S18.E10: The Finale

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After a challenging season, the final three dancers face off in their pursuit of the $100,000 grand prize and one will be named the season 18 winner of So You Think You Can Dance. In the exciting season finale, the top ten return and perform a group number choreographed by Luther Brown, and the final three each select someone from the top ten to perform with them in their final performance pieces. In addition to Luther Brown the choreographers for the final performance pieces from the top three include returning All-Star Kayla Radomski with Tucker Barkley, All-Star Ivan Koumaev with Diana Matos, and Talia Favia. Additionally, more All-Stars return alongside the top 10 as Natasha Bedingfield performs her iconic hit single "Unwritten," including fan favorites Season 17 winner Alexis Warr, Season 16 winner Bailey Munoz, Alex Wong, and Jasmine Harper. Who will have what it takes to win $100,000 and be crowned the winner of So You Think You Can Dance? Tune into the all-new season finale "The Finale" episode of So You Think You Can Dance airing Monday, May 20 (9:02 - 10:00 ET/PT) on FOX.

Braylon was cut way too early.

They got rid of Madison….why? For the romance? Sigh. I really enjoyed her most. 

They really don’t seem to have any interest in finding the best dancers this season…or at least they aren’t looking to reward the best dancers. 

How on earth is Madison third place?! 

7 minutes ago, jewel21 said:

How on earth is Madison third place?! 

Because she didn’t have a ‘love’ story or a ‘long lost dad’ story?

All the goodwill gained from the nostalgia fest... lost the second Madison came in third. I was so happy til that point. If I understand correctly, she was cut because she didn't grow and was never in the bottom three. Even Dakayla was better than Anthony. I don't understand, I'm sure I never will.

Anthony would have been my third choice. The two women should have been in the final two with Madison winning. What a bunch of malarkey.

Let me translate what Jojo said: Dakayla- you were in the bottom a bunch, but then we realized we could play up a bs love story so now you’re a top dancer.

As for the group dance with the all stars, it reinforced my opinion that Jaylin had no business being in this competition. He looks like most of the kids you see on TikTok to me. Absolutely nothing about his dancing stands out aside from his over the top mugging.

What an absolute waste of a season. I used to love this show.

I would have cut Anthony and have the two women be the top two. Dakayla got a Talia Favia and Easton. She was going through. I thought Madison did better with her duet. I actually thought Mariyah moved better than Anthony in their duet. 

Also it just seems so inauthentic that the romantic couple become the two finalists.  It would have been surprising and interesting to dump Anthony for Madison. 

To me, Madison should have won.  It seems to me like Easton was set free for his new gig, and Madison was set free from having to do a solo with all the injuries hanging over her.  I really don't like it when selection and deselection is clearly set by production narratives.

A bit of a reunion tonight.  It was so good seeing the old dancers: Ivan, Kayla and Tucker, Alex, Jasmine, Bailey, and Alexis.  Dakayla and Anthony have pretty much been one and two for me all season based on their solos so I wasn’t disappointed in the final two.  However, I would have given the win to Dakayla because she’s a little more diverse in movement imo.  Overall, I enjoyed the finale.

After watching the performances this season, my final two would've been Easton and Madison, with Madison winning at the end.  Maybe they should've started a showmance to get to the end.

I haven't watched since the third challenge but only checked here out of mild interest to see who won.  At that time I posted this:

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I originally figured Madison and Easton would be the final 2, but considering how scripted this is I’m thinking they’ll be pushing the Dakayla/Anthony romance for F2. 

Yep.  Not a competition but a reality show.

In what world is Anthony superior to Easton?

I previously said that I would have cut Anthony based on the duets and Mariyah was the better mover in their piece. To be fair, while it was nice to see Ivan, I think Anthony was at a disadvantage in this case in regards to style. Madison was assigned jazz funk while Dakayla got contemporary with Talia. Anthony would have done better with contemporary. For the Ivan duet, IMHO Anthony did it justice more than Easton would have. Mariyah would have also looked better than Easton in this piece. Of course, Easton is better at contemporary than Anthony but that wasn't the style assigned.

From the final two, I would have picked Dakayla over Anthony. It's nice to see a powerful female dancer that can hold her own when it comes to tricks/strength moves with the males. But Madison would have been the winner for me. Too bad, she didn't have a love story.

Of the Final Four, before last week I would have thought the season would have ended the complete inverse of how it actually did.

Then they bounced Madison and after Dakayla’s solo I was like oh she won for sure.

So Anthony is the winner.  Huh.

Madison in third place? BS!!!! She is clearly the more polished dancer.......... crisp lines and precise movement. And she finished this competition injured!

16 hours ago, rlc said:

Let me translate what Jojo said: Dakayla- you were in the bottom a bunch, but then we realized we could play up a bs love story so now you’re a top dancer.

As for the group dance with the all stars, it reinforced my opinion that Jaylin had no business being in this competition. He looks like most of the kids you see on TikTok to me. Absolutely nothing about his dancing stands out aside from his over the top mugging.

What an absolute waste of a season. I used to love this show.

Absolutely agree about Jaylin. He had no business in the top 10.

8 hours ago, tv echo said:

After watching the performances this season, my final two would've been Easton and Madison, with Madison winning at the end.  Maybe they should've started a showmance to get to the end.

Exactly this with the exception of the showmance part.

I enjoyed watching Madison dance more than any of these top 10. Side by side comparisons of the dancers performing the same choreography should have certainly given Madison the win. She blew away her competition. What is with these judges? or shall I say TPTB????

A formula for disaster.I told hubby at commercial break Madison has got jobbed. Put her in a distracting ugly costume and give her Jazz Funk and watch her get eliminated. Hubby was annoyed I could be so negative, to which  I said I know how the manipulation works and I'm just setting it up so I'm not so disappointed when they give her the boot. Once the kicking was complete I turned the channel because I wasn't interested in finding out who won. I'm not surprised they picked the least talented of the bunch because it was a good story? This is how a show ends. 

It’s fitting that the very first episode (and duet) I saw of SYTYCD was Season 2’s Alexandra and Jason dancing to “Unwritten” (choreographed by Tyce Diorio). 

Natasha Bedingfield saw me in; chances are she just saw me out.

Well I forgot this was on and haven't watched yet. Have already seen spoilers so know who won. Don't really care that I haven't watched it yet or that I already know who wins. Which is a bummer because I used to love this show. I'll still watch the finale and FF through 80% of it but if it comes back again and is still this format, I'm out for good.

Shitty end to a shitty season. Was never this little invested but all my hopes were dashed when I saw what a joke the auditions and top ten were.
 

Nevertheless, Madison was robbed. There were obviously preordained scripted storylines like the long lost father and showmace that took precedence. A whimpering finish to my once favorite summer staple. Sad.

22 hours ago, Andiethewestie said:

A formula for disaster.I told hubby at commercial break Madison has got jobbed. Put her in a distracting ugly costume and give her Jazz Funk and watch her get eliminated. Hubby was annoyed I could be so negative, to which  I said I know how the manipulation works and I'm just setting it up so I'm not so disappointed when they give her the boot. Once the kicking was complete I turned the channel because I wasn't interested in finding out who won. I'm not surprised they picked the least talented of the bunch because it was a good story? This is how a show ends. 

Jazz Funk has been an iconic dance for Mark Kanemura and Jenna Johnson. I was so hoping this genre would be just as iconic for Madison. Alas, it was not. Must say though....... Mark's choreography blew away the choreography for Madison. Sigh.

As a aside.......did you notice the big red lips in the back round of Madison's set for the Jazz Funk? That was certainly a "shout out" to Mark and Jenna's dance Jazz Funk dance. I noticed that immediately.

15 hours ago, ww92 said:

Well I forgot this was on and haven't watched yet. Have already seen spoilers so know who won. Don't really care that I haven't watched it yet or that I already know who wins. Which is a bummer because I used to love this show. I'll still watch the finale and FF through 80% of it but if it comes back again and is still this format, I'm out for good.

Even if this show comes back with this format, I'm still in. This show features dance and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE dance, even if there is no ballroom anymore. We did get just a touch of ballroom with Alexis and this season's ballroom guy dancing together. Oh well, hope it comes back in what ever form they want to give us. I'll take crumbs at this point.

I just don't understand the choices made by production over the course of this season to lead to this result.

Anthony was the one finalist with no real storyline. Even the showmance felt like it belonged more to Dakayla. We saw all the girls chatting about it which is how it was introduced. We didn't get the same level of his side of the relationship at all. The producers knew who was winning, why not edit Anthony to be a more prominent figure?

Why give so much time to Dakayla's personal life and Madison's injuries if neither of them was going to win? It's just such a strange choice. How did the judges even decide the winner? It was so unclear to me. 

And then on a more micro level, why bring back Ivan and not put Allison in that room? Why bring back past contestants to choreograph some of the finale dances but not the others? Why have two of the three finalists dancing in what is basically their style and have one way out of his comfort zone?

And what's crazy is the first half of the episode was great. It hit that nostalgic spot of what the show used to be. There was serious energy by having them dance in front of a live audience once again. Having them do duets really gave each contestant a chance to be noticed. There is still so much potential here and I just do not get what drove the choices that were made to get the blah ending.

2 hours ago, vibeology said:

I just don't understand the choices made by production over the course of this season to lead to this result.

Anthony was the one finalist with no real storyline. Even the showmance felt like it belonged more to Dakayla. We saw all the girls chatting about it which is how it was introduced. We didn't get the same level of his side of the relationship at all. The producers knew who was winning, why not edit Anthony to be a more prominent figure?

Why give so much time to Dakayla's personal life and Madison's injuries if neither of them was going to win? It's just such a strange choice. How did the judges even decide the winner? It was so unclear to me. 

And then on a more micro level, why bring back Ivan and not put Allison in that room? Why bring back past contestants to choreograph some of the finale dances but not the others? Why have two of the three finalists dancing in what is basically their style and have one way out of his comfort zone?

So many great points. 

Speaking of the judging, why the hell did Cat say it was the 'closest result ever' or whatever? Like it was literally just 3 people picking lol.

I remember Nigel saying they had the closest result ever for one of the old wins.  I reflected on how that actually MEANS something when you have the audience voting.  Totally meaningless in this format with these completely absent judges results.  At least world of dance (which I heartily loathed) had a score card.

Re: Anthony's non-story.  Anthony was given the most heartfelt speeches I have ever heard out of a contestant.  He had one for Dakayla and another one for his mum? on finals night.  Transparently meant to give him narrative.  Massive Fail.

19 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

So many great points. 

Speaking of the judging, why the hell did Cat say it was the 'closest result ever' or whatever? Like it was literally just 3 people picking lol.

I cannot believe Cat agreed to say that. Do the producers think the viewers are that dumb?

If I never, ever see Jojo Siwa on my television screen ever again, it will be too soon

I thought some of the dance challenges were pretty interesting. If only they could do a format that was a mashup of early rounds of live audience dancing in pairs and later doing some of those challenges. It felt too antiseptic this year

On 5/22/2024 at 4:24 PM, peachmangosteen said:

So many great points. 

Speaking of the judging, why the hell did Cat say it was the 'closest result ever' or whatever? Like it was literally just 3 people picking lol.

The closest it could be would be 2/1, which means the winner got 66% of the votes and the runner up got 33%. That's not very close.

On 5/23/2024 at 2:23 PM, DanaK said:

I thought some of the dance challenges were pretty interesting. If only they could do a format that was a mashup of early rounds of live audience dancing in pairs and later doing some of those challenges. It felt too antiseptic this year

Yes, I thought the same thing.  The idea of making a video or doing a commercial isn’t bad but they should have also incorporated more of the old format so it wasn’t such a huge shift. When they let the finalists pick someone to duet with I thought “This is what has been missing!!” They needed more partnerships and more styles of dancing. 

21 hours ago, desertflower said:

Yes, I thought the same thing.  The idea of making a video or doing a commercial isn’t bad but they should have also incorporated more of the old format so it wasn’t such a huge shift. When they let the finalists pick someone to duet with I thought “This is what has been missing!!” They needed more partnerships and more styles of dancing. 

But.....the partnerships did not involve partnering. All three of those dances could have been performed by two guys or two girls.

On 5/22/2024 at 1:36 PM, coffeebean said:

Must say though....... Mark's choreography blew away the choreography for Madison. Sigh.

in my opinion Jazz Funk is no man's land  on this show. Give me a funky Jazz like NeedYou Tonight where Bailey and Mariah tore it up with discernible Jazz elements.

 What Mark did with the K-Pop and then the Drag anthem to Call Me Mother has little resemblance to Jazz or Funk imho because Mark has such a unique movement but it was awesome because it was a completely new point of view. I would say he gave a definition to a kind club voguing style more than Jazz Funk.
 

What they did to Madison was a sad commentary on what they thought Jazz Funk should be. For me It was distracting not quirky costuming  and boring choreography which led to the boot and 3rd place. Imagine if she got the Contemporary piece? As much as I liked the choreography it felt it a tad clunky in sections, that I know Madison's line and extension would have smooth it out 

That's why I knew Madison was out. 

I really urks that they didn't take into consideration body of work. Madison is so much better than the top 2.

With all its faults, I wish I could watch another episode tonight. I liked when there were more dance shows list this, DWTS, WOD, etc. Now, I have to wait for DWTS in the fall. That also was cut down from two to one season per year. 

I like the idea of going to the old format for top twenty and then doing the challenges when it's top ten. And if they can't have everyone vote, at least have the audience vote like last season although I know there were complaints about that. Unfortunately, I don't see having a top 20 because that would require a longer season. I don't think they would spend money on that especially with the ratings.

I wish the showrunners would realize if you truncate the hell out of a unique reality show that had previously focussed on the struggle and joy of dance instead of romances real or imagined the show loses its soul. I remember Travis' first choreographed piece where Jason Glover just organically passionately kisses Jeanine Mason at the end because it felt right. It was a hugely exciting especially for the young demo who are in the ride with the performers., and it demonstared that dance can move the audience  and the oerformer in a profound way Jason was a beautiful contemporary dancer but was cut at top 8 so the show and and it's viewers were watching for dance, art for art sake instead of producers relentlessly thinking the romance angle is  giving the viewer what they want. What I want as a viewer is for the show to stop tweaking the format until it's  in recognizable 

Oh, they've been pushing showmances on this show for quite some time. That's not new at all imo.