Ironically Lacking the X Factor

On September 21 of this year something terrible happened: another reality singing competition premiered that I found myself watching. In my defense, it was The X Factor and it brought Simon Cowell back to the US. Anyone who watched American Idol before Simon left knows that he is deliciously and cruelly honest (and sometimes he just likes to screw with people because he can), which made his coming back as a talent judge on X Factor so appealing. Both Idol and X are Fox network shows, though one is sponsored by Coke and AT&T and the other is sponsored by Pepsi and Verizon. They are both singing competition shows, and the formats are similar.

The Last Good Reality Competition Show

Today marks the beginning of the next season of "So You Think You Can Dance". For those of you that don't know what this show is I'll make my explanation very short: it's the search for America's favorite dancer. Every years thousands of people (some who've even taken at least one dance lesson) audition for judges who actually have experience with dance (choreographers, professional dancers, producers) and can give real feedback. They then get cut down into a top X (I'm never sure what the format is going to be so I can't give a concrete number) and they are then whittled down by the audience's voting. The competitors come from all sorts of dance backgrounds, from ballroom to krump. There are a lot (i.e. too many) competition shows on television now, including "American Idol", "America's Got Talent", "Chopped", "America's Next Top Model", "Project Runway", "Face Off", and those are just off the top of my head at 11 at night. I firmly believe that "So You Think You Can Dance" is the last good reality show and here's why: