their stuff in the routine they’ve worked on all week. Presumably, they will also be dancing for their lives with solo performances as well.
This is not the first season of So You Think You Can Dance without a results show. The first season aired one episode a week, before changing to a two episode format: one performance show, followed by a results show, in keeping with other popular talent competition shows such as American Idol and The Voice.
Last season the format, changed back to one episode a week, with the results revealed at the end of the episode. However, producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe said they didn’t like to end the show on a down note, so they’d change up the format.
Lythgoe has been fielding negative fan response on Twitter, and likely elsewhere, over the last few days. Fortunately, they’ve taken the fans’ complaints to heart, and have decided to make a change. Lythgoe revealed the decision on his Twitter account:
We're taking your advice by revealing America's vote in the beginning and judging at the end. I hope it will inspire the bottom 4? Thank you
— Nigel Lythgoe (@dizzyfeet) July 5, 2013
It’s nice to see a show’s execs respond so quickly to fan response. It’s not always something we see often enough with other shows.