SYTYCD: TOP 20

The new intro is awesome and the cast looks pretty awesome as well. We definitely have more characters like we did in season 4, and I'm hoping for a more entertaining back story this time around. Of course there are a bunch of questions I have after watching that final callback show. I'm not sure I'm going to like having all of the shows on the big stage, but we'll see how it goes. They need to some how loosen it up so it's not so formal and put in the bull pen somewhere so the other dancers can somewhere to go during results shows so we can observe their behavior. Yes, these are my competition-show-watching priorities. Moving on.. let's talk about Top 20.

Nathan Trasoras: Small child. I don't have that many opinions on him, except that he'll probably be paired with Mollee if we're looking at putting similar people together. Remember when a bunch of couples looked like each other last season? Yeah.

Kathryn McCormick: Omg will she shut up? I already hate her. Maybe she'll go away soon, or she'll be paired with someone awesome like Russell and we'll have to suffer through her every episode until she's finally eliminated way too late. Sound familiar?

Channing Cooke: Meh. She's very blonde. No personality resemblance to Chelsie, though. Moving on..

Ariana DeBose: I don't know much about her and I feel like they're holding back on her for whatever reason. Oh, right, they had a soap opera to film for this episode. We'll see who they pair her up with.

Ellenore Scott: She's very pretty, but I don't know that much about her. There's something Chelsea Traille about her hair.

Billy Bell: He's one of the ones who knows Jeanine, so not that surprising that he made it. Well, he's also amazing.

Russell Ferguson: I <3 Russell. They really sold him during Vegas week.. that was amazing what he did. He also seems like such a sweet guy. Like he means well, is very pleasant, and tries hard. That's really all you could ask for.

Kevin Hunte: I think he's too reserved and kind of closed off compared to Russell and Legacy. I don't see him drawing in enough fans to make it as far as perhaps he deserves, but judging by his technique during Vegas, there's a chance he could get through based on his skill. Imagine that..

Bianca Revels: Not a surprise. I have mixed feelings on Bianca. Biyanka, actually.. that's what Nigel and Cat call her. She's definitely got the personality to make a season feel like season 4. I'm sure she'll stick around for awhile.

Phillip Attmore: I don't really know.. they made him look like an ass and then took him anyway, so either he's an ass or they're trying to create dimension.

Peter Sabasino: I loved his reveal. He's the guy who goes in and you're like, what are his chances now, really? It would be the same if you sent in a string of hip hop dancers or a string of ballroom. Really, what are the chances? So when he came back for his reveal, that was probably the most exciting one of the episode.

Victor Smalley: I wonder if he has a jet-pack. I have a student with the same name and he has a jet-pack.

Jakob Karr: This is another one who's friends with Jeanine. Interesting they appear the season after her.. might be an age thing.

Mollee Gray: You mean small child? She's such a little kid. If I were to call a pair, I'd call her and Nathan. But I guess it depends on height. Whoever's the shortest guy is almost guaranteed to be with Pauline. I can see Mollee either mellowing out when the show starts or driving everyone crazy all the time.

Pauline Mata: I've been a fan of Pauline since they rejected her at this stage last year. I'm glad she made it despite being broken and not able to finish. Ohh.. will she be paired with Legacy? Somehow I'm seeing that.. he seems to be one of the shorter ones. I don't know how I feel about that if it happens.

Noelle Marsh: I was sure she'd get cut, but what did I know, they had an even bigger soap opera saved for the end. I don't really think Noelle will stick around for much. She's already cast as Mollee's sidekick.. I guess it'll depend on who she's paired with, but they could set her up to be the next Paris of -and-Tony.

Legacy (Jonathan Perez): I had heard that Legacy didn't make it, so now that I see that he did, I don't know really.. He comes off smug and not that good at any other styles. Maybe he'll go away quickly. With someone like Russell who I can't imagine everybody doesn't already love, there's not that much room for another b-boy to wow us and steal our votes.

PVO: I want to include Paula because she did technically make it to the top 20. I love PVO. I think she's an amazing dancer and she's been around for awhile, so she's a sentimental favorite. Word on the street is she's going to be in the Christina Aguilera movie, Burlesque. She better be a named character with many lines, or I'll be sad that she gave up the chance to be on tv weekly for 2 months for a chance at a movie.

There are a few different scenarios of what happened with her that I'm running through. She may have called producers over the break between Vegas and the callback show and they insisted she still come to the callbacks because they needed her as a character on their soap opera. It's also possible she wanted to find out if they would have chosen her and didn't say anything to anyone. I highly doubt this though. It's also possible she just found out on that day and mentioned it to a producer, but since she was there, they had her stay. Whichever it was, they definitely used it for added drama to the show. Whatever. I wish we got more of the story, if there was more. I'll miss having PVO on the show.

Ryan Di Lello: I have no interest in him or his wife. I'm already tired of hearing about how difficult it is to dance with someone other than each other and how sad it is when one of them leaves. Blah. Blah. Moving on..

Karen Hauer: I don't really know much about her, but she was also part of a married couple on this show. Luckily her husband isn't on the show now, so hopefully she won't be insufferable. I was glad when she made it over Ashleigh.

Ashleigh Di Lello: I really don't think she's that good. Like really? We couldn't have called Amber back and told her she was now in? Oh, because that's not as good of a soap opera when the judges have to eat shit and take back what they said. It's much better when they make the husband cry because he feels bad that his wife was cut, and then have him jumping up and down when he finds out she's actually in. Right.

Let's take some guesses on the pairings. I think Legacy's the shortest boy, so I'll put him with Pauline, unfortunately for her. Nathan and Mollee. Jakob with Ariana. Victor and Ellenore. Hmm.. it's hard to tell their size from video. I wonder who they'll put Bianca with. That one is interesting to me. Billy? I don't know, if their bios come out before the first show, I'll make more guesses then.

The PR Empire

I usually have a lot of opinions when shows make big changes, but I'm not sure it really makes much of a difference to me now that PR is on Lifetime. Had it moved to Fox, I would've been concerned. Lifetime, however, has no other shows, so it can focus solely on PR. I thought I would blog since this is kind of the last time I'll probably have time to blog for awhile, considering I start teaching (3 preps) on Monday.

So I love how PR has turned into an empire. First we get this all-stars challenge, which is awesome, particularly because they brought back both interesting and talented contestants and crazy and ridiculous ones. I kind of loved it when Uli said, "Who's making pretty dresses?" and then paused and when nobody responded, she smiled like a little girl and raised her hand.

This is how Lifetime has changed PR: I'm pleased, actually, that not much has changed. It's basically the same show, so I don't have anything to complain about. However, I will say that Bravo is more "wacky characters" than Lifetime, which I've typically seen as taking itself a little too seriously sometimes. I think had this season been on Bravo, Ari Fish would've stayed for at least two more episodes to annoy us and Cristal or Qristel or whatever would've gone home. Right?

And I love how they came up with a show based off of what had just happened on the previous show. Models of the Runway? It's kind of like The Aftershow on mtv, except it was filled with even less substance. I do like that they're all picking models every episode like they did back in season 1. I don't seem any harm to it.. makes for a more interesting show, imo. Like remember when Zulema stole Tara from Nick and thus started the grand downfall of Nick as a contestant on PR2? Tara was one of the better models, if not the best that season. Once Zulema inevitably lost, since only the winning designer got a choice, Vosovic stuck with Rebecca and Tara went home way before she was ever supposed to. Yes, I do still remember these details about the models of season 2. It's the information that got stored in my brain instead of the information from CS106B and Statistics 116. Right.

Finale blog (with Best Moments from the season)

Last week on So the Inevitable Finally Happened: Melissa finally went away.

This week on So the Kodak Made the Finale Too Impersonal: The most boring finale they've had in the history of this show. I'm thrilled that Jeanine won and Brandon was second and the rest were the rest. That part was great. However, whoever planned this finale must have been different than whoever planned the past few finales. Last year's was amazing. They packed so much in. This year it seemed like ballroom after ballroom and not nearly close to as much dancing. It was also too formal and impersonal for my liking and it felt a little self-serving, like "look at our fantastic production of a show." I felt that it should have been dedicated to showcasing the dancers and it seemed more like it was showcasing the judges, the production of the whole thing, and the phenomenon that they like to say they've created. I don't want SYTYCD to be like Idol. I like the cozy summer season show. I don't want it to become a spectacle where it becomes overproduced. I was upset right away when they didn't even announce the returning dancers like they normally do in the finale.

And all the ballroom dances for judges' choice? We get it, Janette should've won. That's your fault, not ours. Stop showing us ballroom. They could've shown some of the amazing pieces Janette was in. Okay, I'm not saying that was their actual intention.. to shove the fact that we voted her off too soon. I actually think there's been complaints from the ballroom choreographers that they're overshadowed by the contemporary and hip hop pieces every year.

Okay, so I'm not just here to complain. There have been a lot of great moments from this season. And by great I mostly mean hilarious and ridiculous. I would like to count down my favorite moments from this season.

Favorite routine: Battlefield - This was an amazing piece, and by far my favorite of the season. I understand that since Laurieann is new to this season, she is left out of the judges' choices. However, that's not going to stop me from appreciating it. This came close to some of my favorite routines from past seasons. This season had a lot of intense and odd pieces. I kind of like just having a really well-choreographed routine without some extensive deep storyline. I thought it was amazing.

10) Randi becomes Melissa and is voted off - Okay, so enough talk about the actual dancing. It's the other stuff on this show that's hilarious. I think it's amazing that in Top 10 week, they turned Randi into Melissa with that wig, and then she was subsequently eliminated. Seriously, I watched the show on regular broadcast, so I wasn't skipping around. I saw the package before the piece where it showed Randi and Kupono, yet I was still confused when I saw this chick with long brown hair. It was too dark, thick, and fake to be Melissa's hair, but I still said out loud, "Why is Melissa there?" Then she was eliminated that week because nobody recognized her to vote for her and that's when I decided to weave conspiracies into the rest of the show. Another way to look at this, through my dislike of Melissa, which I'll go more into detail on later, is that viewers thought she was Melissa and that's why they didn't vote, rather than them not being able to recognize her and vote for her (Randi).

9) Kupono thinks he's Vitolio - This isn't really as funny unless it reminds you of another similar moment in season 2. So in elimination, Nigel says, "Vitolio step forward," and Kupono steps forward. By the way, I'm actually trying really hard to use all of their real names and because I'm doing that, I'm making sure to spell them all correctly. I haven't called Melissa "Grandma" once yet. I want an award for that. Anyway, this moment reminded me of when Nigel said, "Jessica step forward," and Ben stepped forward in season 2.

8) Jason's "bloody nose" - So Jason had lipstick on his face after the Bollywood routine and it kind of looked like a bloody nose, so I started to spin a story in my head. I'd like to pretend that he actually got a bloody nose when Janette punched him after he made out with two girls in the two routines that he did that night. The background story to this made up situation is that Janette and Jason are rumored to be dating. And that's all I need, is for it to be rumored. It's kind of odd, and they were coincidentally eliminated together, so I find it interesting and funny. What adds to the hilarity, though, is this blog I found somewhere that talked about the rumor of the two of them dating. In the comment section of that particular post, someone claiming to be Janette's brother completely denies that his sister and Jason are together. There's a bunch of exchanges where he tries to prove he's her brother, and someone else says they saw the two kissing, and Janette's brother says they're just friends, and someone else asks if they're friends that makeout. True or not, I find all the back-and-forth on the topic hilarious.

7) Nigel being creepy towards Jeanine - This isn't necessarily as funny as it is creepy, but the fact that it's creepy makes it funny to me. It really bothered me because she's only 18. If you want to make inappropriate comments about a female dancer and get away with it because you're in charge, do it to someone that's not so barely legal. Also, her mother is in the audience, why are you being so creepy? So what he said was, "You can't tie down talent," or something close, after the superhero girls routine in Top 6, clearly referring to Jeanine's outfit. Then, in the Top 4 show, he talked about wanting to "do it to her too." Gross, Nigel. Get away from her. What makes it funny, though, is in the very last moments of the finale show, everybody's hugging and we see Jeanine hugging Nigel and she says something, not on mic, which starts with, "I promise you I..." and I would like to think she said, "I promise you I won't sue you."

6) Cat calling Asuka "Oscar" ALL THE TIME - So I did not find Melissa's husband's sign funny at all: As Cat says, "It's Melisser".. although it is very much in line with what annoys me about Melissa. More on that later. I did, however, find it funny that everytime Cat said Asuka's name, I was like, "who's Oscar?" Because seriously, I was using so many awful nicknames during the first half of the season that I was never sure if a random name thrown out there was a person on the show that I referred to as something else.

5) Melissa finally leaves - Okay, so this one's more mean than funny, but I can't help it. I did not like Melissa on the show. And I do have actual reasons that are not, "her face annoyed me" or something like that. I found her condescending, self-congratulatory, and I thought she was given a lot of excuses by the judges and handed a lot of freebies. A lot of this was not from anything blatant she said or did, but a lot from the impression she gave off. So yes, I'm judging, but I'm not often wrong. And I'm not judging on first impressions, because I didn't mind her in the audition rounds. And no, she wasn't edited to look a certain way because it's impossible to edit someone's demeanor and expressions. Also, SYTYCD is not heavily edited to create characters like Survivor. It is very carefully cast instead. The best way to describe how she comes off as condescending is by the obscure reference I'm about to make. She gives these looks that remind me of Kathy Griffin's impression of Gwyneth Paltrow's condescension. She just seems to think very highly of herself. So when she finally left, much too late, I was happy to say the least.

4) Ellen - I've already explained previously why Ellen was a great addition to the panel. Sometimes the judges take themselves too seriously, so having her there balanced out Mia in that aspect.

3) Chelsie breaking the briefcase in Bleeding Love v.3 - So I realized what I said about Chelsie was wrong, when I compared her and Janette. I still think Janette had potential to go further in the show had the breast cancer piece not come at such a crucial time. However, I underestimated the importance of appearance on the show. Chelsie by far has had the most expressive face on this show. She's also had the most expressive hair. I am being completely serious. It really adds to her performances. Had she been on a different season, she could have easily won. Unfortunately, she was on the strongest season and suffered from what I call "overconfident fans," meaning when a contestant appears to be doing well, there will often be eliminations that happen all of a sudden because fans did not feel the need to save that person. It happens on all voting-based shows. Anyway, that has nothing to do with this third best moment. I love Bleeding Love and have watched all versions of it multiple times, so I will be able to describe the progression of the routines pretty well. So in the routine, Chelsie's supposed to kick the briefcase as Mark is going to pick it up. The first time, when it really counted, she nailed it. The second time, she stepped on it and then pushed it away with her foot. The third time, on this season's Top 6 results show, she stepped on it, tried to push it away, and instead it popped open from the bottom. So the handle part was still intact and she instead broke it and it opened from the wrong side. It's not an important detail to be making such a big deal about, but I thought is was hilarious when Mark carried it off stage at the end and I like to think of what would've happened if there had been stuff inside of the briefcase.

2) Ade moves boxes - Okay, so this has to do with Melissa again. I felt that throughout the show, particularly in the first half, she was given so many routines that played to her ballet strengths. At one point, it seemed like all she did each week was look elegant and be carried around by Ade. So KB and I were watching one night and we were like, you know, all Ade ever does is carry Melissa around while she looks elegant. So we thought they should just give Ade routines where he moved boxes around, because it would basically be the same thing. It could just be him and a bunch of boxes and that would be the show. And then Top 6 rolls around and he and Jeanine do a NappyTabs routine where they're actually moving boxes. So I thought is was hilarious, could not believe what I was seeing on stage, and that's why it's the second best moment of the season for me.

1) Jeanine thanks the Academy - I hated this finale. I found it to be insufferable and too formal and impersonal. However, the last few minutes where Cat was interviewing Jeanine were awesome and probably the best moment of the entire episode. That's the one change to this season's finale that I liked. I found the entire interview hilarious, from her thanking the academy to the way she thanked her lovely mother, to her list of her favorite things, to just her reaction in general. I am a fan of hers and I find her to be very genuine. I think she and her family are probably very nice and wonderful people in real life. I know the family is well off and she probably wasn't in the competition for the money, but more to prove something to herself. I think she deserves the title and I really appreciate the thought she put into all of her solos. I get the sense that Mrs. Mason in particular has worked really hard to get where she is today and I can see that she's instilled that ethic into Jeanine and I'm sure the other children as well. I know it seems like I'm saying a lot from very little that we saw on the show. I do a little research on the contestants, especially when I'm not sure what to make of them. This is based on Jeanine's preshow interview, one article I read on her, and just my general impression of her on the show. And I'm usually right about my impressions, and since this is a positive impression, I'm sure no one will mind me reaching a little. A lot can be said about the quality of the parents by the demeanor and behavior of the children. So because I have respect for how Jeanine carried herself throughout the competition, I have respect for her parents. The only reason I'm mentioning this is because my initial impression of her has changed during the show, and I like to acknowledge when my first impressions are wrong. Anyway, congratulations Jeanine, and thank you for all of your hard work.

WTF

It's like the world has been turned upside down. I blame Mia mostly, and also Nigel. Actually, it was the circumstances. I'm shocked. Really? Evan's the only one to never be in the bottom ever?

SYTYCD: Top 8

Last week on So Maybe it Wasn't a Mormon Conspiracy After All:

Randi and Capuccino left and it was about time. Jason came to life after getting over that disease he had for a few weeks.. that disease named Caitlin. I finally saw what the big deal was about Janette and Brandon after seeing them separated. And I decided that this year's Top 10 is nowhere compared to last year's. Maybe when we get to Top 6, they'll seem comparable, but I'm not holding my breath. Part of me feels like they're saving a lot of strong talent and personality for next season since it'll be up against other strong regular season shows. Just a hunch.

This week on So Who's the Moron Who Gave Mary a Train Whistle:

I'm not going to go through each dancer, I don't think. I have more to say about some than I do about others. First of all, what was the point of the first hour? Those routines were so boring. What is up with routines this season. This is part of the reason why this season isn't as strong as last season. I feel like there were so many more memorable and exceptional routines last season. I'm not a big fan of the ballroom overload. That's part of it. Also, I have a bone to pick with wardrobe.. it's been weird this season. Today I was fine with all the solo outfits.. OH except for Melissa's.. what the hell. I thought Jeanine looked great tonight. Although I loved the Travis routine last week, I was not a fan of what they had her wear. Janette also looked great during her solo. I'm starting to get the hype about her. And I'll say I have no problem with her winning. I get it.

Ellen. Okay, I wrote a list of topics I don't want to forget to cover. And I'm just going to leave them there like bullet points. First, let's talk about Ellen as a guest judge. I loved it. I was kind of afraid when I heard she was coming, but it's hard to really explain why. I love Ellen. I think she's hilarious and I like her brand of humor. I find her to be too wholesome on her show. And I understand she needs to appeal to as many people as possible to be as hugely successful as she is. However, I like the real Ellen. I think she has a lot of things she thinks in her head but never says on her show because she doesn't want to offend anyone. And that's fine. I respect how smart and savvy she is to become this successful. However, I was afraid she'd come on this show and.. I don't know.. be kind of boring? Like maybe she'd just say generic comments and compliment everyone? I'm so glad she came on and was just hilarious.

My Ellen highlights were 1) when she talked about helping Travis with wardrobe, 2) when she talked about being street, 3) when she kept saying "I can do that," 4) when she talked about the glass of wine she had, 5) when she stood up for Evan when they were critiquing his appearance instead of his dancing, and 6) when she was just honest about not being an expert and just happy to be there for a taping. Also, Mary often has nothing of value to say, and she goes on and on and on. Ellen wasn't pretending to have constructive criticism, so she kept it short and funny. She really added value to today's show. In fact, she was funniest during the boring first hour of the show. Had she not been there, I might have fallen asleep.

Janette v. Chelsie. So in light of this realization I've had of Janette's talent, I think I'd like to break it down and try to explain it. So first of all, I have to say I like Janette and Brandon so much more after they were split up because it's now so clear how strong each of them is individually. Now I get it. But let's talk Janette. I started realizing maybe week 3 or 4 how strong she was because I remember noticing something about how she strong she was in some routine. Vague, I know. Anyway, it's been a long time.. maybe never.. since I thought of a female ballroom dancer winning the show. Let's break it down. Janette is probably going to win. Here is why. She's a very strong dancer, in and out of her style. She's also pretty genuine in the way she carries herself. I don't think the personalities are that strong this season, but at least they're not faking it. I think she puts a lot of personality into her dancing. It's like she gives a lot of herself and I think that's what people appreciate about her.

So Janette v. Chelsie, and it's not like a battle or anything. They're both great, they're from different seasons and it's not like I'm saying one is better than the other. Chelsie's probably the female ballroom dancer that had the most potential to win before Janette came along. But during her season, I knew she wouldn't win. It was a combination of how she was portrayed and how strong the other dancers/personalities were on her season. I did think she'd be in the Top 4, though, so that was a surprise. By the way, I watched season 4 late, so I can't guarantee I would have felt the same about her had I watched it live and on time. With Janette, I get the sense that she can win.

The key difference between Chelsie and Janette is their training, I think. Janette has said that most of what does she learned from her family. While there's no doubt she's also had some professional training in order to get this good, I very much believe what she says. With Chelsie, it's clear that she's had a lot of professional training by some of the best ballroom experts. You can see it when she dances. It's something about being very precise.. her dancing just seems very refined. However, when I watch Chelsie, I see her formal training, and when I watch Janette, I see her passion. Like I said before, I feel like Janette puts a lot of herself into her dancing, and that would develop through learning informally from her family. I think for this reason, Janette has the potential to win. I believe Chelsie is technically the stronger dancer, but Janette is more likely to win a show like this. I think they're both great, regardless, though.

Brandon. Oh I want to talk about Jeanine too. That'll be next. I was kind of wary about Brandon when the season started because there was so much history with him. He'd been really close to making it last year. He and Natalie were apparently bffs because he couldn't handle it when she got cut (for no reason). He caused a rift between the judges when some really liked him and some didn't at all. So there was all this hype, all this anticipation. I so was not interested in any of it. So I don't think I really considered his dancing when forming my opinion of him. I just saw him as controversy and kind of wanted that to go away. I don't like that type of controversy.

Now that it's faded away, I'm able to look at him more objectively. Also, I wasn't too sure who was carrying whom between him and Janette, so I didn't know what to make of them never being in the bottom. When they were split up, though, I think I really liked knowing that they were both pretty equally strong. So anyway, now I appreciate him on the show and have no complaints.

Jeanine. It was nice to see her mom emotional over the Tyce piece. That was sweet. And her little sister looks so much like her. But let's talk about her dancing. I think if this was a solo show where they only performed solos.. besides the fact that it would be boring and have no appeal.. she would win hands down. Every solo that she has done has been so clearly planned out and well-choreographed. I like that she's very intentional about her solos. I think they have been so clearly the strongest, week after week. Again, I love that she's the Terin Humphrey of dance. I think that's great. I appreciate that she realizes that people tune in each week to see good dancing. She takes the time to make sure she's putting out her best effort. What can I say, I'm a fan.

Laurieann Gibson. She's never choreographed on this show yet, right? I really enjoyed that. She was kind of Jillian Michaels-esque in that intro video of their rehearsal. I usually like routines with some storyline, but she was upfront about there purposely not being one. And I think what she created was exactly what she said was intended. It focused on the dancing and the dancing was great.

Tyce. Tyce's routine was great. It's frustrating when I keep seeing "Melissa and Ade's second routine was so good." I want to be clear. Tyce's second routine was phenomenal. Sometimes the choreography makes dancers appear better than they really are. It was one of the best pieces this season. However, it does not make either of those dancers the best dancers of this season. I'm not trying to be vicious towards either of them, but I honestly believe they should both be in the bottom according to their abilities and what they've shown the rest of the season so far. Tyce is amazing. If he can save two dancers from the bottom by giving them amazing choreography, he'll have reached a new level of amazing. We will see tomorrow, I guess.

SYTYCD marketing at its best. So anyone that knows me knows that I like to take a very analytical look at reality tv. When I say I watch a lot of reality tv, I don't mean I stare at the tv screen blankly just to pass the time. I analyze the editing, the casting, the perception of "reality".. I like to make predictions and I'm usually correct. I'm a captive and active audience. Anyway, it's usually hard to delve too deeply into analysis of live performance- and vote-based shows. I kind of enjoy how there's been a different side to sytycd lately. I think this is what's kept me interested. There is something to say about the casting and the seasons are very interconnected.

This is what I mean. Have you noticed they never show them picking their styles anymore? We're supposed to believe it's random. I have no proof and I'm not even completely convinced myself, but there's been a lot of lucky draws this season. Also, unrelated, but what's the reason behind having them write their names on the cards instead of the normal printed versions? Budget cuts? Odd.

Now, I've been very clear about my disapproval of the doubling up of seasons. This is coming from someone who loves the show and wishes it was on all the time. However, I understand why it can't be on all the time, and I'm afraid bad things will happen now with the doubling up. There's no doubt it will be tougher to be on during the regular fall season. This will mean they will need to make their show more marketable and drama = marketability. What I mean is, this could quickly change from a show that we all grew to love with its quirks and turn into a show that is fighting a ratings war. Right now, I still find it to be an honest show. Good dancing wins out in the end and it's not just about who's more attractive or adorable that America wants to see entertain them. I do still honestly believe this. There are people who get cut too early, but I've yet to see a winner that didn't deserve it. And I don't want to see someone make it through who doesn't deserve it. I'm afraid it could happen if they mess with what works. I could be completely wrong, but I know I'm not wrong about fearing it.

With this doubling up of season comes the issue of casting. With the seasons so close together, we're not likely to see as much growth between the auditions like we do with a lot of the current contestants who've auditioned before. Because of this, there is no doubt the judges were casting for two seasons during this season's casting. Now, since next season is risky, being in the regular fall season, it is important to have a very strong cast then. I suspect that many of next seasons' cast was pretty much chosen before those auditions began. They have set up a lot of interesting stories. There's Natalie, of course, and we'll get to her. I find her case fascinating. We have Evan's brother, Ryan. We have Chbeeb's girlfriend, Arielle. Bianca (? the tap girl) said she wouldn't come back, but she could be compelling. There's this Asian chick I've seen a couple times. There are a lot of strong dancers that kind of slip through. Oh, there's Caitlin sister, Megan, too. That's a lot.

The Natalie case. So it pisses me off, the whole situation. I hate that they're using her for ratings and she's too sweet of a person to get pissed off and never show up again. It really killed me when she apologized for disappointing them when they cut her for no reason. There are two possibilities of what they're doing with her and I'm not sure which one is actually the case.

1) They're planning on having her on next season because everybody knows her. If you're a true fan of the show, you know who she is. People will be interested in supporting her and watching her progress in the show. She would be a great person to cast for this new season.

2) She's so well-known on the show that the judges realize that if they cast her, she could easily coast into the finale just based on her established fanbase. If this is the case, they may never cast her, which would be unfortunate, because it is clear that she's a wonderful person.

So we'll see which one it is. My hunch is they either made a deal with her to ensure she'll come back or they know she'll come back because she loves to dance and they want to use her desire to be on the show for the show's benefit.