A ‘Dance’ with fans and judges

The judges on “American Idol” may get booed a lot, but they often, and rightly so, hide behind the excuse that it’s the fans, not the judges, who make the controversial decisions that would keep less talented but oddly popular contestants on the show instead of more talented ones. It used to be the spark of the show, the “anything can happen!” aspect that kept the program from being little more than a glorified talent show. But then, fans caught on, and the last season was tinged with the feeling that they had broken through the fourth wall and could mess with the show and make it as fake as they wanted. It feels more and more like if the best man wins, it might just be a coincidence.

The results show on “So You Think You Can Dance,” like with most reality shows, feels at least twice as long as it needs to be, but the process is a refreshing change from other shows. Based on the performances Wednesday night, fans voted for their favorites, and each contestant among the bottom three couples had to dance individually, with the judges choosing one man and one woman from those six dancers to go home.

It seems only fair to the dancers, who bust their butts each night doing their tryouts, the intros and perhaps their individual dance. The first pair to be voted off, Ricky Palomino and Ashlee Langas, were voted/selected to leave the show. Ashlee’s suppressed tears during her elimination showed how hard contestants work on this show, and how much more it’s going to hurt as the series progresses.