On tonight’s live finale of America’s Best Dance Crew, host Mario Lopez lets us know over the past week, 38 million votes were cast to decide who would win. It’s down to Status Quo and Jabbawockeez, and while I haven’t watched the show, I can tell from the many fans on BuddyTV that Jabbawockeez are not only the frontrunners, but the guaranteed victors.
Before the results, we get to catch up on some of the best moments from the two final dance crews. Status Quo’s highlight involves doing a flip off the stage, which was pretty awesome. Lil Mama praises the heck out of Jabbawockeez, who are trendsetters changing the face of dance crews. It’s like the birth of krumping.
To fill out the hour, all the crews from this season come back to join forces in a series of combination performances. I immediately get the appeal of this show. There are so many people involved, and they’re all fun and full of energy. It’s impossible not to smile while watching this show. So much of reality TV, especially competitive shows, is based on conflict or, in the case of shows like American Idol, on winning. America’s Best Dance Crew, based solely on watching the first 15 minutes of a single episode, appears to be all about people who truly love what they’re doing. Winning doesn’t matter, they’re just happy to be doing what they love.
First up in the combination dances, representing the West Coast, are Fysh n Chicks, Jabbawockeez and Kaba Modern. They have fantastic choreography, taking time to highlight each act while also combining talents, integrating their styles together. Jabbawockeez kind of scare me with their masks. They look like the Insane Mime Posse.
Representing the South are Enigma Dance Kru and Live in Color. It starts off big as they get onto the stage via trampoline. Towards the end, they literally fling one dancer into the air, and either he’s dead or in outer space. They close it out with the ever classy move of drumming on girls’ butts.
The East Coast is the duo of ICONic and Status Quo. Holy crap! They do the awesomest thing I’ve ever seen, when almost everyone bends over at various heights, and one dancer walks up their backs like a staircase, then does a flip off the top. My words can’t express how jaw-droppingly cool that was.
The crews from the Midwest are Femme 5 and Break Sk8. It’s just OK, but when you have five dudes on skates, I expect some crazy stuff, and it was pretty tame. I imagine at some point during the season, they did something outrageously cool on those skates.
Before the results, the final two dance crews perform a dance battle. It’s nice, but nothing revolutionary. JC Chasez loves everyone. Jabbawockeez are the visionaries and Status Quo has the heart. Shane Sparks has to yell at the audience to be quiet as he tells both crews that, no matter who wins, they’re both spectacular and Lil Mama agrees.
Finally, it’s time to crown America’s Best Dance Crew and the winners of $100,000. Mario Lopez draws it out for an obscenely long time, then declares the winning crew is…JABBAWOCKEEZ! I’ve never seen this show before, and even I was able to call that one. Still, they hug it out with Status Quo.
Randy Jackson shows up to crown Jabbawockeez as the official winners. He claims this is the hottest place to be on TV. I can’t imagine FOX will be too happy to hear that. To close it out, Jabbawockeez perform one last time to Kanye West’s “Stronger.” Great song, great performance. While Mario Lopez wraps things up, the members of Jabbawockeez are still doing their thing on the stage,
This summer, America’s Best Dance Crew will return for a second season starting with a casting special on June 7. I can guarantee it will have at least one extra viewer. But if you still have a need to watch a dance competition on Thursday nights hosted by an ex-Saved by the Bell cast member, Step It Up and Dance, hosted by Elizabeth Berkley, premieres next week at 11pm on Bravo.
-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of MTV)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
