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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: June 5, 2008
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: So You Think You Can Dance, “Las Vegas” (Season 4, Episode 5).
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: It’s been a good last few years for So You Think You Can Dance alums. The original Broadway cast included three SYTYCD alums (s3’s Neil, s4’s Thayne, and s6’s Ariana), season 11 champ Ricky was just cast in the Broadway revival of Cats, and if Bunheads was still on TV (R.I.P.), we could still be talking about how great Jeanine Mason and Kent Boyd were on it. But it’s pretty clear that the most notable and successful SYTYCD alumnus is Twitch, who finished in fourth in season 4 but has since become the show’s signature hip-hop veteran and has gone on to big-screen roles in the Step Up franchise and most wonderfully in Magic Mike XXL.
Which makes it all the more mind-boggling that it took Twitch multiple auditions to even crack the SYTYCD top 20. One of the most heart-wrenching moments of season 3’s Vegas callbacks were when the final male slot was up to Twitch and Hok, two otherworldly talents who both certainly deserved a spot on the show. Hok ultimately prevailed (he was actually a holdover from the previous season), and Twitch had to come back the next year. Fortunately, the judges had come to their senses by this point.
