I thought for sure Cecila was going home - that dress was FUGLY. And Bryce's hem was simply embarrassing. I think Julie went home more for a history of being on the bottom than for this specific challenge.

Because I’m me, and it was bugging me, I did some calculations for a blog post on this season of SYTYCD and it’s worse than I thought.

I looked at seasons 2-4 versus Season 8. I didn’t consider Season 1 because it started with only 8 couples, and they also used very different terms for the styles (contemporary and jazz didn’t exist but they had “lyrical” and “pop” and even “pop jazz”). Hilariously, Season 2 made a distinction between 70s and 80s disco. Also, I hadn’t realized there was 1 krump in all three of those early seasons.

I looked at the first 4 or 5 episodes for consistency (that’s when it starts to break down because of when they start doubling up dances). Seasons 2 and 3 went down evenly from 10 to 6 couples in five episodes, Season 4 started double dancing at 7 couples, and Season 8 at 6 couples (but season 8 also had the non-elimination so the number of dances doesn’t match as well).

Full breakdowns to follow, but check out the difference in the seasons when you look at broad categories.* Seasons 2-4 are pretty consistent, with 17 total ballroom dances, 10-14 contemporary, 8-10 hip hop, and 2-3 disco numbers. But, by season 8, while hip hop remains pretty consistent, there are only half as many ballroom dances as contemporary, and one could argue that most of the ballroom is pretty watered down.

Season 2 (5 Episodes, 40 dances)
Formal Ballroom (12)
Contemporary/Pop/Jazz/Broadway (10)
Hip Hop/Krump (10)
Other Ballroom (5)
Disco (3)

Season 3 (5 Episodes, 40 dances)
Formal Ballroom (13)
Contemporary/Pop/Jazz/Broadway (13)
Hip Hop/Krump (8)
Other Ballroom (4)
Disco (2)

Season 4 (4 Episodes, 41 dances)
Formal Ballroom (14)
Contemporary/Jazz/Broadway (13)
Hip Hop/Lyrical Hip Hop/Krump (8)
Other Ballroom (4)
Disco (2)

Season 8 (5 Episodes, 47 dances)
Contemporary/Jazz/Broadway (24)
Hip Hop/Lyrical Hip Hop (9)
Formal Ballroom (11)
Other Ballroom (1)
African Jazz (1)
Bollywood (1)

*For this purpose, I made a distinction between formal ballroom (the five Standard dances of foxtrot, quickstep, tango, Viennese waltz, and waltz as well as the five Latin dances of cha-cha, jive, paso doble, rumba, and samba) and other ballroom dances (which on SYTYCD includes Argentine tango, mambo, salsa, and West Coast swing). I counted disco and the hustle as a separate disco category.

Full Breakdown

Season 2 (5 Episodes = 40 dances)
Hip Hop 9
Contemporary 5
Disco 3
Pop 2
Broadway 2
Salsa 2
Cha-cha 2
Foxtrot 2
Viennese waltz 2
Waltz 1
Jive 1
Paso doble 1
Quickstep 1
Rumba 1
Samba 1
Argentine tango 1
Mambo 1
W.C. swing 1
Pop jazz 1
Krump 1

Season 3 (5 Episodes, 40 dances)
Hip Hop 7
Contemporary 5
Jazz 4
Broadway 3
Foxtrot 2
Jive 2
Smooth waltz 1
Viennese waltz 1
Waltz 1
Cha-cha 1
Paso doble 1
Quickstep 1
Rumba 1
Samba 1
Tango 1
Argentine tango 1
Mambo 1
Salsa 1
W.C. swing 1
Disco 1
Hustle 1
Krump 1
Pop jazz 1

Season 4 (4 Episodes, 41 dances)
Hip Hop 5
Contemporary 5
Jazz 5
Broadway 4
Lyrical hip hop 2
Foxtrot 2
Jive 2
Disco 2
Waltz 2
Viennese Waltz 1
Cha-cha 1
Paso Doble 1
Quickstep 1
Rumba 1
Samba 1
Tango 1
Argentine tango 1
Mambo 1
Salsa 1
W.C. swing 1
Krump 1

Season 8 (4 Episodes, 35 dances)
Contemporary 8
Jazz 7
Hip Hop 5
Broadway 3
Lyrical hip hop 2
Cha-cha 1
Foxtrot 1
Jive 1
Quickstep 1
Samba 1
Smooth waltz 1
Viennese waltz 1
Salsa 1
African jazz 1
Bollywood 1

Season 8 (5 Episodes, 47 dances)
Contemporary 10
Jazz 9
Hip Hop 6
Broadway 5
Lyrical hip hop 3
Cha-cha 2
Jive 2
Foxtrot 1
Quickstep 1
Samba 1
Smooth waltz 1
Viennese waltz 1
Salsa 1
African jazz 1
Bollywood 1
Paso doble 1
Tango 1

It just really makes me wish we could have seen Sasha and Melanie more challenged by dancing out of their style early on.

Wow, that is telling, isn't it?

I'm confused, because you have Season 8 listed twice.

Yes, once after 4 episodes, where each couple had one dance, and then once after 5, where they started dancing twice, that's where the Paso and Tango are finally added. I only did that because they don't match up exactly so I ran both numbers. The first set really emphasizes how ridiculous this season was, with 15/35 dances being contemporary or jazz. When you compare it to the variety of Season 3, it makes me sad.

Ah! Sorry, I'm tired today and all I saw was NUMBERS. But I'm glad you did that, and I agree. They need to shake it up, and get back to what they were doing earlier.

Unless ... their research showed contemporary and jazz brought in the most ratings.

In rewatching S6, I absolutely loved Jakob, but man, I still can't believe Ellenore didn't win. She was just phenomenal.

Does Dancing with the Stars do mostly ballroom? Are they trying to differentiate from that?

I think they maybe saw that the breakout stuff in seasons past was contemporary and maybe thought why not just add more? But I think it was breakout because there were more other styles to compare it to. Now I feel myself saying, "Oh, another angsty contemporary number, how novel."

ETA: God I loved Ellenore. Although Kathryn & Legacy were my favorite couple from that season.

SYTYCD: I think the issue with the all-stars is availability. I think we only got Mark this season because Gaga wanted to be on. What I'm hoping is that the dancers we don't get to see as all-stars are busy working somewhere.

PR: Ugh! this season is weird to me. I haven't been interested or excited by anything yet. I think Nina is the worst kind of person to design for.