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So You Think You Can Dance Is Back with New Judges

ALSO: Chernobyl, Below Deck: Mediterranean, Summer House, 90-Day Fiance, and more
  • Host Cat Deeley with your So You Think You Can Dance 2019 judging panel: Mary Murphy, Dominic "D-trix" Sandoval, Laurieann Gibson and Nigel Lythgoe. (FOX)
    Host Cat Deeley with your So You Think You Can Dance 2019 judging panel: Mary Murphy, Dominic "D-trix" Sandoval, Laurieann Gibson and Nigel Lythgoe. (FOX)

    For the 15th consecutive summer (with one fall season crammed in there), we get to spend the summer dancing on FOX. So You Think You Can Dance began as an attempt to extend the American Idol brand to another type of performance competition. Since modeling and fashion design were already taken, dance it was! In all honestly, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe's background in and love for dance is what helped to get the show off the ground and sustain it going into its 16th season.

    After a 2017 season that re-invigorated the brand after a few unsuccessfully gimmicky seasons, last year didn't have the same kind of spark. Perhaps, in the end, it still does come down to the dancers. Over the years, SYTYCD has had plenty of great ones, and any fan of Broadway productions or — increasingly — movie musicals have enjoyed the likes of Twitch (the Step Up franchise), Neil Haskell (Hamilton), Melanie Moore (Hello, Dolly), Ricky Ubeda (Cats), Mark Kanemura (Lady Gaga), Thayne Jasperson (Hamilton), and Gaby Diaz (West Side Story). In 2020, former SYTYCD finalist Ariana DuBose will step into the Oscar-winning role of Anita in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story.

    SEASON PREMIERE: A new season of So You Think You Can Dance brings new judges as well. Vanessa Hudgens is out, replaced by Season 3 finalist and fan-favorite Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval and choreographer LaurieAnn Gibson, and of course they'll be joined by Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy. The format doesn't seem to have been appreciably messed with, although that won't be known for sure until the "Academy" callbacks in a few weeks. 9:00 PM ET on FOX

    SERIES FINALE: It probably shouldn't be surprising that it took people a second to warm up to HBO's re-telling of the grim story of the worst nuclear disaster in the history of the world. But now that it's reaching its end, it seems more and more people have latched onto Chernobyl as one of the year's best and most rigorously produced miniseries. At the very least it's been a peerless Jared Harris delivery system. 9:00 PM ET on HBO

    SEASON PREMIERE: The dedicated sailors and party-throwers about the Sirocco are back for a fourth season of Below Deck: Mediterranean. Captain Sandy is once again at the helm, and the yachting adventures and misadventures show no signs of slowing. If this is one of Bravo's shows you haven't been watching but have considered after hearing people talk about its idle-rich charms, this would be the opportunity to pick it up. 9:00 PM ET on Bravo

    SEASON FINALE: And while Below Deck sails back onto our lives, we say goodbye to a different Bravo show. It's how we maintain equilibrium in the Bravo universe! Summer House had a strong season, anchored by won't-they romance of Paige and Carl. 10:00 PM ET on Bravo

    ALSO TONIGHT

    • 90-Day Fiancé: The Other Way The deal with 90-Day Fiance is that foreign brides come to America in the hopes that their mail-order marriage will have the stuff to go all the way. On "The Other Way," we're now flipping the script, with the American traveling abroad to find a mate. 9:00 PM ET on TLC
    • Malibu Rescue is Netflix's new teen-lifeguard series, based on the original movie of the same name. It took decades, but FINALLY teens have their own teen Baywatch Streaming on Netflix
    • America's War on Drugs Viceland's series on America's multi-faceted drug war focuses on acid and LSD this week, including a look at the infamous CIA and FBI mind-control experiments that made Wormwood such fascinating TV. 9:00 PM ET on Viceland

    Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.

    TOPICS: So You Think You Can Dance, 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, Below Deck Mediterranean, Chernobyl, Summer House