When the brand new season of “So You Assume You Can Dance” premieres on March 4, will probably be with a bunch of modifications each on display screen and behind the scenes. Entrance of thoughts for a lot of would be the absence of the late Stephen “tWitch” Boss, who served on the judging panel final season after being a beloved competitor and All-Star in earlier seasons and whose loss of life was extensively purported to be an element within the present not returning in its typical summer season slot in 2023. Boss’ widow, “SYTYCD” All-Star Allison Holker, joins the new-but-familiar panel of judges for Season 18 alongside Maksim Chmerkovskiy of “Dancing with the Stars” fame and returning Season 17 choose JoJo Siwa. (Siwa changed Nigel Lythgoe on the panel after the chief producer stepped again from the present following allegations of sexual assault that have been filed by Paula Abdul and others.) All-Star Consolation Fedoke additionally joins the judging panel for auditions.
The judging panel shouldn’t be all that’s new. After the auditions spherical, 10 dancers will compete in challenges meant to replicate a contract commercial-dance profession, equivalent to performing in music movies, soccer halftime reveals, or Broadway numbers—a departure from dancing on a soundstage briefly routines of rotating kinds, the present’s signature. Fairly than audiences voting dwell for his or her favourite dancers (filming reportedly started in Atlanta, quite than in Los Angeles as in earlier years, in early December), eliminations shall be totally as much as the judges.
Maybe probably the most eyebrow-raising side of the present’s new format: Whereas in earlier seasons, quick, behind-the-scenes packages of rehearsal footage and interviews launched every routine, this season “viewers will get a documentary-style inside take a look at the contestants’ dynamics, following them all through the competitors as they undergo their private and aggressive journeys, together with the every day struggles, new relationships, persona clashes and extra,” in response to a launch. What is going to the seemingly extra “actuality TV” angle imply for the dancers on the present, and can the profitable competitor’s title nonetheless be “America’s Favourite Dancer” with voting seemingly out of the viewers’s palms? Followers must tune in on Fox (or the day after on Hulu) to seek out out.
