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The Individual Vote.
The format's biggest structural rule change yet — individual voting replaces fixed couples at the season's midpoint — reshapes how far range, not partnership, can carry a dancer.
A rhythm worth tracking.
Season five moves into a new CBS Studios soundstage — its last season on that stage — and reworks the format's biggest structural rule: once the field reaches the Top 10, couple-based voting gives way to individual voting, with partners reshuffled at random every week. Auditions sweep Brooklyn, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, Memphis, and Seattle before Vegas callbacks at Planet Hollywood. The season closes at the Kodak Theatre ahead of a forty-city tour.
The #01 slot.
Slot #01 of 18 in the So You Think You Can Dance Editor's Canon. Season five tops the canon because it changes the rule the format is built on and gets away with it clean. Once the field reaches the Top 10, couple-based voting gives way to individual voting, with partners reshuffled at random each week — suddenly a dancer's range matters more than the strength of a fixed partnership. A new CBS Studios soundstage, auditions across six new cities, and a Kodak Theatre finale round out a season that reads as the format at its most confident. Every structural choice here — the vote, the venue, the tour that follows — treats the show like it's already proven itself.
5 moments, no spoilers.
- Ep 1 · a new home stage
The show moves into a new CBS Studios soundstage for its live broadcasts, the last season it uses that venue.
- Ep 9 · the individual switch
Once the field reaches the Top 10, voting shifts from couples to individuals, with partners reshuffled at random each week from there.
- Ep 16 · the widened style list
Solo dancers now cross into styles their old partnership might never have reached, testing range over a fixed specialty.
- Ep 21 · the Kodak stage
The season's closing broadcasts move to the Kodak Theatre, a bigger stage than the show has used before.
- Ep 23 · the tour ahead
A post-season tour stretching to forty cities plus Toronto is set to follow the finale, the widest reach the format has had yet.