How Is 'SYTYCD' Eliminating People This Season?

How much has really changed on Fox's Emmy nominated series So You Think You Can Dance now that it has adopted the Stage vs. Street format? Quite a bit, but voting looks to still be about the same as always. For those fans who watch the show as hardcore-like as myself, you know that So You Think You Can Dance's new format has allowed for more street dancers on the program now that the Top 20 consists of ten stage dancers, and ten street dancers. Monday night's episode will be the first time that we see most of the dancers taking on a style different than their own, the way we want them to, to see how much they truly can dance. But, how will people be eliminated this year? Do the fan vote and bottom three rules still apply?

The concept for voting and elimination remain pretty much the same in Season 12 as many of the most recent seasons. Ever since the series did away with a results show, dancers have been eliminated after they have already danced for the week so that they have a chance to show what they can do and to build suspense for fans to see who they've let slip into the bottom three. From the Top 20 until the Top 10, dancers are still going to be in the bottom three and the judges will still choose who ultimately gets eliminated. But, here's where the change occurs.

Instead of sending home one guy and one girl in the competition, the judges will choose to eliminate one dancer from Team Stage and one dancer from Team Street. So, it is possible for the teams to have an uneven number of guys and girls on each side. (Go women of Stage and Street!) Another new voting aspect of this season is the Fan Save. According to the So You Think You Can Dance rules, in select episodes of the competition, the dancers with the lowest number of votes after the previous Voting Show will be revealed. But, viewers will then have the chance to save those dancers from elimination by voting for them via Twitter.

All a fan has to do is watch out for their favorite dancer, and if a hashtag appears on the screen with the words "save" and the dancer's name, then fans have five minutes to Tweet that hashtag to save the dancer. At the end of the show, when the results are announced, the saved dancer will be revealed and will get the chance to move on to the main vote once again. It's not a bad idea, but we'll have to see how the execution goes. All I know is I have a list of dancers I'd save in a heartbeat, but most of my favorites are sure to go all the way.

Images: Adam Rose/FOX