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Jake Ayres

E-mail Ayres at jayres@media.ucla.edu

It’s summer, the season of vacations, beaches, blockbuster movies and subpar television. All of the halfway decent scripted major network shows go off the air, their sizeable shoes to be filled by the ever-present and always cheap reality talent show. Even though these types of shows aren’t always as fulfilling as a new installment of “Lost” or “Battlestar Galactica” (I see you, fifth cylon!), they can in fact be entertaining.

However, there is always a right and wrong way to do the cheap reality talent show, and nowhere is this more clear than in the war between Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance?” and MTV’s more fortunately titled “America’s Best Dance Crew.”

Both of these shows take their cues from the relatively boilerplate template of the reality talent show, but “America’s Best” just plain blows “So You Think” out of the water in every category. And like Jabbawockeez, I’m about to break it down.

Superficially, ABDC’s name is better. SYTYCD is a question, like it’s challenging me, and I don’t want my television shows to challenge me.

Secondly, the judging panels are worlds apart.

But first, let me say that Mary Murphy’s laughs haunt my dreams, so I’m a little biased.

But seriously, the teeth-baring “So You Think” judge is so over the top in all of her comments that they have spawned their own YouTube clip montage, including one that goes something like this: “You are one hot tamale, girl! Woo!” Printing restrictions prevent me from expressing how loud and extended this outburst is, but I digress.

The point is that every time Murphy opens her mouth, I brace myself for impact.

I can’t say the same for Lil’ Mama. I hang on her every word.

The Voice of the Young People is pretty much the only reason the judging panel in ABDC is interesting at all. Her judging comments are often close to incomprehensible, distorted by a constant stream of slang that may or may not exist and a Brooklyn accent thicker than 50 Cent’s brow. Does that matter? Hell no! She gets so animated in all of her comments that what she’s saying doesn’t even matter. I could listen to Lil’ Mama read my W-4 form instructions and not be bored. On top of that, she’s clad in her usual TLC-revival gear with pastels, lip gloss, and hoop earrings. Okay, so maybe perennial post-boy band era also-ran JC Chasez and choreographer Shane Sparks’ comments are more constructive and helpful, but Lil’ Mama’s natural enthusiasm makes it seem like she actually wants to be there.

However, format is where the shows truly diverge.

“So You Think” is geared towards solo dancers and pairs, while “America’s Best” is geared toward multi-person crews. This alone makes “America’s Best” more entertaining, because the nature of crew-based dancing has always been about crowd pleasing.

“America’s Best” brings to mind the rose-tinted days of B-boy old, where Bronx youths would put down cardboard and battle other crews for bragging rights. It was all about flashiness, stunts and crowd pleasing. I realize that all dance is meant to be enjoyed by an audience, but no style caters so directly to the whims of spectators like hip-hop crews do. Randy Jackson, “America’s Best’s” unseen producer, should be commended for bringing the concept of the dance crew back into the mainstream, which hasn’t seen the light of day since “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.”

Secondly, and most importantly, “America’s Best” succeeds because it lets the dancers do what they do best. I don’t mean just dancing, but dancing in the style of their choice. On “So You Think,” the pairs of dancers are hamstrung by being forced into different styles of dance, from waltz to Broadway. Needless to say, it’s hard for your average Joe B-Boy to really sink his teeth into a country two-step. You can practically see the wheels turning in their head: “Man, this waltz would be so much better if I ended it with a suicide.”

On “America’s Best,” it’s strictly hip-hop every week. And that’s what the dancers are good at. If you want to show talent on a talent show, for the love of Frosty Freeze, don’t obscure it with genres that don’t use the same skill sets. Every week on “America’s Best,” you get to see these dancers do exactly what they want to do: pop, lock, break and, sometimes, flip.

On top of that, the competition itself is more fair because on “America’s Best,” the crews choreograph their own routines (presumably), while on “So You Think,” guest choreographers plan routines for the pairs. “America’s Best” shows the creativity as well as the talent.

Finally, as far as hosts, I like ex-children’s television personality Cat Deeley as much as the next guy, but grown-up A.C. Slater trying desperately to stay relevant (it’s working, Mario, keep it up)? There’s a clear winner here.