(S05E23) I think Cat Deeley looked fabulous tonight. The panel was chock-full of choreographers: Lil' C, Mia Michaels, Tyce Diorio, Debbie Allen, Adam Shankman, Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe. They brought them all up on the dais so they could each choose their favorite dances from throughout the season. That means encore performances of the best of Season 5. That's not a bad way to fill two hours.

In the end, though, it comes down to Kayla, Brandon, Jeanine and Evan. Who did America love the most last night and throughout the summer? The recap actually gave me tingles. Despite a distinct lack of personalities, there were some stunning moments of dance. And I'm ever so thrilled that the new season is less than a month away. It's a long show, so hang in there.

(S05E20) Nigel Lythgoe finally admitted something about So You Think You Can Dance this year: No one stands out. We only have a few weeks for the next season to start, so we'll see if they could rectify that for season six.

Lil C is our third judge and doesn't bring much to the table. Either he set his expectations too high or the dancers are more mediocre than season's pasts. While the judges continue to lament the lack of character and they pick Jeanette going home, Cat mesmerizes America with a pyramid bracelet. One wrong swing and she'd gouge out Evan's eye.

(S05E18) While Mia Michaels was a little better during her last guest stint at the judge's table, it was Ellen DeGeneres that excited me the most. I'm a huge fan of DeGeneres, dating back to her stand-up work. And while I think she's hilarious and I love her comedic style, I'm not sure if her presence here made much sense.

GROUP

"Let It Rock," Kevin Rudolf f. Lil' Wayne (Contemporary, Travis Wall)
I'm not sure this offered each individual dancer the chance to shine that Travis indicated it would; either that or they were all shining in the same style. Nevertheless, it was a high energy performance. I actually found the lighting on the costumes a bit distracting from the performances, but as it's a group number, I'm not too worried about it.

(S05E14) Nigel was finally ready to announce their pending plans for a Michael Jackson tribute, but apparently the big plan hit an insurmountable impasse as they couldn't get the music cleared. It's a shame, because I think the diversity of styles broached on SYTYCD would have made a much better tribute to the King of Pop than that sub-par MJ episode of American Idol the network re-aired the past few weeks.

This is also the last chance that the judges will have to maintain at least a bit of control over who gets eliminated week after week. Next week is the Top Ten and the control shifts entirely to America to figure out who goes home. What isn't clear is if they'll start competing individually or if America will be voting out entire couples. That said, will they even be keeping the same partner from one dance to the next from here on? We already know current partnerships are breaking up. So many questions, so much unclear! But who's in that Top Ten?

(S05E11) You know that there is going to be a lot of unnecessary fluff when there are seven couples and two hours to fill. The show decided to give us highs and lows of the dancers. Damn time wasters. Did anyone notice the credits took twice the amount than they normally do?

Our guest judge was Mia Michaels who admitted that her harsh opinion of Brandon has changed. Cat in her hot fuchsia dress mentioned a "big announcement" near the end of the show, as if she didn't want us to switch over to America's Got Talent. Unfortunately, it wasn't Michael Jackson related.

(S05E07) I'm happy that I'm not investing money on So You Think You Can Dance. Three of the best couples last week became the bottom three, dancing for their lives.

We started off the night with a poorly shot routine. It is never good when you can see a camera man on the right taping, then switch to a shot where he magically disappears. At least try to convince America that this portion was pre-taped. Also, with the Maori-like face paint, I couldn't tell Ashley from Asuka.

(S05E06) Not to be a hater, but my favorite thing about this first performance episode was the complete and total lack of Mia Michaels anywhere on the show. Now I actually enjoy some of her work as a choreographer, but her horrendous judging and her personality, in general, are becoming very off-putting to me. But we don't have to even think about her tonight because we got the delightful Adam Shankman on the panel instead.

I like Adam because he's got such an upbeat personality, but he's not afraid to criticize when necessary. And when he does, he gives constructive criticism to generally improve the dancers. Tonight he revealed that Katee, Joshua, Ivan and Twitch all have roles in the new movie he's working on: Step Up 3-D.