So You Think You Can Dance is a United States television reality program and dance competition airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company network. Season four premiered on May 22, 2008, with Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy returning as permanent judges and Cat Deeley returning to host. Joshua Allen was announced as the winner on August 7, 2008, the first hip-hop dancer to win the title.

Auditions

Open auditions for this season were expanded to the following six cities: For the first time, New York City was not a stop on the audition tour. To be able to audition, contestants had to be between the ages of 18 and 30 and able to be legally employed in the United States. Partner auditions were allowed.

Las Vegas week

Over 200 contestants who impressed the judges in the initial auditions each received a plane ticket to a challenging week of callback auditions at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The week consisted of multiple rounds of choreography, with dancers cut from the competition every round. This season, the rounds included a hip-hop routine with Napoleon D'umo and Tabitha D'umo, a Broadway number with Tyce Diorio, the foxtrot with Jean-Marc Généreux, group choreography, contemporary choreography with Mia Michaels, and a final solo for the remaining contestants. Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy were part of the judging panel for the week, along with Debbie Allen, Mia Michaels, Napoleon D'umo and Tabitha D'umo.

Finals

Format

As in seasons 2 and 3, the finals began with 20 contestants, ten male and ten female. After partners are assigned, couples pick a dance style out of a hat, are rehearsed by a choreographer, and perform their routine. Following the airing of the performances, home viewers vote for their favorite couple. The bottom three couples (six dancers overall) are then liable for elimination by the judges on the live, or broadcast on Broadcast delay in the western United States, results show. All six dancers perform a solo, after which the judges eliminate one male and one female contestant. If the eliminated dancers are not from the same couple, their respective partners form a new pair for the following week's performances. Once the field of dancers is narrowed down to the top 10, permanent partnerships dissolve and contestants draw their new partners from a hat each week. The judges no longer have any say in the elimination process; viewers call in to vote for their favorite individual dancer, and the male and female with the lowest number of votes are eliminated each week. Because of the inclusion of performer William Wingfield into the top 20 dancers, Debbie Allen was ruled ineligible to perform duties as a Guest Judge during the Finals phase, as long as Wingfield remained in the competition. Wingfield is a Contemporary dancer from Nashville, Tennessee who trained under Allen at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. He was voted off the competition on July 24, 2008. Because of Wingfield being eliminated, Debbie Allen was technically able to guest judge for the top six episode, but Adam Shankman was the guest judge instead.

Top 20 Contestants

Female Contestants

Male Contestants

Elimination chart

The song played for the females and males varied throughout the season. Every week, a different song was played. Contestants are in alphabetical order by last name, then in reverse chronological order of elimination. Jessica King suffered an injury that resulted in her being unable to continue in the competition. She was medically withdrawn, and Comfort Fedoke replaced her as she was the most recent female competitor eliminated. Katee Shean was awarded $50,000 for being America's favorite female dancer.

Performances

Week 1 (June 11, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Dan Karaty

Week 2 (June 18, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Mia Michaels

Week 3 (June 25, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Adam Shankman

Week 4 (July 2, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo

Week 5 (July 9, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Mia Michaels

• Comfort Fedoke and Thayne Jasperson were eliminated by the judges, but Jessica King later had to withdraw from the competition due to injury. She was replaced by Fedoke, the most recent eliminated female.

Week 6 (July 16, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Lil' C

Week 7 (July 23, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Toni Basil

Week 8 (July 30, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Adam Shankman

Week 9 (August 6, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Mandy Moore Mia Michaels

Results shows

Week 1 (June 12, 2008)

Week 2 (June 19, 2008)

Week 3 (June 26, 2008)

Week 4 (July 3, 2008)

Week 5 (July 10, 2008)

• It was reported on July 14, 2008, that Jessica King was injured and as a result could not continue in the competition. Comfort Fedoke returned to the show in place of King.

Week 6 (July 17, 2008)

Week 7 (July 24, 2008)

Week 8 (July 31, 2008)

Week 9 (Grand Finale) (August 7, 2008)

Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Debbie Allen, Lil' C, Adam Shankman, Mia Michaels All of the top 20 but Jessica King performed. King, who was still injured, was not featured in the group opening. Muraine and Chbeeb both auditioned earlier in the season. Chbeeb contracted pneumonia and was medically advised to withdraw and Muraine later quit during the Las Vegas auditions. Chbeeb was later selected to the Top 20 for Season 5. Dmitry Chaplin, Ryan Conferido, Anya Garnis, Jaimie Goodwin, Allison Holker, Lauren Gottlieb, Neil Haskell, Hok Konishi, Ivan Koumaev, Melody Lacayanga, Dominic Sandoval, Benji Schwimmer and Travis Wall

Judges' picks

Awards

2009 Emmy Awards

† Tyce Diorio, along with Rob Ashford from 81st Academy Awards were joint-winners.

Broadcast outside of US

It is broadcast on the Canadian channels, CTV and MuchMusic, and also on Fox Life in Poland. It is also broadcast on TVNorge in Norway and Nelonen in Finland! It is also broadcast on Channel 10 in Australia and on AXN in India.

Ratings

U.S. Nielsen ratings