And America’s Favorite Dancer is….Lauren Froderman! – VIDEO
Kent Boyd is eliminated in second place
Robert Roldan is eliminated in third place – VIDEO
It seemed that Nigel’s rule changes this year, which had previously forced an even gender parity for part of the season was making it tough for a girl to prevail on SYTYCD.
3 girls were voted off first, and then Ashley was injured, leaving Lauren the last girl standing. But in the end she beat the boys to take it all. Lauren got off to a rocky start this season. Her first dances were criticized for being pageanty and cheerleader happy. But eventually, Lauren impressed the judges with her ability to embody all types of characters and styles. She was consistent, if not always a star.
Once again, it’s proven that it’s hard to overcome early front-runner status. Kent seemed to have the competition in the bag, especially after Alex Wong was eliminated from the competition due to injury.
And the rather strange and injury-fraught Season 7 comes to a close. If Ashley and Alex had remained healthy, I wonder what the outcome would have been? Alex would have definitely been in the finals, at least. Oh. What could have been…
Live blog and VIDEOS after the jump…
“Ra” – begins with the Top 11 and All-Stars group number choreographed by Christopher Scott from LXD HA! Alex Wong is part of the choreo…sitting in a chair! – VIDEO
Oh there’s going to be an “exciting performance from a genuine superstar.” That’s Ellen Degeneres dancing with tWitch.
Seven judges are sitting at the table tonight, Nigel Lythgoe (a montage of Nigel’s hair through the years), Mia Michaels (and her invented words!), Adam Shankman (and his many faces), Tyce Diorio, Stacey Tookey, Kenny Ortega and MARY MURPHY!!! YAY!
Oh there’s going to be a ton of filler tonight! Now a recap of last night’s performances. Tonight we’ll see the best routines of the season, plus Nigel Lythgoe tap dancing!
The winner gets 250K, the cover of Dance Spirit magazine and will participate in the Gatorade G Series print campaign, be featured on one of the bottles and the Gatorade website.
Kenny Ortega picks the “Shoeless Joe” routine with Kent and Neil for reprise. He thinks it was the right routine for Kent at the right time. They finish with a slide, ending right next to Cat! Cute! That was a fun routine featuring some really awesome acrobatics.
Nigel Lythgoe chooses Stacey Tookey’s “Mad World” Homeless routine with Billy and Ade. Nigel says that although he left the following week, Billy left a huge legacy on So You Think You Can Dance.
The dance crew Quest take the stage next and they hit pretty damn hard. – VIDEO
Cat Deeley is a vision in peach tonight!
Mia Michaels chooses Napoleon and Tabitha’s “Fallin” routine for Adechike and Comfort. Oh yeah, both Adechike and Comfort did a great job getting inside the characters of a woman leaving a toxic man behind. There was a suitcase malfunction, but Comfort handled it really well. Fierce!
More filler! More season highlights.
Next Kent and Anya perform their cha cha — “First Kiss”.
After the break, Tyce Diorio picks the Napoleon and Tabitha routine, “Stars” with Robert and Dominic. Ew. Scary clown routine. Do. Not. Want.
Filler! More clips from National Dance Day. Though, it was pretty funny when a shot of Adam popped on when Cat said from the youngest to the very old…
A bit! Nigel Lythgoe hobbles out on crutches claiming the “curse of Season 7 strikes again.” So he says he can’t tap dance. He’s about to get a stand in when a little tyke tugs on his pants and says he’ll stand in. Nigel’s like “Oh alright, go make a fool of yourself.” And of course, the 7 year old, named Luke was brilliant. – VIDEO
Speaking of tappers, the Manzari Brothers take the stage to wow the audience. That was some crazy tapping! – VIDEO
The Top 7 are on tour this summer, with Russell from Season Six and a few of the All-stars.
Nigel Lythgoe chooses a Miriam and Leonardo Argentine Tango with Lauren and Pasha. Very slinky.
Adam Shankman chooses the powerful “Fix You” by Travis Wall with Robert and Allison.
Next, Season 6 winner, Russel Ferguson takes the stage for some hard-hitting dancing with Lil C for a Hip Hop routine. Cat asks Russel if he’s ready to give over his tiara! Ha ha. – VIDEO
Mary Murphy chooses he next routine! Mary says Jose and Dominic have two tickets on the Hot Tamale train! She chooses their routine choreographed by Napoleon and Tabitha.
Next, the winner of SYTYCD UK, Charley Bruce performs a Mandy Moore routine. Bleh Celine Dion “I Surrender”. – VIDEO
Cat asks all the finalists to take the stage…and in third place is…Robert Roldan. We see a video montage of Robert’s best moments. He thanks everyone who picked up the telephone for him and all of his fellow dancers. He gets a little choked up.
After the break, Adam Shankman, chooses “My Chick Bad”, the Napoleon and Tabitha Hip Hop routine with Lauren and tWitch.
Next we watch a clip of Sonya Tayeh’s beautiful “Hallelujah” routine, danced by Alex and Allison. Alex watches sitting in the audience.
After the break, Stacey Tookey chooses Billy and Robert’s Bollywood.
Mia Michaels chooses “How it Ends” choreographed by Travis Wall with Kent and Neil. Powerful.
Black Gold take the stage to sing the boot song, “Shine” on top of a montage of season highlights. – VIDEO
After the break…it’s time for our special guest. And it’s Ellen Degeneres, who contacted the show offering to perform in the routine. Well, that’s what Cat said! So here’s Ellen, hamming her way through the tWitch and Alex NappyTabs hip hop routine. – VIDEO
Alex comes out in crutches to give Ellen a big hug. Alex says he didn’t know. Right. Everybody knew. Like two days ago.
And…it’s pretty pointless. Can we find out who America’s Favorite Dancer is?
Kent and Lauren take the stage. Before we find out the results, we see their video packages. Time for the results!
OMG! It’s Lauren! DARK HORSE! She totally snuck up and snatched that prize! Wow. She’s a beautiful dancer, so it’s all good.
