America's Best Dance Crew
American competitive dance reality television series
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
America's Best Dance Crew, often abbreviated as ABDC, is an American competitive dance reality television series featuring both national and international dance crews. The show was produced by singer, record producer, and former American Idol judge Randy Jackson.[1] The series premiered on January 26, 2008, on MTV. It was originally developed for NBC as World Moves.[2]
- Howard Schwartz
- Karen Schwartz
- Michael Simon
- Ryan Polito
| America's Best Dance Crew | |
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 Season 1–7 logo | |
| Also known as | Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew |
| Genre | |
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| Directed by |
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| Presented by | |
| Judges | |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 73 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producers |
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| Production locations | Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, California |
| Cinematography | Scott Hylton |
| Running time | 60–90 minutes |
| Production companies | Tenth Planet Productions Bayonne Entertainment Hip-hop International Dream Merchant 21 Entertainment Warner Horizon Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | MTV |
| Release | January 26, 2008 – August 29, 2015 |
The show was hosted by actor Mario Lopez and featured television personality Layla Kayleigh as the backstage correspondent. The judging panel consisted of hip-hop recording artist Lil Mama, singer-songwriter JC Chasez, and dancer Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval.[3] Former judges included hip-hop choreographer Shane Sparks and R&B singer Omarion.[4][5][6]
After an initial seventh season run, America's Best Dance Crew was cancelled in 2012 due to declining ratings.[7] However, on January 10, 2015, MTV announced that the series would be revived for an eighth season.[8]
The eighth season, titled America's Best Dance Crew All-Stars: Road to the VMAs, premiered on July 29, 2015.[8] Hosted by Jason Dundas, the revival featured a new judging panel: hip-hop artist T-Pain, recording artist Teyana Taylor, and Broadway performer Frankie Grande.[9]
Overview
America's Best Dance Crew is a reality competition where dance crews showcase their talent and compete for a $100,000 (USD) grand prize and the golden ABDC trophy (a figure of a b-boy doing a freeze, with its legs moving like a bobblehead). Each week, the crews are given a challenge. The challenges are different for each crew, but have the same general concept or share a specific theme. To begin each episode, host Mario Lopez reveals, in no particular order, which crews are safe and which crews are at risk for elimination. After the crews in the bottom perform their routines, the judges decide which crew will advance to the next round.
Another unique aspect of ABDC is the crew banner. Each banner's logo represents its respective crew, appearing during interviews, performances, and on various merchandise. It is also used as a transition effect. When a crew is eliminated, their banner falls from the top of the stadium, where the banners of the crews still in the running stand. The contestants are allowed to dance one final time on the stage as they "walk it out" to the song of the same name.
| Judge | Season | |||||||||||||||||
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Mario Lopez | ||||||||||||||||||
| JC Chasez | ||||||||||||||||||
| Lil Mama | ||||||||||||||||||
| Shane Sparks | ||||||||||||||||||
| Omarion | ||||||||||||||||||
| D-Trix | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jason Dundas | ||||||||||||||||||
| T-Pain | ||||||||||||||||||
| Teyana Taylor | ||||||||||||||||||
| Frankie Grande | ||||||||||||||||||
- Key
- Host of America's Best Dance Crew.
- Judge of America's Best Dance Crew
| Season | Dance Crews | Episodes | Originally released | Winner | Runner-Up | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | Network | ||||||
| 1 | 9 | 8 | January 26, 2008 | March 27, 2008 | MTV | Jabbawockeez | Status Quo | |
| 2 | 10 | 11 | June 7, 2008 | August 30, 2008 | Super CR3W | SoReal Cru | ||
| 3 | 9 | 8 | January 15, 2009 | March 5, 2009 | Quest Crew | Beat Freaks | ||
| 4 | 9 | 8 | August 9, 2009 | September 27, 2009 | We Are Heroes | AfroBoriké | ||
| 5 | 9 | 12 | January 28, 2010 | April 15, 2010 | Poreotix | Blueprint Cru | ||
| 6 | 10 | 10 | April 7, 2011 | June 5, 2011 | I.aM.mE | ICONic Boyz | ||
| 7 | 10 | 10 | April 11, 2012 | June 13, 2012 | Elektrolytes | 8 Flavahz | ||
| 8 | 6 | 6 | July 29, 2015 | August 29, 2015 | Quest Crew | Kinjaz | ||
Controversy
MTV and Randy Jackson, the executive producer of America's Best Dance Crew, were sued by Dwight McGhee, professionally known as rapper Citizen Charlie Kane, in 2010, claiming that the defendants had stolen McGhee's idea for a television show. McGhee claimed in the lawsuit, filed at Los Angeles County Superior Court, that he had pitched a similar series titled International Breakerz League, which also featured a dance crew, to the network in 2004. McGhee sought $2 million in damages.[10][11]
International distribution
ABDC airs on MTV in the Caribbean, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Russia (by the alias of "Короли Танцпола", lit. "Kings of the Dancefloor"),[12] Finland, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine (by the alias of "Танцювальні бої", lit. "Dance Battles"),[13] and Romania.
In Canada, the show airs on both MuchMusic and Musique Plus (the episodes on MP are 2 years late) and in Latin America, the show airs on Warner Channel. The show also airs on AB1 and MTV France, where it is called Dance Crew USA in France,[14] Solar TV, Jack TV, and The Game Channel in the Philippines, Fiji One in Fiji, and YAN TV (?), VTV3 (Nhom nhay sieu Viet, 2021) in Vietnam.
Additional notes
- The opening title sequence created by Framework Studio won a Telly Award in 2009.[15]
