So You Think You Can Dance

So You Think You Can Dance
Generic series logo
Genre	Reality television
Created by	Simon Fuller Nigel Lythgoe
Country of origin	United States
Production company(s)	Dick Clark Productions 19 Entertainment

So You Think You Can Dance is a franchise of reality television shows in which contestants compete in dance. The first series of the franchise, created by producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, premiered in July 2005 and has broadcast twelve seasons since. Adaptations of the show began airing in other countries in late 2005 and to date 26 localized adaptations have been produced, representing 37 different countries and comprising nearly ninety individual seasons.

Although each varies in the particulars of its format and presentation, all shows in the So You Think You Can Dance franchise share a premise of placing dancers—who come from a wide variety of dance backgrounds and are often, but not exclusively, amateur or semi-professional in experience—in a competition which requires them to adapt to multiple styles of dance. As the competition progresses, a combination of judge decisions and at-home-viewer votes determine which dancers will advance in the competition from week to week, until ultimately one dancer is voted champion of that particular season and receives a prize package that may consist of money, work or training opportunities, additional material prizes and typically the title of the respective country's "Favorite Dancer" (i.e. "America's Favorite Dancer").

A show in the franchise is typically composed of three phases of competition: initial open auditions, callbacks/finalist selection, and finals/live performance shows. A given series or season may air only one show per week during its initial airing or two, but rarely more; when two episodes appear on a weekly basis, one is usually a "Performance Show", where the bulk of the competitive routines are performed, and the other a "Results Show", in which the outcome of the at-home-viewer votes are revealed and dancers are typically eliminated from the competition. The initial open auditions are typically held at various locations throughout the relevant country and are open to dancers of varied backgrounds and experience levels, though generally there is an age cap (with the age limits being non-consistent between entries in the franchise). Although usually unseen in the final aired edit of the show, some productions may also hold producer auditions, in which the initial talent pool is screened, before the televised auditions. The open auditions are overseen by a panel of judges, typically experts in dance or the entertainment field, who will select a portion of auditioners to advance in the competition. The following stage, sometimes called the "callbacks" or "boot camp," will further reduce this remaining pool of dancers down to the season's "finalists", usually by putting the dancers through a series of short dance workshops and routines while the judges evaluate their capabilities and potential for the competition. The callback phase ends when the judge's panel selects a number of season finalists (typically in the vicinity of twenty total dancers, half women and half men).