Katee & Joshua: The Results Are In - Joshua Wins!

I'm out in Kansas City right now visiting my 92-year-old Aunt Ruth with mom and dad. Tonight, we had fun watching the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance. The final results of the season were as follows:

1. Joshua Allen
2. Stephen "Twitch" Boss
3. Katee Shean
4. Courtney Galiano

I was both surprised and disappointed to see Katee come in at #3. I thought she and Joshua both deserved the #1 and #2 spots. (That's not to take away anything from Twitch or Courtney -- both are superb dancers -- particularly Twitch.) For the entire season, Katee and Joshua were the only two to not ever get voted into the bottom. There is no question Joshua was deserving of the top prize, but so was Katee. In a nice twist, they suprised Katee with an award of $50,000 for being the top female dancer. (Joshua won $250,000 plus a role in a movie. )

Regardless of their final ranking, if previous stars of the show are any indication, none of these four are going to have worry about their future careers as dancers.

The show itself was superb and an excellent job of constantly ramping up the excitement of each program throughout the season. Tonight's show had a return of all 20 dancers from the show, repeat performances of some of the judge's favorite routines of the season, guest perfromances by Cirque du Solei and the Jonas Brothers, dance routines by a couple of the judges, and gradual elimination of contestants. Needless to say, it was a ton of fun to watch.

A few observations about the show:

• Prizes: The show works similar to American Idol in that it incentivizes contestants by offering a cash prize to the ultimate winner. In addition, it also offers tremendous exposure to prospective entertainers who might not have an outlet otherwise. The show is run as a tournament during which two contestants are eliminated (one male, one female) during each episode. (Actually the tournament begins long before that as hundreds of contestants attempt to compete around the country for a chance to be one of twenty contestants televised on the show.) See my previous posts on prizes here, here, and here.
• Non-Pecuniary Rewards: The amount of prize money actually paid to contestants is miniscule to the amount of effort and enthusiasm competitors put into the show. There's no way the show could hire equally talented dancers to perform for the season at that price.
• Gains From Trade: The show builds up fan loyalty by combining world-class dancers with world-class coreographers and giving both a platform to display their skills to the world. The peformers win by having a stage to perform (and a chance at winning the prize), same for the coreaographers, the show wins by attracting advertising dollars, and the vierwers win by viewing world-class entertainment. This is a great example of how all parties win from voluntary gains from trade.
• Building Loyalty: The first half of the season is spent with parters staying together unless their counterpart is eliminated the week before. This helps generates favorite couples (such as Katee and Joshua) that help secure fan loyalty. The show further gives intersperesed background information on each of the dancers, letting viewers see a personal side to each of them. By unveiling this information a bit at a time and showing the background of each performance, it helps build an emotional connection to the contestants. This in turn builds stronger loyalty to the show and an "edge of the seat" experience to people who follow it and see some of their favorites get voted off and/or survive each show. (Not unlike other sporting events.)
• The Excitement of Randomness: In the middle of the show (when they get down to the top 10 dancers), the original teams are broken up and each contestant is paired up with a new partner each episode. On the artistic front, this gives a better test of the capabilities of the individual dancers by seeing how well they adapt to new partners and adds an element of surprise to see who gets paired together and how well their chemistry works together.
• Participation: During the second half of the show, the results of each week's elimination are determined 100% by viewers votes. This gives a chance for strongly committed fans to call in and vote for their favorite contestants. This has the effect of creating a fan-driven show which adds a further element of the unknown to the show. It is a process that introduces a form of the wisdom of crowds into the judging of the contestants and takes the outcome out of the hand of producers and into the hands of the viewers. In my opinion, this increases the quality of the outcomes and the excitement of the show.
• Build-Up: As mentioned above, each show progressively ramped up the stakes and the excitement throughout the season. During the second half of the season, each couple had to perform two routines per episode (it started off with one). The voting changed the dynamic and created more uncertainty, increasing the entertainment value. (With several suprise decisions from the voting during the season.)
• The Importance of Personality: It was sad seeing any member of the final four go. All were incredibly personable and talented. I think of the four, Courtney was probably the least refined in her dancing, but her attitude couldn't be beat. (Her dancing was incredible too and only the contrast with the other three made it look less than perfect.) Katee, Joshua, and Twitch were all three tremendous on almost any dimension of skill or attitude. Katee's ever-present smiles and optimism won many hearts, as did Joshua's and Twitch's humility.

Overall, the show is genius both in its business model and entertainment value. It's great seeing a platform for people who are genuinely passionate about their art to have such a great, high-energy platform to display their talents on. For that matter, it's a true joy seeing peformers who truly love their art dancing with 100% dedication and devotion. Would that we all could find something we are equally passionate about to devote our talents, gifts, and life to.

See my previous posts on Katee and Joshua:

• Katee & Joshua
• More Katee & Joshua
• Katee & Joshua Go Bollywood!
• Katee & Joshua and A Return to Bollywood
• Katee & Joshua: The Final Eight
• Katee & Joshua: Together Again
• Katee & Joshua: As Long As We're Here
• Katee & Joshua: Their Last Dance

P.S. -- Here's the dance routine from the start of tonight's show with all 20 dancers returning to the stage. At the end of the dance, only the final four contestants remain standing.