Adam Shankman! and other Season 6 news

So You Think You Can Dance has a new permanent judge! I'm so glad Adam Shankman has been upgraded to a permanent judge! He was always my favorite of the guest judges. He's enthusiastic without being grating (like Mary Murphy), he's eloquent without being verbose (Lil C), and he's critical without being mean (Tyce D'Orio).

They'll still have guest judges, and maybe Paula Abdul will be one of them, which could make for a very crowded panel. I hope the guest judge isn't every week, otherwise the show will become more about the judges/judging than about the dances. They should learn from American Idol - they had 4 judges and it made the show run over, grating on viewers when it would interfere with their other television shows that night.

[via TVGuide]

Changes I found out from twitter:

HitFixDaniel Nigel says this "SYTYCD" finale will feature *six* dancers -- three men and three women.

I don't know how this is going to work. They already had timing issues with top 4 dancers in previous seasons. But, if they can work out the timing, I think this could make for a much more entertaining finale. My guess would be that they cut down on the dances of the top routines, which I would miss, but they would also start the eliminations earlier in the episode which would make the entire episode a MUST WATCH, rather than just the last 30 minutes.

HitFixDaniel ...because of baseball, the Top 20 doesn't start until Oct. 27. They had to expedite the run.

This is much later than I thought the Top 20 would start! But looking at it now, it makes sense because they're only airing 1 hour/week of the auditions. This could mean low ratings until the show starts, because everyone tunes in for the Top 20, not for the cast-offs that the audition weeks tend to focus more on. Hopefully the buzz will still be just as big at the end of October, so people remember to watch the best part of the show.

HitFixDaniel Nigel Lythgoe says a seventh season for "So You Think You Can Dance" next summer isn't guaranteed.

I hope this means they don't know when they'll start Season 7 and not the much more upsetting news that it may not come back at all. I can't see that being the case, since this show is the closest it gets to American Idol's success when its in its off season. Plus, it's a cheap show to produce, much cheaper than their other recent success Glee, simply because it's reality. Well, I guess we'll see what happens as this season develops and how the ratings go.

Well, that's all the news I've got today. Tune in tonight on Fox 8pm EST/PST for the Phoenix auditions!