The hot tamale train is coming back sooner than expected: Fox has just announced that 'So You Think You Can Dance' will return on May 27, making it three seasons running nearly back to back. That frequency unfortunately compromised the season 6 tour, which has been postponed indefinitely.

The reality dance competition show begins, like 'American Idol,' with hundreds of hopefuls both good and awful. They'll try out in front of a panel of judges that include Mary Murphy and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. Auditions will take place in Dallas on March 10, Nashville on March 14, Chicago on March 18 and Los Angeles on March 26.

More of our best of the decade coverage, which started on Tuesday. You can read the other posts at the link above. Here, we talk about a major category that came of age in the aughts: Reality shows.

While I would never call myself a reality TV junkie, it really bugs me when people make blanket statements like, "I hate reality TV," or, "Reality TV is the bane of my existence." The genre has grown so much in the past decade that it has become just like scripted television, in that there's good and there's bad. Even though we're splitting this up into two lists, "Reality," and "Trashy Reality," you won't see a single show that starts with, "Who Wants to Marry" on either list.

This list is dedicated not to the guilty pleasures, but to the shows that you wouldn't be embarrassed for your neighbors to know you watch: the classy reality, if you will. So without further ado, here is TV Squad's list of the best reality shows of the decade.

(S06E24) From six to one, it was a night of eliminations on the sixth season finale of So You Think You Can Dance. They even trotted out six judges to sit in on the festivities. Joining Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy and Adam Shankman on the dais were Lil' C, Tyce Diorio and Debbie Allen.

This allowed the show to have the judges "pick" their favorite performances of the season and have them performed again. I'm always suspect as to just how many of these choices are truly the picks of each particular judge, or if the judges are just chosen to introduce the dances the producers want to showcase again.

We also got guest appearances by dance troupe The Groovaloos, and a quartet of singers: Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Lopez, Leona Lewis and Adam Lambert. They didn't all sing together, but could you imagine that performance if they had?

(S06E23) For the first time in the history of So You Think You Can Dance, we have six dancers in the final performance show, which makes it even more unpredictable. It was a great night of dancing, but I'm not even going to venture a guess as to who might win, as a strong case could be made for at least five of them.

I would have liked to see tonight's episode be a two-hour showcase rather than tomorrow's finale. We could then have seen each of the dancers perform in solos, or perhaps some of the more diverse couplings and group numbers we've gotten on other finales.

Instead, we got nine dances, pairing each guy with each girl through the night. It was wall-to-wall dancing to pack it into an hour, which was a refreshing change, and we did get to see married couple Ryan and Ashleigh perform together ... and not in a ballroom routine.

(S06E22) We had a pretty straightforward elimination episode of So You Think You Can Dance: two musical guests, random pimping from K-Mart, a short interview from DJ Samantha Ronson, and solos. Cat was looking stunning in her dress and spoon-like earrings. She reminds us that there were a ground breaking eight million votes.

Group Performance - Jazz (Sonya Tayeh) - I have a feeling that the women's section would have been hindered by Ashleigh's lack of contemporary skills if she was around. Russell disappeared for one sequence where he clearly would have been dancing with Ashleigh. I have a feeling that the performance had a lot less running off stage if there was a full top eight.

(S06E21) This season of So You Think You Can Dance will be ending with a final six instead of a final four. I'm convinced someone messed up the schedule and they were supposed to double eliminate a couple, probably back in the Top 20. Noelle's injury didn't help the situation, and they decided to just go with a final six.

We welcome the top seven contestants because Ashleigh popped out her shoulder in rehearsals and has to have an MRI scan. She won't be dancing, but she's in tears because another crippling injury may end her dancing dreams. Sadly, she would have done an amazing job with both Hip-Hop and Bollywood.

(S06E20) I go into these elimination shows expecting a lot of pad and filler. But when it's a dance show, I want to see dancing; which is why I'm always a little perplexed when musical guests who don't dance show up. This week's musical guest was Snoop Dogg, and I really enjoyed it. And yes, I know that Snoop does little more than bounce and swagger.

It was that either he or the producers were smart about how to put together his stage show. Hip-hop videos are known for dancing, so why not bring that dancing to the live show? Joining Snoop on stage was Quest, a former winner of America's Best Dance Crew, as well as the dance home for three former SYTYCD contestants: Ryan, Dominic and Hok.

What about the results, though? I was surprised that even though we've switched to voting for individual dancers, it was still two couples from last night's performance show that wound up in the bottom.

(S06E19) What an amazing and jam-packed night of dance. With ten couple dances and ten solos, it was wall-to-wall performances. Amazingly, almost every single one of the performances was excellent.

Honestly, I am so impressed with this entire Top 10, I can't say enough good things about them. Sonya Tayeh finally blew me away as a choreographer. Working with Ellenore is a match made in heaven for both of them, really.

We've got a lot to cover, so why are you still here? Jump into the article and get to reading about all of it already!

(S06E18) I'm surprised how well So You Think You Can Dance can cover up the fact that the first 30 minutes can be wasted in just finding out who the bottom three were. It felt like the two-couples-at-a-time technique worked better than having three couples up at one time. One thing I'm happy to see in the recaps are the slo-mo camera angles. Other angles only show up on Dancing with the Stars when someone trips or falls.

Sure, the show could be completed in 30 minutes, but at least they filled the time with a strong group performance, ballet, and Shakira.

(S06E17) This week determines the top ten of So You Think You Can Dance. We welcome the top twelve dancers and judging by the audience, Legacy and Jakob are the most loved. With Dancing with the Stars ending this week, I'm happy that I can devote more time to this show because the dancing is a higher caliber and it isn't just a celebrity popularity contest.

Tonight we got to see the first Can Can and the return of the Lindy Hop. I am happy that the show continues to break the boundaries of dance and shine a light on new choreographers.

(S06E16) If things keep going the way they've been going, I'm going to start thinking America's really learning something about dance after all these shows they've been watching the past several years. I understood and agreed with every single one of America's choices, which is more than I can say for Nigel and the judges.

We did get to see Nakul Dev Majahan, joined on stage by MDN Bollywood Productions, in a Bollywood routine he choreographed. While I loved the earlier Bollywood piece we got this season, this one didn't grab me quite as strongly. A lot of that probably has to do with how foreign it still is to our Western senses; we don't really understand what we're seeing or why we're seeing it all the time.

Still, I guess I'm glad it's part of the show, as it continues to showcase the diversity in dance around the world. I even applaud their ill-fated attempt to try Russian folk. I say keep trying SYTYCD, just be very wary of what you put on these dancers.

(S06E15) After last week's lackluster performances, I was starting to wonder about the vaunted strength of this season's Top 20. But the 14 remaining dancers came back very strong this week, with improvements across the board. There was only one dance that completely disappointed me, but throughout the night, I cannot easily see the Top Ten dancers we're working toward.

One thing that's a little frustrating when we get down to a smaller number of dancers like this, and they're only performing once ... we get a ton of filler. The judges went on and on about each contestant. Maybe FOX should consider shortening the episodes to an hour-and-a-half during these weeks and give us more episodes of some of their great sitcoms like 'Til Death or Brothers.

Hmmm -- maybe I can handle the rambling judges after all.

(S06E14) I'm very surprised that So You Think You Can dance had no musicians this week. I thought any desperate pop/dance musician would jump for the opportunity to hawk their song to America. Instead we get only one amazing dance group, but that wasn't enough to fill an hour's worth of television.

I hope that the show was really live because there were some awkward camera angles, a microphone that wasn't adjusted in the beginning, and graphics that appeared out of nowhere. Luckily, it was adjusted in the first five minutes, but it shows that SYTYCD was depending on their pre-taped nature for the past few weeks.

(S06E13) So You Think You Can Dance finally lets America vote. Sadly, I only liked four of the eight dances this week and I wouldn't mind if any of them were eliminated. One thing I did like was the introductory sequence, they finally figured out a way to make the stage a little less huge. The choreographers are doing better to let the dances fill the huge stage.

With only eight performances, the show felt like the critiques were longer than the actual dancing. If they inserted one large group dance, the show could have cut off some of Mary's more annoying comments.