In one of the best acquisitions this year by a free-to-air broadcaster, SABC1 has landed the rights to a South African version of the smash hit American reality dancing competition
So You Think You Can Dance, TVSA can confirm.
Acting on a tip-off from a TVSA member who heard a rumour, we contacted Duncan and Keen-Lee Irvine, the executive producers of
Strictly Come Dancing and
The Weakest Link, who confirmed that their production company, Rapid Blue, is indeed in the process of creating the local version for SABC1.
Although details are still vague, we can expect a debut on SABC1 sometime in August this year.
The
second and
third seasons of the American version aired on M-Net Series from 2006-2007. A fourth season premieres in the USA on 22 May.
The show was created by Simon Fuller (who also created
Pop Idol and
American Idol, among others) and
Nigel Lythgoe (a producer on Fuller's shows) and has a similar premise to the American Idol series of singing competitions, with nationwide auditions leading to the discovery of the next big dancing star.
It was the No.1-rated show in the USA in 2006, for adults aged 18-49. The show is rated 88/100 by readers of TVSA, ranking it 42nd out of more than 1,500 shows.
You can read all about the format of the show using our link to it below this article, but the major hook of the show is that 50 dancers of every style imaginable are selected from nationwide auditions, who go on to compete in a Dance Boot Camp.
At the Dance Boot Camp, each of the dancers is put through their paces by 5 choreographers, who take them through a variety of dance styles, from Hip Hop, to the Flamenco.
At the end of the camp, the group is immediately cut down, 20 of whom will be chosen to move forward to the studio shows after one-to-one interviews with the choreographers. This group is then cut down to a final 10.
Each studio show is structured the same way. As contestants are eliminated the remaining participants are randomly paired together, and the dances they need to perform the following week are drawn from a hat.
We follow each couple as they learn their routine by a top choreographer, before performing that routine in front of the panel of choreographers, and a live studio audience.
Once all the couples have performed, the panel identify the 3 weakest couples (or in later shows, 2 weakest couples) to go up for elimination by the public who vote for their favourites to stay.
Each dancer has an opportunity to encourage voters to keep them in the competition by dancing a solo routine for 45 seconds immediately before the phone lines are opened.
Each week, one guy and one girl is eliminated until only 4 dancers remain.
After performing for the last time, all 4 dancers are put to the public vote and it is the public who decide the final winner.
Dance styles featured on the American version of the show include jazz, breakdance, contemporary, pop, modern, American jive, swing, disco, hip hop, krumping, paso doble, quickstep, lyrical, Broadway, Viennese waltz, smooth waltz, Argentine tango, mambo, cha cha, Cuban rumba, and salsa.
We can but hope Rapid Blue will stick to the format for the South African version, because it works brilliantly. Obviously we'll get plenty of our own dance styles on the show, with less American Jive and more
Jika Majika.
DStv's kykNET channel recently aired their version of the show called
Dans! Dans! Dans!, but it wasn't an official reproduction of the So You Think You Can Dance format and had several differences, not least of which was that it was predominantly in Afrikaans.
Other countries that have made local versions include Australia, Canada, Greece, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland and Turkey.
We have it on good authority that the search for contestants will begin soon, so be sure to keep an eye on TVSA for all the latest hot gossip about the show, as well as our Casting Call for contestants.
Related LinksTVSA Mini-SiteTVSA ForumReview: Must See: So You Think Can Dance 2