TVSquad

As a big fan of the X-Files and Reality TV, I love thinking about and reading conspiracy theories about eliminations. While re-watching the audition episodes of So You Think You Can Dance I noticed during Adam Shankman's fake audition, Katee Shean critiqued him. Below her it read "runner up."

Wait a second. She was second runner up. Shouldn't it just say "finalist" or "second runner up" instead?

I know I'm thinking too hard, but I created an interesting theory about Katee. Maybe the producers knew she was the actual runner up, but thought that wouldn't make good television. They placed her in third and gave her money to compensate. Here are some points of interest.

She received money – No third runner up received money before, let alone the top person of the opposite sex of the winner. That's shafting Twitch isn't it? I think Katee was placed in third as an excuse to give her the money earlier so that she wouldn't be shadowed by Joshua's win. I don't think anyone remembers what happened to Twitch in the end because everyone was like "OMG Joshua won!" By placing Katee third, people would remember that she was given money.

She was featured in the most judges' picks – In the final episode when the judges got to pick their favorite routines of the season, Katee was featured in the most: four out of nine performances. To compare, Twitch was in three, and both Josh and Courtney were in two. It could be just the fact that Katee won over the judges in the end or the producers wanted to emphasize a point that she actually was runner up.

She never landed in the bottom four – Along with winner Joshua, Katee never appeared in the bottom four, even when Josh and Katee were split up. Interesting fact: the one week that Katee was paired up with Twitch (pre-finale where everyone dances with everyone), Twitch landed in the bottom four, but Katee didn't. The only thing different was their solo. She slowly amassed a voting block that helped her get out of the bottom and I don't see how they wouldn't vote on the last episode.

They wanted to emphasize Hip-Hoppers - Since the show usually stacks the contestants in favor of Contemporary-styled dancers, the Ballroom/Latin and the Hip-Hop dancers often get shafted. Since Sabra (contemporary) won the season before beating Danny (Classical/Contemporary), the show probably wanted to show that they could find competent Hip-Hop dancers. Instead of putting Katee in the actual runner-up position, they instead decided to put Twitch to make emphasize that they can find a good hip-hop dancer.

I understand that this is all wacky theory, but it makes me laugh thinking about how all the pieces come up. There are a few outlying factors like how the untrustworthy Dial Idol thought Katee was third, but they don't consider text messaging. Do you think there's some validity in my theory? Leave some comments below with theories or any sources that I may not have seen.