Written by Hannah Jones
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
“So You Think You Can Dance” came back last night for their 11th season. Each year, auditions for the show kick off the season. This year, they were held in Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, the audition episodes are an insane two hours long. Not many people actually have the time to sit down for that long just to watch a dance show episode, but it is a good background noise for when you’re doing homework. Some of the sob stories are a bit much, but those are easy to tune out.
What’s not quite so easy to tune out is Justin Bieber’s cocky voice. Season 11 is incorporating a new component to the show: Bieber and his choreographer Nick DeMoura have a small segment in each audition episode where they’ll introduce two dance crews. These crews are competing for an opportunity to dance on the “So You Think You Can Dance” stage during the finale. Viewers can tweet their favorite crews name to vote and at the end, they tally it all up.
A dance crew component isn’t the worst idea, but Bieber and DeMoura are. The two guys just sit in front of what looks to be a green screen of a back alley with graffiti and awkwardly talk into the camera while stroking each other’s egos. It’s all, “this guy’s really great — no, this guy’s really great.” It’s nauseating. And they have absolutely no real interaction with the two dance crews, who are previously recorded as well.
It’s too obvious that the Biebs and his choreographer – who really cares what his name is – are just reading from a prompter behind the camera. Why even bother with these guys? Why can’t Cat Deeley do it? Because they’re clearly struggling for ratings.
On April 28, Nigel Lythgoe, one of the show’s creators, tweeted, “This could possibly be the final series of #SYTYCD this year. Please ask your friends and families to support the show, great ratings help.” His next two tweets were similar, asking for more support for the show. That can’t be good.
So Bieber makes sense. He’s supposed to up ratings. Which he will, but not in the way true “SYTYCD” lovers will like. All of his little crazed, teeny-bopper fans will watch religiously for his cocky, better-than-thou face to appear in front of a bad green screen. They’re not watching for the insanely talented dancers that pour their souls out on the stage. These dancers deserve better than Bieber fans.
