TVSquad

America's Best Dance Crew is three weeks into its new season, and it's still kind of boring. It's gotten so bad, that this week as host Mario Lopez was declaring safe crews, I realized that I'm not recognizing most of them right away. So You Think You Can Dance had the same problem this summer; nobody dynamic really jumping out for the longest time.

America doesn't seem to know who to vote for either, because their "safe" crews each week look like they're being drawn out of a hat. Just this week, the bottom two crews by America's vote gave the best two performances of the night by a landslide.

We continue the trend of reality show dance contestants showing up on other reality shows. Last season of America's Best Dance Crew Dominic (D-Trix), Hok, and Ryan, former contestants on So You Think You Can Dance, were part of Quest Crew and won. In the newest season, SYTYCD, finalist Donyelle Jones is part of Artistry in Motion.

The camera training and cross-genre training will definitely come in handy for Donyelle and her crew. Seeing how well Quest Crew succeeded, I'm sure there is already an established Donyelle fan base that can help her team survive early elimination.

Considering how often MTV re-airs all of its original programming, I don't think it really matters when a show first airs on the network, but it's still bold moving Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew to Sundays at 9PM ET for its eight episode fourth season. Previous seasons have aired on Thursdays at 10PM ET. The show brought in big numbers in its Thursday slot, so methinks MTV is hoping to grow the brand. Maybe some cross-appreciation with So You Think You Can Dance could do it.

Shane Sparks recently appeared on SYTYCD with a couple of less-than-impressive choreographed numbers. Maybe Nigel would allow him to pimp the new season of ABDC there. Or bring in JabbaWockeeZ or one of the other past teams to dance on a results show of SYTYCD. How hot would that be? Speaking of, the new season of ABDC is preluded by a special highlighting the top ten dance performances ever on the show August 2 at 9PM ET. There've been some pretty sick performances on the show, so this is a must-see!

A year ago I was enthralled by MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. It was a concept that actually fit MTV: dancing to music which was often influenced by music videos. For episode five of the first season, Mario Lopez announced Michael Jackson week. I cringed because I knew that the crews were going to have to use things like the moonwalk and the zombie "Thriller" moves.

The contestants were celebrating the 25th anniversary release of Thriller. Luckily the crews didn't have to use the horrible remixes that were added to the rerelease. When the episode ended, I was happily surprised.

With the second week of competitions tonight on So You Think You Can Dance, I wanted to point out a trend: reality dance show contestants can't leave television. Several contestants and a few choreographers have jumped ship and have appeared on other reality shows.

The jump basically can plant an already established fanbase onto a different television show. One great example is Ty Murray on Dancing with the Stars. I'm not sure what the percentage of votes for Ty came from fans of Chelsie Hightower and her work from SYTYCD or his charm, but he definitely benefited from someone who knew to make routines that were camera friendly.

It's a fair question. I'm not going to knock the skills the boys obviously have, but in a way this is a reality all-star crew of hip-hop dancers. Three of their performers are former finalists of FOX's summer hit So You Think You Can Dance. Hell, even judge Shane Sparks choreographed and judged on SYTYCD before beginning his stint on Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew for MTV so the audience is already aware of a connection between the two shows. And you have to figure there's a pretty heavy crossover audience between the two. How many dancing competition shows are there that feature street dancing?

The question is whether or not its unfair that so much of America has already become familiar with and fallen in love with the dynamic style of Hok Konishi, Ryan Conferido and Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval of Quest Crew. Where do you draw the line, or is there any need to? On SYTYCD the three each competed individually whereas here they're part of a larger group so it's not like they're getting a second chance. Still, I'm pretty sure I remember Quest Crew even performing on a results show of SYTYCD last summer.