Shane Sparks and Alex da Silva

You know how it feels when you’re watching a really great movie, only to have something so unrealistic happen that it jolts you back into reality? I’m having something like that happen to me with SYTYCD.

The reason: since the show first started airing, both Alex da Silva and Shane Sparks have been arrested for committing sex offenses. Da Silva was arrested in 2009 and charged with 4 counts of rape. Last September (2011), he was convicted on one count of rape and one count of assault with attempt to commit rape. Sparks was also arrested in 2009, on the even more disturbing charge of child rape. You can read the sordid details of the accusation here and here.

Season 2, Episodes 4&5: Vegas Week and Meet the Top 20

With Vegas week, SYTYCD Season 2 is finally getting started. This time around, 116 dancers made it to Vegas. Since 20 of them will make the show, they each have a little less than a 1 in 5 chance of making it. Doesn’t sound too scary when I put it that way, does it?

                

I should mention that the prize for this season is a little different. Instead of winning $100,000 and a year in a gorgeous NYC apartment, the winner of Season 2 gets a contract to perform in Celine Dion’s show in Vegas, a new car, and $100.000. I’ve always wondered what on earth Nick Lazarini did with that apartment to get them to change the prize. I like Nick, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they just decided it wasn’t the most useful way to jump start a dance career. I also have to mention that I love the irony of this being a show about finding a star – and then the prize is to be a background dancer for a “real” star.

Like most Vegas shows, this episode is all about drama. Dancing is hard! Lots of people get very sweaty! People get hurt (but never as badly as the teasers suggest)! I would watch the show even if no one got injured. Honestly.