Mary Murphy is coming back to So You Think You Can Dance 8 next summer, it’s been reported. She just finished up a season as judge of Canadian SYTYCD.
After Denys Drozdyuk, was crowned the winner at last night’s SYTYCD Canada finale, the queen of scream talked to reporters about some of the changes we can expect for SYTYCD 8:
“We’re probably going back to the way that we used to do it and they’re going to keep the all-stars as well, so they’re going to do half of the show the way it used to be done and the later half of the show with the all-stars. How that’s going to work out, exactly, I’m not sure yet because does that mean we increase the season if we start off with 20 dancers? Or we may be kicking more dancers off than one couple at a time. So it’ll be very interesting to see how that plays.”
“Everybody knew they had somebody that was a pro in that division, someone that they can go home and practice with and know that they know what they’re talking about, ” she says.
“When you get two different styles together and then they draw another style that they know nothing of, we’re all sitting at home and we’re sitting there as judges going, ‘Oh my gosh, this might be a train wreck!’ … But when they do it halfway good you’re like, all fired up over it. We didn’t have that this season.”
Murphy says she suspects audiences missed seeing dancers “really challenged” from the beginning, adding that “it makes for a bigger journey” when dancers pull off a new dance style without an expert’s help.
Last spring, series creator Nigel Lythgoe announced changes that included the introduction of SYTYCD all-stars to serve as partners for the contestants. The Top 20 was cut down to a Top 10 to accommodate the new pairings. Unfortunately, ratings took a hit this summer, sending Nigel back to retool.
I missed seeing the newbies dance together and either create magic…or not. Yet, I thought the all-stars helped the contestants up their game. Bringing back the Top 20 and introducing the all-stars at the Top10 would be the best of both worlds. What do you think?
