document_title: Naval history of World War II

question_text: who had the most powerful navy in ww2

question_tokens: who had the most powerful navy in ww2

text: Naval history of World War II

text: Main navies[edit]

text: Before the outbreak of war[edit]

text: In the beginning of World War II the Royal Navy was still the strongest navy in the world,[1] with the largest number of warships built and with naval bases across the globe.[2] Totalling over 15 battleships and battlecruisers, 7 aircraft carriers, 66 cruisers, 164 destroyers and 66 submarines.[2] In the course of the war the United States Navy grew tremendously as the United States was faced with a two-front war on the seas.[3] By the end of World War II the U.S Navy was larger than any other navy in the world.[4]

text:
Country
Aircraft carriers [nb 1]
Battleships[nb 2]
Cruisers
Destroyers
Convoy escorts
Submarines
Merchant tonnage

United States
28 (71)
23
72
377
420
232
33,993,230

British Empire and Commonwealth
19 (46)
19
57
335
875
264
21,000,000 (1939) - 22,000,000 [5][6]

Soviet Union

3
7
59
150
218

Japan
16
9
51
63
187[7]
167
4,152,361

Germany
0[8]
4
12
17
22
1,140 [9]

Italy
1
3
6
6

28
1,469,606

Romania

4[10]
18[10]
1[10]

Poland

2
9 [11]
11
5 [12]

text:
Jump up ^ Figure in parentheses indicates escort carriers built on merchant vessel hulls.
Jump up ^ Not including ships built before the war

text: United States[edit]

text: The United States Navy grew rapidly during World War II from 1941–45, and played a central role in the Pacific theatre in the war against Japan. It also played a major supporting role, alongside the Royal Navy, in the European war against Germany.

text: The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) sought naval superiority in the Pacific by sinking the main American battle fleet at Pearl Harbor, which was built around its battleships. The December 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor did knock out the battle fleet, but it did not touch the aircraft carriers, which became the mainstay of the rebuilt fleet.

text: Naval doctrine had to be changed overnight. The United States Navy (like the IJN) had followed Alfred Thayer Mahan's emphasis on concentrated groups of battleships as the main offensive naval weapons.[13] The loss of the battleships at Pearl Harbor forced Admiral Ernest J. King, the head of the Navy, to place primary emphasis on the small number of aircraft carriers.[14]

text: The U.S. Navy grew tremendously as it faced a two-front war on the seas. It achieved notable acclaim in the Pacific War, where it was instrumental to the Allies' successful "island hopping" campaign.[3] The U.S. Navy fought six great battles with the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN): the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and the Battle of Okinawa.[15]

text: By war's end in 1945, the United States Navy had added thousands of new ships, including 18 aircraft carriers and 8 battleships, and had over 70% of the world's total numbers and total tonnage of naval vessels of 1,000 tons or greater.[16][17] At its peak, the U.S. Navy was operating 6,768 ships on V-J Day in August 1945, including 28 aircraft carriers, 23 battleships, 71 escort carriers, 72 cruisers, over 232 submarines, 377 destroyers, and thousands of amphibious, supply and auxiliary ships.[18]

text: After Pearl Harbor the IJN seemed unstoppable because it outnumbered and outgunned the disorganized Allies—US, Britain, Netherlands, Australia, China. London and Washington both believed in Mahanian doctrine, which stressed the need for a unified fleet. However, in contrast to the cooperation achieved by the armies, the Allied navies failed to combine or even coordinate their activities until mid-1942. Tokyo also believed in Mahan, who said command of the seas—achieved by great fleet battles—was the key to sea power. Therefore, the IJN kept its main strike force together under Admiral Yamamoto and won a series of stunning victories over the Americans and British in the 90 days after Pearl Harbor.

text: Outgunned at sea, with its big guns lying at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, the American strategy for victory required a slow retreat or holding action against the IJN until the much greater industrial potential of the US could be mobilized to launch a fleet capable of projecting Allied power to the enemy heartland.

text: Midway[edit]

text: The Battle of Midway, together with the Guadalcanal campaign, marked the turning point in the Pacific.[19][20][21] Between June 4–7, 1942, the United States Navy decisively defeated a Japanese naval force that had sought to lure the U.S. carrier fleet into a trap at Midway Atoll. The Japanese fleet lost four aircraft carriers to the U.S. Navy's one American carrier and a destroyer. After Midway, and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas. Military historian John Keegan called the Battle of Midway "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare."[22]

text: Guadalcanal[edit]

text: Guadalcanal, fought from August 1942 to February 1943, was the first major Allied offensive of the war in the Pacific Theater. This campaign saw American air, naval and ground forces (later augmented by Australians and New Zealanders) in a six months campaign slowly overwhelm determined Japanese resistance. Guadalcanal was the key to control the Solomon Islands, which both sides saw as strategically essential. Both sides won some battles but both sides were overextended in terms of supply lines.

text: The rival navies fought seven battles, with the two sides dividing the victories. They were: Battle of Savo Island, Battle of the Eastern Solomons, Battle of Cape Esperance, Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Battle of Tassafaronga and Battle of Rennell Island. Both sides pulled out its aircraft carriers, as they were too vulnerable to land-based aviation.[23]

text: In preparation of the recapture of the Philippines, the Navy started the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign to retake the Gilbert and Marshall Islands from the Japanese in summer 1943. Enormous effort went into recruiting and training sailors and Marines, and building warships, warplanes and support ships in preparation for a thrust across the Pacific, and to support Army operations in the Southwest Pacific, as well as in Europe and North Africa.[24]

text: The Navy continued its long movement west across the Pacific, seizing one island base after another. Not every Japanese stronghold had to be captured; some, like the big bases at Truk, Rabaul and Formosa were neutralized by air attack and then simply leapfrogged. The ultimate goal was to get close to Japan itself, then launch massive strategic air attacks and finally an invasion. The US Navy did not seek out the Japanese fleet for a decisive battle, as Mahanian doctrine would suggest; the enemy had to attack to stop the inexorable advance.

text: The climax of the carrier war came at the Battle of the Philippine Sea.[25] Taking control of islands that could support airfields within B-29 range of Tokyo was the objective. 535 ships began landing 128,000 Army and Marine invaders on June 15, 1944 in the Mariana and Palau Islands. The Japanese launched an ill-coordinated attack on the larger American fleet; its planes operated at extreme ranges and could not keep together, allowing them to be easily shot down in what Americans jokingly called the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot."[26] Japan had now lost all its offensive capabilities, and the U.S. had air bases on Guam, Saipan and Tinian for B-29 bombers targeted at Japan's home islands.

text: Okinawa 1945[edit]

text: Okinawa was the last great battle of the entire war. The goal was to make the island into a staging area for the invasion of Japan scheduled for fall 1945. It was just 350 miles (550 km) south of the Japanese home islands. Marines and soldiers landed on 1 April 1945, to begin an 82-day campaign which became the largest land-sea-air battle in history and was noted for the ferocity of the fighting and the high civilian casualties with over 150,000 Okinawans losing their lives. Japanese kamikaze pilots exacted the largest loss of ships in U.S. naval history with the sinking of 38 and the damaging of another 368. Total U.S. casualties were over 12,500 dead and 38,000 wounded, while the Japanese lost over 110,000 men. The fierce combat and high American losses led the Navy to oppose an invasion of the main islands. An alternative strategy was chosen: using the atomic bomb to induce surrender.[27]

text: Naval technology: US vs Japan[edit]

text: Technology and industrial power proved decisive. Japan failed to exploit its early successes before the immense potential power of the Allies could be brought to bear. In 1941 the Japanese Zero fighter had a longer range and better performance than rival American warplanes, and the pilots had more experience in the air.[28] But Japan never improved the Zero and by 1944 the Allied navies were far ahead of Japan in both quantity and quality, and ahead of Germany in quantity and in putting advanced technology to practical use. High tech innovations arrived with dizzying rapidity. Entirely new weapons systems were invented—like the landing ships, such as the 3,000-ton LST ("Landing Ship, Tank") that carried 25 tanks thousands of miles and landed them right on the assault beaches. Furthermore, older weapons systems were constantly upgraded and improved. Obsolescent airplanes, for example, received more powerful engines and more sensitive radar sets. One impediment to progress was that admirals who had grown up with great battleships and fast cruisers had a hard time adjusting their war-fighting doctrines to incorporate the capability and flexibility of the rapidly evolving new weapons systems.

text: Ships[edit]

text: The ships of the American and Japanese forces were closely matched at the beginning of the war. By 1943 the American qualitative edge was winning battles; by 1944 the American quantitative advantage made the Japanese position hopeless. The German navy, distrusting its Japanese ally, ignored Hitler's orders to cooperate and failed to share its expertise in radar and radio. Thus the Imperial Navy was further handicapped in the technological race with the Allies (who did cooperate with each other). The United States economic base was ten times larger than Japan's, and its technological capabilities also significantly greater, and it mobilized engineering skills much more effectively than Japan, so that technological advances came faster and were applied more effectively to weapons. Above all, American admirals adjusted their doctrines of naval warfare to exploit the advantages. The quality and performance of the warships of Japan were initially comparable to those of the US.

text: The Americans were supremely, and perhaps overly, confident in 1941. Pacific commander Admiral Chester W. Nimitz boasted he could beat a bigger fleet because of "...our superior personnel in resourcefulness and initiative, and the undoubted superiority of much of our equipment." As Willmott notes, it was a dangerous and ill-founded assumption.[29]

text: Battleships[edit]

text: The American battleships before Pearl Harbor could fire salvos of nine 2,100-pound armor-piercing shells every minute to a range of 35,000 yards (19 miles). No ship except another battleship had the thick armor that could withstand that kind of firepower. When intelligence reported that Japan had secretly built even more powerful battleships, Washington responded with four Iowa-class battleships. The "big-gun" admirals on both sides dreamed of a great shootout at twenty-mile (32 km) range, in which carrier planes would be used only for spotting the mighty guns. Their doctrine was utterly out of date. A plane like the Grumman TBF Avenger could drop a 2,000-pound bomb on a battleship at a range of hundreds of miles. An aircraft carrier cost less, required about the same number of personnel, was just as fast, and could easily sink a battleship. During the war the battleships found new missions: they were platforms holding all together dozens of anti-aircraft guns and eight or nine 14-inch or 16-inch long-range guns used to blast land targets before amphibious landings. Their smaller 5-inch guns, and the 4,800 3-inch to 8-inch guns on cruisers and destroyers also proved effective at bombarding landing zones. After a short bombardment of Tarawa island in November 1943, Marines discovered that the Japanese defenders were surviving in underground shelters. It then became routine doctrine to thoroughly work over beaches with thousands of high-explosive and armor-piercing shells. The bombardment would destroy some fixed emplacements and kill some troops. More important, it severed communication lines, stunned and demoralized the defenders, and gave the landing parties fresh confidence. After the landing, naval gunfire directed by ground observers would target any enemy pillboxes that were still operational. The sinking of the battleships at Pearl Harbor proved a blessing in deep disguise, for after they were resurrected and assigned their new mission they performed well. (Absent Pearl Harbor, big-gun admirals like Raymond Spruance might have followed prewar doctrine and sought a surface battle in which the Japanese would have been very hard to defeat.)[30]

text: Naval aviation[edit]

text: In World War I the US Navy explored aviation, both land-based and carrier based. However the Navy nearly abolished aviation in 1919 when Admiral William S. Benson, the reactionary Chief of Naval Operations, could not "conceive of any use the fleet will ever have for aviation", and he secretly tried to abolish the Navy's Aviation Division.[31] Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt reversed the decision because he believed aviation might someday be "the principal factor" at sea with missions to bomb enemy warships, scout enemy fleets, map mine fields, and escort convoys. Grudgingly allowing it a minor mission, the Navy slowly built up its aviation. In 1929 it had one carrier (USS Langley), 500 pilots and 900 planes; by 1937 it had 5 carriers (the Lexington, Saratoga, Ranger, Yorktown and Enterprise), 2000 pilots and 1000 much better planes. With Roosevelt now in the White House, the tempo soon quickened. One of the main relief agencies, the PWA, made building warships a priority. In 1941 the U.S. Navy with 8 carriers, 4,500 pilots and 3,400 planes had more airpower than the Japanese Navy.[32]

text: Germany[edit]

text: Submarines[edit]

text: Germany's main naval weapon was the U-boat; its main mission was to cut off the flow of supplies and munitions reaching Britain by sea. Submarine attacks on Britain's vital maritime supply routes in the "Battle of the Atlantic" started immediately at the outbreak of war. Although they were hampered initially by the lack of well placed ports from which to operate; that changed when France fell in 1940 and Germany took control of all the ports in France and the Low Countries. The U-boats had such a high success rate at first, that the period to early 1941 was known as the First Happy Time. The Kriegsmarine was responsible for coastal artillery protecting major ports and possible invasion points, and also handled anti-aircraft batteries protecting major ports.[33]

text: In 1939-1945 German shipyards launched 1,162 U-boats, of which 785 were destroyed during the war (632 at sea) along with 30,000 crew. The British anti-submarine ships and aircraft accounted for over 500 kills. At the end of the war, 156 U-boats surrendered to the Allies, while the crews scuttled 221 others, chiefly in German ports. In terms of effectiveness, German and other Axis submarines sank 2828 merchant ships totaling 14.7 million tons (11.7 million British); many more were damaged. The use of convoys dramatically reduced the number of sinkings, but convoys made for slow movement and long delays at both ends, and thus reduced the flow of Allied goods. German submarines also sank 175 Allied warships, mostly British, with 52,000 Royal Navy sailors killed.[34]

text: Surface fleet[edit]

text: The German fleet was involved in many operations, starting with the Invasion of Poland. Also in 1939, it sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous and the battleship HMS Royal Oak, while losing the Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate.

text: In April 1940, the German navy was heavily involved in the invasion of Norway, where it lost the heavy cruiser Blücher, two light cruisers, and ten destroyers. In return it sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and some smaller ships.

text: United Kingdom[edit]

text: The Royal Navy in the critical years 1939-43 was under the command of First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Dudley Pound (1877-1943). As a result of the earlier changes the Royal Navy entered the Second World War as a heterogeneous force of World War I veterans, inter-war ships limited by close adherence to treaty restrictions and later unrestricted designs. It remained a powerful force, though smaller and relatively older than it was during World War I.

text: At the start of World War II, Britain's global commitments were reflected in the Navy's deployment. Its first task remained the protection of trade, since Britain was heavily dependent upon imports of food and raw materials, and the global empire was also interdependent. The navy's assets were allocated between various Fleets and Stations[35]

text:
Fleet / station
Area of responsibility

Home Fleet
Home waters, i.e., North-East Atlantic, Irish Sea, North Sea, English Channel (sub-divided into commands and sub-commands)

Mediterranean Fleet
Mediterranean Sea

South Atlantic Station and Cape of Good Hope Station
South Atlantic and South African region

America and West Indies Station
Western North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, Eastern Pacific

East Indies Station / Eastern Fleet
Indian Ocean (excluding South Atlantic and Africa Station, Australian waters and waters adjacent to Dutch East Indies)

China Station / Eastern Fleet
North-west Pacific and waters around Dutch East Indies

text: There are sharply divided opinions of Pound's leadership. His greatest achievement was his successful campaign against German U-boat activity and the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic. Winston Churchill, the civilian head of the Navy (1939–40) and of all the forces as Prime Minister (1940–45) worked with him closely on naval strategies; he was dubbed "Churchill's anchor".[36] He blocked Churchill's scheme of sending a battle fleet into the Baltic early in the war. However his judgment has been challenged regarding his micromanagement, the failed Norwegian Campaign in 1940, his dismissal of Admiral Dudley North in 1940, Japan's sinking of the Repulse and the Prince of Wales by air attack off Malaya in late 1941, and the failure in July 1942 to disperse Convoy PQ17 under German attack.[37]

text: During the early phases of World War II, the Royal Navy provided critical cover during British evacuations from Norway (where an aircraft carrier and 6 destroyers were lost but 338,000 men were evacuated), from Dunkirk (where 7,000 RN men were killed) and at the Battle of Crete. In the latter operation Admiral Cunningham ran great risks to extract the Army, and saved many men to fight another day. The prestige of the Navy suffered a severe blow when the battlecruiser Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. Although the Bismarck was sunk a few days later, public pride in the Royal Navy was severely damaged as a result of the loss of the "mighty Hood". The RN carried out a bombardment of Oran in Algeria against the French Mediterranean Fleet. In the attack on Taranto torpedo bombers sank three Italian battleships in their naval base at Taranto and in March 1941 it sank three cruisers and two destroyers at Cape Matapan. The RN carried out an evacuation of troops from Greece to Crete and then from that island. In this the navy lost three cruisers and six destroyers but rescued 30,000 men.

text: The RN was vital in interdicting Axis supplies to North Africa and in the resupply of its base in Malta. The losses in Operation Pedestal were high but the convoy got through.

text: The Royal Navy was also vital in guarding the sea lanes that enabled British forces to fight in remote parts of the world such as North Africa, the Mediterranean and the Far East. Convoys were used from the start of the war and anti-submarine hunting patrols used. From 1942, responsibility for the protection of Atlantic convoys was divided between the various allied navies: the Royal Navy being responsible for much of the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Suppression of the U-boat threat was an essential requirement for the invasion of northern Europe: the necessary armies could not otherwise be transported and resupplied. During this period the Royal Navy acquired many relatively cheap and quickly built escort vessels.

text: The defence of the ports and harbours and keeping sea-lanes around the coast open was the responsibility of Coastal Forces and the Royal Naval Patrol Service.

text: Naval supremacy was vital to the amphibious operations carried out, such as the invasions of Northwest Africa (Operation Torch), Sicily, Italy, and Normandy (Operation Overlord). For Operation Neptune the RN and RCN supplied 958 of the 1213 warships and three quarters of the 4000 landing craft. The use of the Mulberry harbours allowed the invasion forces to be kept resupplied. There were also landings in the south of France in August.

text: During the war however, it became clear that aircraft carriers were the new capital ship of naval warfare, and that Britain's former naval superiority in terms of battleships had become irrelevant. Britain was an early innovator in aircraft carrier design, introducing armoured flight decks, in place of the now obsolete and vulnerable battleship. The Royal Navy was now dwarfed by its ally, the United States Navy. The successful invasion of Europe reduced the European role of the navy to escorting convoys and providing fire support for troops near the coast as at Walcheren, during the battle of the Scheldt.

text: The British Eastern Fleet had been withdrawn to East Africa because of Japanese incursions into the Indian Ocean. Despite opposition from the U.S. naval chief, Admiral Ernest King, the Royal Navy sent a large task force to the Pacific (British Pacific Fleet). This required the use of wholly different techniques, requiring a substantial fleet support train, resupply at sea and an emphasis on naval air power and defence. In 1945 84 warships and support vessels were sent to the Pacific. It remains the largest foreign deployment of the Royal Navy. Their largest attack was on the oil refineries in Sumatra to deny Japanese access to supplies. However it also gave cover to the US landings on Okinawa and carried out air attacks and bombardment of the Japanese mainland.

text: At the start of the Second World War the RN had 15 battleships and battlecruisers with five more battleships under construction, and 66 cruisers with another 23 under construction. To 184 destroyers with 52 more under construction a further 50 old destroyers (and other smaller craft) were obtained from the US in exchange for US access to bases in British territories (Destroyers for Bases Agreement). There were 60 submarines and seven aircraft carriers with more of both under construction.[38] At the end the RN had 16 battleships, 52 carriers—though most of these were small escort or merchant carriers—62 cruisers, 257 destroyers, 131 submarines and 9,000 other ships. During the war the Royal Navy lost 278 major warships[38] and more than 1,000 small ones. There were 200,000 men (including reserves and marines) in the navy at the start of the war, which rose to 939,000 by the end. 51,000 RN sailors were killed and a further 30,000 from the merchant services.[38] The WRNS was reactivated in 1938 and their numbers rose to a peak of 74,000 in 1944. The Royal Marines reached a maximum of 78,000 in 1945, having taken part in all the major landings.

text: German invasion threat 1940[edit]

text: Operation Sea Lion was Germany's threatened invasion across the English channel in 1940. The Germans had the soldiers and the small boats in place, and had far more in the way of tanks and artillery than the British had after their retreat from Dunkirk. However, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force were fully prepared, and historians believe that an attempted invasion would be a disaster for the Germans. British naval power, based in Scotland, was very well-equipped with heavily armored battleships; Germany had none available. At no point did Germany have the necessary air superiority. And even if they had achieved air superiority, it would have been meaningless on bad weather days, which would ground warplanes but not hinder the Royal Navy from demolishing the transports and blasting the landing fields.[39] The German general Alfred Jodl realized that as long as the British navy was a factor, an invasion would be to send "my troops into a mincing machine."[40]

text: Collaboration[edit]

text: With a wide range of nations collaborating with the Allies, the British needed a way to coordinate the work. The Royal Navy dealt smoothly with the navies-in-exile of Poland, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece using a liaison system between senior naval officers. The system produced the effective integration of Allied navies into Royal Navy commands.[41]

text: France[edit]

text: When France fell in June 1940, Germany made the soldiers into POWs but allowed Vichy France to keep its powerful fleet, the fourth largest in the world.[42] France sent its warships to its colonial ports or to ports controlled by Britain. The British fought one of the main squadrons in the attack on Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria (near Oran), on 3 July 1940. The attack killed 1300 men and sank one or badly damaged three of the four battleships at anchor. The Vichy government was angry indeed but did not retaliate and maintained a state of armed neutrality in the war.[43] The British seized warships in British harbors, and they eventually became part of the Free French Naval Forces. When Germany occupied all of France in November 1942, Vichy France had assembled at Toulon about a third of the warships it had started with, amounting to 200,000 tons. Germany tried to seize them; the French officers then scuttled their own fleet.[44]

text: Italy[edit]

text: The Italian navy ("Regia Marina") had the mission of keeping open the trans Mediterranean to North Africa and the Balkans; it was challenged by the British Royal Navy. It was well behind the British in the latest technology, such as radar, which was essential for night gunnery at long range. The Regia Marina had six battleships, 19 cruisers, 59 destroyers, 67 torpedo boats, and 116 submarines. Two aircraft carriers were under construction; they were never launched. The nation was too poor to launch a major shipbuilding campaign, which made the senior commanders cautious for fear of losing assets that could not be replaced. In the Battle of the Mediterranean the British had broken the Italian naval code and knew the times of departure, routing, time of arrival and make up of convoys. The Italians neglected to capture Malta, which became the main staging and logistical base for the British.

text: Japan[edit]

text: On 7 December 1941, the principal units of the Japanese Navy included:[45]

text:
10 battleships (11 by the end of the year)
6 fleet carriers
4 light fleet carriers
18 heavy cruisers
18 light cruisers
113 destroyers
63 submarines

tag: ul

text: The front-line strength of the Naval Air Forces was 1753 warplanes, including 660 fighters, 330 torpedo bombers, and 240 shore-based bombers. There were also 520 flying boats used for reconnaissance.[46]

text: Netherlands[edit]

text: The small but modern Dutch fleet had as its primary mission the defence of the oil-rich Dutch East Indies.[47] The Netherlands, Britain and the United States tried to defend the colony from the Japanese as it moved south in late 1941 in search of Dutch oil.[47][48] The Dutch had five cruisers, eight destroyers, 24 submarines, and smaller vessels, along with 50 obsolete aircraft. Most of the forces were lost to Japanese air or sea attacks, with the survivors merged into the British Eastern Fleet. The Dutch navy had suffered from years of underfunding and came ill-prepared to face an enemy with far more and far heavier ships with better weapons, including the Long Lance-torpedo, with which the cruiser Haguro downed the light cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter.[49]

text: As Germany invaded in April 1940, the government moved into exile in Britain and a few ships along with the headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Navy continued the fight. It maintained units in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), and after it was conquered later in Sri Lanka and Western Australia. It was deciseively defeated defending the Dutch East Indies in the Battle of the Java Sea. The battle consisted of a series of attempts over a seven-hour period by Admiral Karel Doorman's Combined Striking Force to attack the Japanese invasion convoy; each was rebuffed by the escort force. Doorman went down with his ships together with 1000 of his crew. During the relentless Japanese offensive of February through April 1942 in the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch navy in the Far East was virtually annihilated, and it sustained losses of a total of 20 ships (including its only two light cruisers) and 2500 sailors killed[50][51]

text: A small force of Dutch submarines based in Western Australian sank more Japanese ships in the first weeks of the war than the entire British and American navies together, an exploit which earned Admiral Helfrich the nickname "Ship-a-day Helfrich".[52]

text: Around the world Dutch naval units were responsible for transporting troops, for example during Operation Dynamo in Dunkirk and on D-Day, they escorted convoys and attacked enemy targets.

text: USSR[edit]

text: Building a Soviet fleet was a national priority, but many senior officers were killed in purges in the late 1930s.[53] The naval share of the national munitions budget fell from 11.5% in 1941 to 6.6% in 1944.[54]

text: When Germany invaded in 1941 and captured millions of soldiers, many sailors and naval guns were detached to reinforce the Red Army; these reassigned naval forces participated with every major action on the Eastern Front. Soviet naval personnel had especially significant roles on land in the battles for Odessa, Sevastopol, Stalingrad, Novorossiysk, Tuapse (see Battle of the Caucasus), and Leningrad. The Baltic fleet was blockaded in Leningrad and Kronstadt by minefields, but the submarines escaped. The surface fleet fought with the anti-aircraft defence of the city and bombarded German positions. In the Black Sea, many ships were damaged by minefields and Axis aviation, but they helped defend naval bases and supply them while besieged, as well as later evacuating them.[55]

text: The U.S. and Britain through Lend Lease gave the USSR ships with a total displacement of 810,000 tons.[56]

text: Poland[edit]

text: At the beginning of World War II, the Polish Navy, a single-seaport navy based out of the Port of Gdynia, was small. It consisted of two cruisers (one of them a heavy minelayer), nine destroyers, five submarines, and 11 escort vessels. Since it could not directly resist the Germany navy, some of the vessels were evacuated to Great Britain under the Peking Plan. The vessels left in the Baltic Sea attempted to obstruct the German navy, laying mines, but were not successful. Three Polish destroyers, including two Grom-class destroyers which were among the fastest (officially 39 knots, but achieving over 40 knots) and most heavily armed destroyers of World War II, joined the British navy. Moreover, two of the most advanced Polish submarines made it to the British Isles as well: ORP Wilk and ORP Orzel. Because Poland was not asked to surrender by either the Germans, or the Soviets, the Poles continued to fight. After the fall of France to the German advance in 1940, the British started providing equipment to the Polish Navy (in exile). The Polish Navy in the West participated in many campaigns, including: Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the British troops in 1940 from Dunkirk; Operation Torch, the British and American landings in North Africa in 1942; Operation Avalanche, landings near Salerno, Italy, in 1943; and Operation Deadlight, the scuttling of German submarines in 1946.[citation needed]

text: Battles and campaigns[edit]

text: Pacific[edit]

text: Atlantic[edit]

text:
Baltic Sea campaigns (1939–45)
Battle of the Atlantic
Commerce raiding
Merchant raiders
Operation Sea Lion
Battle of the Mediterranean
Black Sea Campaigns (1941–44)

Romanian Navy during World War II

text: Mediterranean[edit]

text: While the Royal Navy spent a great deal of energy dealing with German surface and submarine attacks on its merchant marine, it also launched its own attack on Axis shipping, especially in the Mediterranean. The British sank 3082 Axis merchantment in the Mediterranean, amounting to over 4 million tons. The loss of supplies proved fatal to the Axis armies in North Africa.[57]

text: Fleets overview[edit]

text: Allied Powers[edit]

text:
[show]

v
t
e

British naval ship classes of the Second World War

Aircraft carriers

Courageous
Argus
Hermes
Eagle
Ark Royal
Illustrious
Unicorn
Implacable
Colossus
MajesticC
AudaciousC
MaltaX
CentaurC

Escort carriers

ArcherAV
AudacityV
AvengerAV
AttackerA
RulerA
ActivityV
Pretoria CastleV
NairanaV

Battleships

Queen Elizabeth
Revenge
Nelson
King George V
LionX
VanguardC

Battlecruisers

Renown
HMS Hood

Heavy cruisers

Hawkins
County
York

Light cruisers

C
Danae
Emerald
Leander
Arethusa
Town
Dido
Crown Colony
Minotaur
NeptuneX

Minelayers

Adventure
Abdiel
Plover
Linnet
AgamemnonV
MenestheusV
Port NapierV
Port QuebecV
Southern PrinceV
Teviot BankV

Destroyer leaders

Shakespeare
Scott

Destroyers

R
S
V & W
TownA
Ambuscade
Amazon
A & B
C & D
E & F
G & H
I
Tribal
J, K & N
Hunt
L & M
O & P
Q & R
S & T
U & V
W & Z
C
Battle
WeaponC
GX
DaringC,P

Frigates

River
CaptainA
ColonyA
Loch
Bay

Corvettes

Flower
Castle

Sloops

24
Bridgewater
Hastings
BanffA
Shoreham
Grimsby
Kingfisher
Bittern
Egret
Black Swan

Minesweepers

Hunt
Halcyon
Bangor
AukA
Algerine
Cybele

Submarines

H
L
Odin
Parthian
Rainbow
S
River
Grampus
T
U
P611
V
Amphion
X
XE

Coastal

Harbour Defence Motor Launch
Fairmile B motor launch
Motor Torpedo Boat
Motor Gun Boat
Steam Gun Boat

Other

Trawlers
Isles
Portuguese
Tree
Monitors
Erebus
Roberts
Seaplane carriers
Pegasus
Albatross
Merchant aircraft carriers
Fighter catapult ships
Armed merchant cruisers
Ocean boarding vessels

A
American built
X
Cancelled
C
Completed after the war
C,P
Laid down and completed after the war
V
Conversions

text:
[show]

v
t
e

Dutch naval ship classes of World War II

Battlecruisers

Design 1047X

Cruisers

Java
De RuyterS
Tromp
De Zeven ProvinciënC

Destroyers

Admiralen
Gerard Callenburgh
Van GalenB

Frigates

Johan Maurits van NassauBS

Gunboats and sloops

Brinio
Flores
Johan Maurits van NassauS
Van KinsbergenS
K

Submarines

O-series

O 9
O 12
O 16S
O 19
O 21

K-series

K V
K VIII
K XI
K XIV

Other

DolfijnBS
ZeehondBS
ZwaardvischB

Mine warfare vessel

Minelayers

Hydra
Douwe Aukes
Prins van Oranje
Willem van der ZaanS

Minesweepers

M
A
Jan van Amstel
ABC

B
ex-British
C
Completed after the war
S
Single ship of class
X
Cancelled

text:
[show]
French naval ship classes of World War II

Aircraft carriers

BéarnS
JoffreX
AvengerLL

Battleships

Courbet
Bretagne
Dunkerque
Richelieu
AlsaceX

Heavy cruisers

Duquesne
Suffren
AlgérieS
Saint-LouisX

Light cruisers

Duguay-Trouin
Jeanne d'ArcS
Émile BertinS
La Galissonnière
De GrasseS

Large destroyers

Chacal
Guépard
Aigle
Vauquelin
Le Fantasque
Mogador

Torpedo boats

Bourrasque
L'Adroit
Le Hardi
La Melpomène
HuntLL

Escorteurs

French Flower
CannonLL
PC-461LL
RiverLL

Submarines

Sirène
Ariane
Circé
Argonaute
Orion
Diane
Saphir
Requin
Redoutable
SurcoufS
Minerve
Aurore
ULL
AcciaioLL

Avisos

Arras
Bougainville
Elan
Chamois

Other

Commandant TesteS (seaplane tender)
PlutonS (minelaying cruiser)

LL
Lend-Lease
S
Single ship of class
X
Cancelled

text:
[show]

v
t
e

Soviet naval ship classes of World War II

Battleships

Gangut
RevengeUK
Sovetsky SoyuzX

Battlecruisers

KronshtadtX

Cruisers

Bogatyr
Svetlana
Admiral Nakhimov
OmahaUS
Admiral HipperX
Kirov
ChapayevX

Destroyers

Novik
Derzky
Orfey
Izyaslav
Fidonisy
Leningrad
Tashkent
Gnevny
Soobrazitelnyy
Opytny
Ognevoy
TownUK
MărăştiR
Regele FerdinandR

Guard ships

MO
Uragan
Yastreb

Motor torpedo boats

Sh-4
G-5
D3

Submarines

D
L
Shch
P
S
M
K
A (AG)
KalevE
RonisL
DelfinulR
RechinulR
MarsuinulR
CBR
SUK
UUK

UK
loan from United Kingdom
US
loan from United States
R
surrendered by Romania in 1944
E
formerly Estonian
L
formerly Latvian
X
Cancelled or completed after war

text:
[show]

v
t
e

United States naval ship classes of World War II

Aircraft carriers

Lexington
RangerS
Yorktown
WaspS
Essex
MidwayC

Light aircraft carriers

Independence
SaipanC

Escort carriers

Long Island
Charger
Bogue
Sangamon
Casablanca
Commencement Bay

Battleships

Wyoming
New York
Nevada
Pennsylvania
New Mexico
Tennessee
Colorado
North Carolina
South Dakota
Iowa
MontanaX

Large cruisers

Alaska

Heavy cruisers

Pensacola
Northampton
Portland
New Orleans
WichitaS
Baltimore
Oregon CityC
Des MoinesC

Light cruisers

Omaha
Brooklyn
St. Louis
Atlanta
Cleveland
FargoC
JuneauC
WorcesterC

Gunboats

Asheville
Tulsa
Dubuque
PlymouthS
WilliamsburgS
St. AugustineS
VixenS
Erie

Destroyers

Sampson
Caldwell
Wickes
Clemson
Farragut
Porter
Mahan
Gridley
Bagley
Somers
Benham
Sims
Benson
Gleaves
Fletcher
Allen M. Sumner
Robert H. Smith
Gearing

Destroyer escorts

Evarts
Buckley
Cannon
Edsall
Rudderow
John C. Butler

Patrol frigates

Asheville
Tacoma

Patrol boats

Action
PT boat

Minesweepers

Lapwing
Raven
Auk
EagleS
Hawk
Admirable

Submarines

O
R
S
Barracuda
ArgonautS
Narwhal
DolphinS
Cachalot
Porpoise
Salmon
Sargo
Tambor
Mackerel
Gato
Balao
Tench

Tankers

T1 tanker
T2 tanker
T3 tanker

Minelayers

Camanche Class
Chimo Class
Other minelayers

Cargo

Liberty
Victory
Haskell
Andromeda
Arcturus
Artemis
Tolland
Alstede
Aldebaran
Adria
Acubens
Arctic
Denebola
Hyades
Mizar

S
Single ship of class
C
Completed after the war
X
Cancelled

text:
[show]

v
t
e

Polish naval ship classes of World War II

Light cruisers

ConradRN

Minelayers

GryfS

Destroyers

Wicher
Grom
Improved GromX
GRNS
MRNS
NRNS
HuntRN
BourrasqueRNS

Torpedo boats

A
V105
Motor Torpedo BoatsRN

Submarines

Wilk
Orzeł
Improved OrzełX
URN
SRN

Minesweepers

Jaskółka

Gunboats

Ocean

Filin

River

Warszawa
Kraków

S
Single ship of class
RN; Loan from Royal Navy
X
Cancelled

text: Axis Powers and Co-belligerents[edit]

text:
[show]
German naval ship classes of World War II

Aircraft carriers

Graf Zeppelin
IX
Jade X
Seydlitz X
II X

Capital Ships

Scharnhorst
Bismarck
HX
OX

Pre-dreadnought battleships

Deutschland

Heavy cruisers

Deutschland
Admiral Hipper
DX
PX

Light cruisers

Gazelle
EmdenS
Königsberg
Leipzig
MX
SpähkreuzerX

Destroyers

Type 1934
Type 1934A
Type 1936
Type 1936A
Type 1936A / 1936A (Mob) / Narvik
Type 1936B

Torpedo boats

Type 23
Type 24
Type 35
Type 37
Elbing
Torpedoboot Ausland

U-boats (submarines)

Type I
Type II
Type VII
Type IX
Type X
Type XIV
Type XVII
Type XXI
Type XXIII
Uncompleted projects

Other

E-boats
R boats
M-class minesweepers
F-class escort ship
Auxiliary cruisers
Vorpostenboot
Marinefährprahm
Siebel ferry
Sperrbrecher

S
Single ship of class
X
Cancelled
V
Conversions

text:
[show]

v
t
e

Italian naval ship classes of World War II

Aircraft carriers

AquilaS (not delivered)
SparvieroS (cancelled)

Battleships

Conte di Cavour
Andrea Doria
Littorio

Heavy cruisers

Trento
Zara
BolzanoS

Light cruisers

Condottieri
Capitani Romani
Etna

Destroyers

Mirabello
Leone
Sella
Sauro
Turbine
Navigatori
Freccia
Folgore
Maestrale
Oriani
Soldati
Comandanti Medaglie d'Oro

Torpedo boats

Audace*S
Rosolino Pilo*
Giuseppe Sirtori*
La Masa*
Palestro*
Generali*
Curtatone*
Spica
Orsa
Ciclone
Ariete

Corvettes

Gabbiano

Submarines

Ocean-going

Balilla
Ettore FieramoscaS
Archimede
Glauco
Pietro MiccaS
Calvi
Marcello
Foca
Brin
Liuzzi
Marconi
Cagni
R

Sea-going

Mameli
Pisani
Bandiera
Squalo
Bragadin
Argonauta
Settembrini
Sirena
Perla
Adua
Argo
Acciaio
Flutto

Coastal/midget

H
CA
CB
CC
CM

Motor torpedo boats

MAS
MS
VAS

Other

San Giorgio
BariS
TarantoS
Ramb IS
Ramb IIS
Ramb IIIS
Ramb IVS
EritreaS
DianaS
AlbatrosS

S
Single ship of class
* Reclassified obsolete destroyers

text:
[show]

v
t
e

Japanese naval ship classes of World War II

Aircraft carriers

AkagiSC
KagaSC
SōryūS
HiryūS
Shōkaku
HiyōC
TaihōS
Unryū
ShinanoSC

Light aircraft carriers

HōshōS
RyūjōS
ZuihōC
RyūhōSC
ChitoseC
IbukiSCI
Project Number G18X

Escort carriers

Navy

TaiyōC
KaiyōSC
Shin'yōSC
Shimane MaruC

Army

Akitsu MaruC
Yamashio MaruC
Kumano MaruSC

Battleships

Kongō
Fusō
Ise
Nagato
Yamato
Design A-150X

Heavy cruisers

Furutaka
Aoba
Myōkō
Takao
MogamiL
Tone
IbukiI

Armored cruisers

AsamaS
YakumoS
Izumo

Light cruisers

Tenryū
Kuma
Nagara
YūbariS
Sendai
Katori
Agano
ŌyodoS
Ioshima

Protected cruisers

Yodo
Chikuma

Destroyers

1st class

Minekaze
Kamikaze
Mutsuki
Fubuki
Akatsuki
Hatsuharu
Shiratsuyu
Asashio
Kagerō
Yūgumo
Akizuki
ShimakazeS
Matsu
Tachibana

2nd class

Momo
Momi
Wakatake

Torpedo boats

Chidori
Ōtori

Submarines

1st class

Junsen
Type A (Kō)
Type B (Otsu)
Type C (Hei)
Type D (Tei)/Sen'yu
Kaidai
Kiraisen (I-121)
Senho (I-351)
Sentoku (I-400)
Sentaka (I-201)
I-501S
I-502S
I-503S
I-504S
I-505S
I-506S

2nd class

Kaichū
Type L
Sen-Shō (Ro-100)
Sen'yu-Shō (Ha-101)
Sentaka-Shō (Ha-201)
Ro-500S
Ro-501S

Army

Maru Yu

Submarine tenders

Jingei
Taigei

Gunboats

Ocean

SagaS
AtakaS
Hashidate
OkitsuS

River

TobaS
Seta
Atami
Fushimi
KotakaS
KaratsuS
MaikoS
NarumiS
SumaS
TataraS

Escort ships

Shimushu
Etorofu
Mikura
Hiburi
Ukuru
Type C
Type D
IoshimaC

Small craft

Daihatsu (landing craft)
Shin'yō (suicide boat)
Kaiten (manned torpedo)
Kō-hyōteki (midget submarine)
Kairyū (midget submarine)

S
Single ship of class
C
Converted to ship type
L
Officially classed as light cruisers under Washington Naval Treaty until 1939 refits
I
Incomplete until the end of the war
X
Cancelled

text:
[show]

v
t
e

Finnish naval ship classes of World War II

Coastal defence ships

Väinämöinen class

Väinämöinen
Ilmarinen

Submarines

Vetehinen class

Vetehinen
Vesihiisi
Iku-Turso

VesikkoS
SaukkoS

Gunboats

Uusimaa class

Uusimaa
Hämeenmaa

Turunmaa class

Turunmaa
Karjala

Minelayers

Ruotsinsalmi class

Ruotsinsalmi
Riilahti

LouhiS
Pukkio class
T class

Motor torpedo boats

Sisu class
IskuS
Syöksy class
Hurja class
Jymy class
Taisto class
Captured Soviet motor torpedo boats

D-3 class
G-5 class

Minesweepers

Ahven class
Kuha class
Rautu class
SM class
Ajonpää class

Patrol boats

VMV class
VTV-1

Other

Auxiliary gunboats

Viena
Aunus

Auxiliary minelayers

Baltic
Frej
Poseidon
Suomi

S
Single ship of class

text: Neutral Powers[edit]

text:
[show]

v
t
e

Swedish naval ship classes of World War II

Coastal defence ships

DristighetenS
Äran
Oscar IIS
Sverige

Armoured cruisers

FylgiaS

Light cruisers

GotlandS
Tre KronorI

Protected cruisers

Clas FlemingS

Minelayers

ÄlvsnabbenS

Destroyers

WaleS
Ragnar
Hugin
Wrangel
Ehrensköld
Klas
Göteborg
SellaRM
Mode
Visby
ÖlandI

Torpedo boats

Komet
Plejad
SpicaRM

Submarines

Hajen
Bävern
ValenS
Draken
Delfinen
Sjölejonet
Kust
Neptun

Minesweepers

Sökaren
Arholma

Patrol boats

Jägaren

S
Single ship of class
RM
Purchased from Regia Marina
I
Incomplete until the end of the war


document_title: So You Think You Can Dance (U.S. TV series)

question_text: who won so yiu think you can dance

question_tokens: who won so yiu think you can dance

root

text: Show format[edit]

text: A typical season of So You Think You Can Dance is divided between a selection process, during which expert judges select competitors from a wide pool of applicant dancers, and a competition phase, during which these 'finalists' (more typically referred to as the 'Top 20') compete for votes from home viewers. Though it is produced over the course of months, the selection phase is highly edited and usually constitutes only the first 2–4 weeks of aired episodes, with the competition episodes forming the remaining 8–9 weeks of the season.

tag: p

text: Open auditions[edit]

text: The open auditions, the first stage in determining a seasons finalists, take place in 5–6 major U.S. cities each season and are typically open to anyone aged 18–30 at the time of their audition. The cities where auditions are held change from season to season but some, such as Los Angeles and New York, have featured in most seasons. During this stage, dancers perform a brief routine (typically a solo, but duet and group routines are allowed as well) before a panel of dance experts, usually headed by series creator and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. This panel then decides on-the-spot whether the dancer demonstrated enough ability and performance value to proceed further. If the dancer exhibited exceptional ability in their performance, judges award "a ticket to Vegas" (or in more recent seasons "a ticket to the Academy"), moving them instantly one step forward in the competition. Alternatively, if judges are on the fence about the dancer, they may ask the contestant to wait until the end of that day's auditions to participate in a short test of their ability to pick up professional choreography.

text: Callbacks[edit]

text: The second stage of the selection process is referred to as "the callbacks" (the round has often been held in the city of Las Vegas and also been known as "Vegas Week" for much of the show's run, but has been called Academy Week since season 13). The callbacks consist of a several-day-long process in which the remaining hopefuls are tested for overall well-rounded dance ability, stamina, creativity and their ability to perform under pressure. The dancers are put through a battery of rounds that test their ability to pick up various dance styles; these are typically some of the more well-represented genres that are later prominent in the competition phase, such as hip-hop, jazz, ballroom, and contemporary. Additionally the dancers may be asked to perform further solos in styles of their choosing and participate in a group choreography round in which small teams of contestants must display their musicality and ability to communicate professionally by choreographing a performance to a randomly selected piece of music — this challenge is notable as being the only time competitors are asked to choreograph themselves, aside from solos. The Callbacks are often collectively portrayed as one of the most exhausting and stressful stages of the competition; each successive round sees cuts in which a significant portion of the remaining dancers are eliminated from competition and dancers are given a limited amount of time to adapt to styles they are sometimes wholly unfamiliar with while being physically taxed by the rapid progression of rounds and a limited amount of rest. At the end of this process, usually less than 40 competitors remain in a pool that final contestants are chosen from. Most seasons have featured 20 top finalists for the competition portion of the show, but Season One was represented by a Top 16, Season Seven saw a Top 11, and Season Thirteen employed a Top 10.

text: Finalist selection and showcase episode[edit]

text: Following Vegas Week—-which has, through video vignettes, made many of the dancers increasingly familiar to the audience as it observes their attempts to cope with the challenges of the week-—the judge's panel selects their finalists from the remaining dancers, breaking the good or bad news to each dancer. Since Season six, the series has also featured a showcase episode that takes place immediately before the main competition. In this episode, dancers compete for the first time on the main SYTYCD stage in Los Angeles before a live audience, dancing duet or group routines, but only in their own styles. In seasons eight through ten, the finalist announcement episode and the dancer's showcase were combined into one episode, with groups of dancers taking to the stage for the first time immediately after they are revealed. In seasons six through nine, no dancers were in danger of elimination at this point and the first round of viewer voting and judge eliminations occurred the following week. In the slightly more compact format of the more recent seasons, the dancer showcase is often the first episode to be accompanied by viewer voting and a resulting elimination.

text: Finalist Stage[edit]

text: Following the finalist selection process, the show transitions into its regular competition phase, which lasts the rest of the season. The competition stage is typically divided into 8 weeks, generally with two contestants eliminated per week. Dancers are paired-up into male-female couples that will sometimes stay paired for half of the remaining competition if neither is eliminated. These couples perform 1–2 duets per week in randomly selected styles. These duets, as with all non-solo performances at this stage in the competition, are choreographed by professional choreographers. Prior to most duet performances, a video packet of clips of the couple preparing to perform the routine is shown; these packets are intended not only to demonstrate the couple's efforts to master the routine, but also to give glimpses of the personalities of the dancers as well as to allow the choreographer to give insight as to the thematic, narrative, and artistic intentions of the piece. Following each duet performance, the week's panel of judges gives critical feedback, often emphasizing the two key areas of technique and performance value. Duets and their accompanying video packets and critiques typically take up the majority of a competition show but may also be supplemented by solos or group numbers. Each competition show ends with a quick recap of the night's routines accompanied by voting prompts--traditionally by phone, but increasingly through online voting processes. Performance shows typically last around two hours, commercials included.

text: In seasons 2-8 the show's weekly format was split between two episodes, a performance episode, as described above, and a results show which reveals the outcome of the at-home-viewer voting. Results shows typically aired on the night immediately following that of the performance show of the same week and usually opened with a group routine from the remaining contestants. The main purpose of this show was to determine which of the dancers are eliminated that week, but these episodes generally also featured guest dance performances or guest musical acts, and sometimes further video packets that provide insight on the dancers and their journey on the show. More recent seasons have moved to a one-show-per-week format, combining elements that used to be found in both varieties of show. Regardless of how many shows air per week, a "bottom three" couples (those that garnered the fewest votes from viewers--in some seasons it is a bottom three of individual dancers rather than couples) are typically revealed weekly at this stage in the competition. Each of these dancers are then in danger of elimination and must perform a solo for the judges as their last effort to impress and stay in the competition. The judges then retire briefly (typically during the night's headlining musical guest performance) to determine which man and woman (which are not necessarily from the same couple) will leave the competition. The eliminated dancers are then announced and given a brief send-off via a video montage. On very rare occasions, the judges have been unwilling to send any of the bottom dancers home on the merits of their performances that week amd have abstained from making an elimination and instead allowed all competitors to proceed to the next week (often to be followed by a double elimination the following week). Since Season 7, dancers have also been routinely paired with "All Stars", returning dancers from previous seasons who partner with the contestant dancers, but are not themselves competing.

text: The total number of hours shown in a given week during the performance phase of the competition has varied from two to four hours. In season one there was no results show and the dancers' eliminations were pre-recorded the week they occurred and then broadcast at the beginning of the next week's episode. Seasons 9-14 have also utilized one show per week, but with votes from the previous week being revealed later in the show. Voting has varied by season (and often within seasons) with regard to whether the voter selected individuals or couples. There has also been variability in how long couples are kept together and how the at-home-viewer votes are balanced against judge decisions, though ultimately at some point in every season, the judges give up their power to save dancers at this point, and eliminations are determined exclusively by viewer votes, with judges serving in only an advisory capacity. Each season undergoes one final format shake-up in its last week, which typically takes place when the show reaches a Top 4. In the final performance show, the remaining dancers typically each dance duets with all of their remaining fellow finalists as well as perform solos and participate in group numbers. The following night's season finale episode is often the most elaborately produced show of a season and features the last performances of the competitors, encore performances of many of the season's most acclaimed routines, guest dancers (including returning past season competitors and cast-members from other international versions of the franchise), musical performances and multiple video packets chronicling the course of the season's events, all culminating in the announcement of the winner of the competition, as decided by the previous night's vote. Some seasons have featured a singular winner, while others have allowed for a male and female winner. Following the closure of the season, the Top Ten dancers often go on tour for several months, performing hit routines from the season amongst other performances.

text: Judges[edit]

text: The judging panel has also varied considerably in size and composition over the run of the series. Typically a season has 2–3 permanent judges with an additional 1–2 guest judges for most episodes, with the panel ballooning up to six to nine members for Vegas Week and the finale. Executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is the only permanent judge on the panel for all of the seasons. Other permanent judges have included ballroom specialist Mary Murphy, film director and choreographer Adam Shankman and contemporary choreographer Mia Michaels. Guest judge positions are typically filled by choreographers who work regularly on the show—though choreographers will never develop routines for an episode on which they judge—who in rare cases may also be former contestants themselves, and by iconic names from the entertainment industry. Guest judges for the show have included: Debbie Allen, Christina Applegate, Robin Antin, Toni Basil, Cicely Bradley, Kristin Chenoweth, Alex Da Silva, Ellen DeGeneres, Tyce Diorio, Joey Dowling, Napoleon and Tabitha D'umo, Carmen Electra, Brian Friedman, Jean-Marc Généreux, Jason Gilkison, Neil Patrick Harris, Hi-Hat, Katie Holmes, Dan Karaty, Lady Gaga, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lil' C, Rob Marshall, Mandy Moore, Megan Mullally, Kenny Ortega, Toni Redpath, Debbie Reynolds, Wade Robson, Doriana Sanchez, Shane Sparks, Sonya Tayeh, Olisa Thompson, Stacey Tookey, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Travis Wall. In earlier seasons, the judges decided on eliminations until around week five of the competitive phase of the show, but in seasons seven through nine the judges decided the eliminations until week seven. Beginning with the twelfth season, Paula Abdul and Jason Derulo joined Lythgoe as permanent judges.[2] For the thirteenth season, 13-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler joined the panel as a fourth judge.[3] Season Fourteen has seen the departure of Abdul, Derulo, and Ziegler from their season-long positions of the judges panel, but introduction of Vanessa Hudgens and the return of Mary Murphy to her seat.

text: Overview of format and presentation by season[edit]

text:
Season
Dates
Host
Permanent judges
Separate results show?
Dancer showcase episode?†
Number of finalists in first live show
Number of contestants eliminated per week
Number of contestants remaining in finale
No. of winners
All-Stars included
in format?
Point at which judge eliminations end
Voting for individual dancers starting with

1
Summer 2005
(July–October)
Lauren Sánchez
Nigel Lythgoe
No
No
16
2
4
1
No
Top 8
Top 8

2
Summer 2006
(May–August)
Cat Deeley
Yes
No
20
2
4
1
No
Top 10
Top 10

3
Summer 2007
(May–August)
Nigel Lythgoe
Mary Murphy
Yes
No
20
2
4
1
No
Top 10
Top 10

4
Summer 2008
(May–August)
Yes
No
20
2
4
1
No
Top 10
Top 10

5
Summer 2009
(May–August)
Yes
No
20
2
4
1
No
Top 10
Top 10

6
Fall 2009
(September–December)
Nigel Lythgoe
Mary Murphy
Adam Shankman
Yes
Yes
20
2
6
1
No
Top 10
Top 10

7
Summer 2010
(May–August)
Nigel Lythgoe
Adam Shankman
Mia Michaels
Yes
Yes
11
1*
3
1
Yes
Top 4
Top 11

8
Summer 2011
(May–August)
Nigel Lythgoe
Mary Murphy
Yes
Yes‡
20
2*
4
1
Yes
Top 6
Top 10

9
Summer 2012
(May–September)
No
Yes‡
20
2*
4
2
Yes
Top 6
Top 20

10
Summer 2013
(May–September)
No
Yes‡
20
2
4
2
Yes
Top 6
Top 20

11
Summer 2014
(May–September)
No
Yes
20
2
4
1
Yes
Top 10
Top 20

12
Summer 2015
(June–September)
Nigel Lythgoe
Paula Abdul
Jason Derulo
No
Yes
20
2⁂
4
1
Yes
Top 14
Top 20

13°
Summer 2016
(May–September)
Nigel Lythgoe
Paula Abdul
Jason Derulo
Maddie Ziegler
No
Yes
10
1**
4
1
Yes
Top 8
Top 10

14
Summer 2017
(June–September)
Nigel Lythgoe
Mary Murphy
Vanessa Hudgens
No
No
10
1
4
1
Yes
Top 6
Top 10

tag: table

text: † From its inception in season 6 and through season 10, the dancer showcase episode represented a non-competitive round with no viewer voting or subsequent eliminations, followed the next week by the first competitive round. In season 11 it was the first episode of the season upon which viewers voted.

text: ‡ For seasons 8-10, the dancer showcase episode was combined with the Top 20 reveal episode, with groups of the dancers performing immediately after being revealed as finalists.

text: * In both seasons 7 and 8, the judges decided not to eliminate any dancers on the occasion of one results show; in both cases this event was followed by the elimination of double the normal amount of contestants the following week. Similarly, for format reasons, season 9 featured two shows with double eliminations, with four dancers eliminated instead of two for each of these shows.

text: ⁂ Unlike all previous seasons, season 12 featured the elimination of one "street" dancer and one "stage" dancer each week, as opposed to one female and one male contestant (as in all previous seasons which eliminated two dancers per week).

text: °Season 13 (during which the show was subtitled 'The Next Generation') featured competitors between the ages of 9 (or as young as 8 at time of application) and 14.

text: **In season 13, the judges held the audition rounds, but the all-stars, rather than the judges, made the eliminations during Academy week to choose the top 10. After this, in episodes 7 and 8, from the two contestants with the lowest viewer votes, the judges made the elimination. In episode 9, the two contestants with the lowest viewer votes were both eliminated, and in episodes 10 and 11, the contestant with the lowest viewer votes was eliminated.

text: Dance styles and choreographers[edit]

text: Over the course of its eleven seasons, So You Think You Can Dance has featured dozens of distinct dance styles in its choreographed routines. Most of these styles fall into four categories that are regularly showcased and can be found in almost every performance episode: western contemporary/classical styles, ballroom styles, hip-hop/street styles, and Jazz and its related styles. Various other forms of dance that do not especially fall into these broad categories are seen as well, but not as regularly. The following styles have all been seen in a choreographed duet or group routine; styles featured only in auditions or solos are not listed.

text: Classical styles[edit]

text: Routines from the classically derived style of contemporary dance are the most common dances seen on the show, being seen in every performance episode of the series (and typically at least twice per episode). While contemporary, lyrical, and modern dance are typically considered three separate (if overlapping) styles, the practice on So You Think You Can Dance has been to refer to all routines in this area as "contemporary", except in the first season where the label "lyrical" was used for the same purpose. Ballet routines occur much more rarely, at a rate of one or two per season since their introduction in the fourth season.

text:
Genre
Styles

Western Classical styles

Contemporary, Lyrical, Modern, Ballet/Pas de Deux

Choreographers

Dee Caspary, Tessandra Chavez, Tyce Diorio, Joey Dowling, Justin Giles, Mandy Moore, Mia Michaels, Dwight Rhoden, Desmond Richardson, Garry Stewart, Sonya Tayeh, Stacey Tookey, Travis Wall, Tovaris Wilson, Keith Young, Lindsay Nelko

text: Street and club styles[edit]

text: Hip-hop routines are also present in every performance episode. While these routines frequently feature elements from many different subgenres of hip-hop (locking and popping, for example) and various "street" styles (such as breaking), they are typically all labelled under the umbrella term of hip-hop. An exception is the now frequently featured lyrical hip-hop, which is unique amongst all the styles on SYTYCD in that it is the only one that is held to have become a known distinct style at least in-part as a result of the show; the style is widely attributed to regular show choreographers Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo and the term itself to judge Adam Shankman. These two broad categories are occasionally supplemented by krump routines, which have been featured a few times a season since their introduction in season 2. Additionally the styles of breakdancing (in the sense of a full breaking routine as opposed to a hip-hop routine with a few breaking tricks), waacking, and stepping have all been featured in exactly one routine. In Season 12, there are more street style dances because of the season's new format where there are 10 street dancers which do only street styles.

text:
Genre
Styles

Street and Contemporary Club Styles

Hip-hop (umbrella term for all Popping, Locking, and New Style/Commercial Hip-Hop styles), Lyrical Hip-hop, Breaking/B-boying, Krump, Stepping, Waacking

Choreographers

Cicely Bradley, Luther Brown, Tessandra Chavez, Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo, Dan Karaty, Marty Kudelka, Lil' C, Chuck Maldonado, Todd Sams, Christopher Scott, Dave Scott, Shane Sparks, Jamal Sims, Olisa Thompson, Dana Wilson, Pharside and Phoenix, Luam.

text: Ballroom styles[edit]

text: Ballroom styles are also seen regularly in every performance episode; these dances may be traditional European-derived styles or Latin-American styles or a mix of the two.

text:
Genre
Styles

Standard or Smooth Ballroom styles

Foxtrot, Tango, Argentine Tango, Quickstep, Waltz (including Smooth Waltz, Slow Waltz, American Slow Waltz, and Viennese Waltz variants)

Latin/Rhythm Ballroom styles

Cha-Cha-Cha, Jive, American Jive, Mambo, Paso Doble, Rumba, Salsa, Street Salsa, Samba, African Samba

Choreographers

Mark Ballas, Leonardo Barrionuevo, Dmitry Chaplin, Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Alex Da Silva, Sasha Farber, Anya Garnis, Jean-Marc Généreux, Jason Gilkison, Hunter Johnson, Pasha Kovalev, Melanie LaPatin, Miriam Larici, Liz Lira, Michael Mead, Tony Meredith, Tomas Mielnicki, Ron Montez, France Mousseau, Mary Murphy, Jonathan Platero, Oksana Platero, Toni Redpath, Jonathan Roberts, Fabian Sanchez, Edward Simon, Emma Slater, Heather Smith, J.T. Thomas, Louis Van Amstel, Gustavo Vargas, Glenn Weiss

text: Jazz, Broadway, and musical theater styles[edit]

text: Jazz is featured in nearly all performance episodes. While these routines are typically labelled simply "Jazz", the genre is notable as being one of the most fusional featured on the show and various style combinations and sub-categories have been referenced. Descended from Jazz but treated as a separate genre on SYTYCD, "Broadway" is analogous to the label "Musical Theater" outside the U.S.

text:
Genre
Styles

Jazz Styles

Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Modern Jazz, Lyrical Jazz, African Jazz, Jazz-Funk, Latin Jazz, Pop-Jazz/Pop

Broadway/Musical Theatre Styles

Broadway, Burlesque, Can-Can, Tap

Choreographers

Andy Blankenbuehler, Sean Cheesman, Tyce Diorio, Brian Friedman, Laurie Ann Gibson, Derick K. Grant, Charles Klapow, Ray Leeper, Spencer Liff, Mandy Moore, Anthony Morigerato, Amanda Robson, Wade Robson, Sonya Tayeh, Savion Glover

text: American social styles[edit]

text: These dance styles are featured less frequently than their ballroom relatives, but have been seen intermittently since the first season.

text:
Genre
Styles

American Social / Traditional Club Styles

Charleston, Country-Western Two-Step, Disco, Go-Go, Hustle, Lindy Hop, Rock n' Roll, Swing, West Coast Swing

Choreographers

Ronnie DeBenedetta, Carla Heiney, Brandi Tobais, Travis Payne, Doriana Sanchez, Benji Schwimmer, Kristen Sorci, Maria Torres, Nick Williams

text: Regional/traditional styles[edit]

text: In addition to the broad categories above, many more styles that are less common in the U.S. are sometimes featured. Most of these are seen only once, but the Bollywood style has been featured several times per season since the fourth season.

text:
Genre
Styles

Regional/Traditional Styles

Bollywood, African, Capoeira, Kalinka, Malevos, Tahitian, Tropak

Choreographers

Lilia Babenko, Leonardo Barrionuevo, Nakul Dev Mahajan, Miriam Larici, Tiana Liufau, Youri Nelzine.

text: Seasons[edit]

text: Grand Finalists[edit]

text:
Season
Winner
Runner-up
Third place
Fourth place
Fifth place
Sixth place

1
Nick Lazzarini
(Contemporary Jazz)
Melody Lacayanga
(Contemporary)
Jamile McGee
(Popping)
Ashlé Dawson
(Jazz)

2
Benji Schwimmer
(Swing/Latin)
Travis Wall
(Contemporary)
Donyelle Jones
(Jazz/Hip-Hop)
Heidi Groskreutz
(Ballroom)

3
Sabra Johnson
(Contemporary)
Danny Tidwell
(Contemporary)
Neil Haskell
(Contemporary)
Lacey Schwimmer
(Swing/Latin)

4
Joshua Allen
(Hip-Hop)
Stephen "Twitch" Boss
(Hip-Hop)
Katee Shean
(Contemporary)
Courtney Galiano
(Contemporary)

5
Jeanine Mason
(Contemporary)
Brandon Bryant
(Contemporary)
Evan Kasprzak
(Broadway)
Kayla Radomski
(Contemporary)

6
Russell Ferguson
(Krump)
Jakob Karr
(Contemporary)
Kathryn McCormick
(Contemporary)
Ellenore Scott
(Jazz)
Ashleigh Di Lello
(Ballroom)
Ryan Di Lello
(Ballroom)

7
Lauren Froderman
(Contemporary)
Kent Boyd
(Contemporary Jazz)
Robert Roldan
(Contemporary Jazz)

8
Melanie Moore
(Contemporary)
Sasha Mallory
(African Jazz)
Marko Germar
(Contemporary Jazz)
Tadd Gadduang
(Breakdance)

Female winner
Male winner
Female runner-up
Male runner-up

9
Eliana Girard
(Ballet)
Chehon Wespi-Tschopp
(Ballet)
Tiffany Maher
(Jazz)
Cyrus "Glitch" Spencer
(Popping/Animation)

10
Amy Yakima
(Jazz)
Du-Shaunt "Fik-Shun" Stegall
(Hip-Hop)
Jasmine Harper
(Contemporary)
Aaron Turner
(Tap)

Winner
Runner-up
Third place
Fourth place

11
Ricky Ubeda
(Contemporary)
Valerie Rockey
(Tap)
Jessica Richens
(Jazz)
Zack Everhart, Jr.
(Tap)

12
Gaby Diaz
(Tap)
Jaja Vaňková
(Animation/Krump)
Virgil Gadson
(Hip-Hop)
Hailee Payne
(Jazz)

13
Leon "Kida" Burns
(Hip-Hop)
J.T. Church
(Jazz)
Tate McRae
(Contemporary/Ballet)
Emma Hellenkamp
(Tap)

14
Lex Ishimoto
(Contemporary Hip-Hop)
Koine Iwasaki
(Contemporary)
Taylor Sieve
(Contemporary)
Kiki Nyemchek
(Latin Ballroom)

text: Season 1[edit]

text: Season 2[edit]

text: The second season premiered on May 12, 2006. The top 20 finalists were revealed on June 8, and the winner, Benjamin Schwimmer, was named "America's Favorite Dancer" on August 16, 2006 after 16 million votes were collected for the season finale. Travis Wall was the first runner-up, and Donyelle Jones was named second runner-up. There were several changes to the show's format in the second season. This season was the first to feature two episodes per week, splitting the bulk of the performances and the voting results segments between two nights. New styles of dance were also introduced, and the winning prize was increased from US$100,000 to $250,000 and also included a new car and a one-year contract to perform in a Céline Dion show then performing Las Vegas. The season was also the first followed by a live tour for the top ten dancers.

text: Season 3[edit]

text: Open auditions for season 3 began early October 2006, held in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Like the previous season, those that made the cuts moved on to Las Vegas. The taped auditions premiered on the Fox on May 24, 2007, and the subsequent shows were taped and broadcast live for a 12-week season. Cat Deeley returned as host, and Nigel Lythgoe returned as permanent judge. Joining Lythgoe permanently at the judging table was Mary Murphy; her promotion was reported by TV Guide on March 8, 2007. The prize for the winner remained at $250,000 cash. On the performance finale show (August 16, 2007), Sabra Johnson was named "America's Favorite Dancer," while Danny Tidwell (brother of season 2 runner-up Travis Wall) was runner-up.

text: Season 4[edit]

text: Auditions for Season 4 began in Texas on January 17 and took place in six locations through March 2008. The show kicked off its two-hour season premiere on May 22, 2008.[4] Cat Deeley returned as host and Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy as permanent judges. This season saw the introduction of new dance styles, including Bollywood, and new choreographers, including hip-hop duo Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo. The prize for the winner was again $250,000 cash and the title of "America's Favorite Dancer" and additionally included an offer for a role in the dance film Step Up 3D. In the finale, viewers voted Joshua Allen as the overall winner, while Katee Shean was voted the top female dancer and was given a previously unannounced award of $50,000.[5]

text: Season 5[edit]

text: Auditions for Season 5 kicked off in New York City on November 13, 2008 and continued on to Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, Memphis, and Seattle. The premiere aired on May 21, 2009. Louis van Amstel joined the show's cast of choreographers and Shane Sparks returned to choreograph while on break from America's Best Dance Crew. The prize for the winner was once again $250,000 cash, the chance to be on the November 2009 issue cover of Dance Spirit Magazine, and the title of "America's Favorite Dancer." On August 6, 2009 (the finale), Jeanine Mason was given the title.

text: Season 6[edit]

text: After a low-rated special episode of Dance featuring Lythgoe presenting his and viewer's favorite dance routines from seasons 1–5, the sixth season of Dance, premiered on Wednesday, September 9, 2009.[6] Auditions were held in Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City.[7] Adam Shankman joined as the permanent judge for the first time this season. The winner was Russell Ferguson and the runner-up was Jakob Karr.

text: Season 7[edit]

text: Auditions began in Miami, Florida, on January 18, 2010, continuing through New York, Dallas, Nashville, and Chicago, ending in Los Angeles on March 26. The season premiered on May 27, 2010. This season introduced significant format changes to the show, with a Top 11 dancers instead of the traditional Top 20 and "All-Stars", contestants from previous seasons who returned to partner with the Top 11 for a portion of their routines. Lauren Froderman won this season with Kent Boyd as runner-up.

text: Season 8[edit]

text: Auditions started October 13, 2010 in Oakland, California and continued through November 15 in Brooklyn, New York. The premiere aired on May 26, 2011. This season began a new version of the "All-Star" format in which the All-Stars didn't come in until the top 10. The show returned to a top 20 with couples. This season also marks the first time that the public can cast votes online, in addition to calling in, with a limit of 50 votes per viewer. On August 11, 2011, Melanie Moore won season 8, and Sasha Mallory was named the runner-up. Together they received 79% of the 11.5 million votes.

text: Season 9[edit]

text: The ninth season premiered on May 24, 2012. Fox discontinued the results show.[8] The two winners selected on September 18, 2012 were Eliana Girard and Chehon Wespi-Tschopp.

text: Season 10[edit]

text: Season 10 premiered on May 14, 2013, in its new Tuesdays at 8 p.m. time slot.[9] The two-part premiere concluded on May 15, 2013 at 9 p.m., after the finale of American Idol season 12.[10] On September 10, 2013, Amy Yakima and Du-Shaunt 'Fik-Shun' Stegall were named the season 10 winners, becoming the first contestants to take the top two positions who had been a couple at the beginning of the live show competition. No music artists or special dance performers appeared on this season except for All-Stars who were former contestants.

text: Season 11[edit]

text: The eleventh season premiered on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. The season finale aired on Wednesday, September 3, 2014. Contemporary dancer Ricky Ubeda was the winner of the season with Tap dancer Valerie Rockey finishing as the runner-up.[11]

text: Season 12[edit]

text: The twelfth season of the show divided contestants into two equally sized teams, one representing "stage" dancers and the other "street" styles, with one contestant eliminated from each team weekly until the finale.[12] Auditions began on January 24, 2015 and took place in five major American cities.[13] Season 12 premiered on Monday, June 1. Tap dancer Gaby Diaz was the winner of the season, becoming the first tap dancer to win So You Think You Can Dance. Animation dancer Jaja Vankova finished as the runner-up.

text: Season 13[edit]

text: The thirteenth season of the series premiered on May 30, 2016, titled So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation. The season features young dancers between the ages of 8 and 13 (at their date of application). After auditions, during Dance Academy episodes, 10 All-Stars eliminated competitors until each selected one contestant to mentor and partner with in performances during the live episodes.[14] One or more finalists were eliminated each week beginning July 18, 2016.[15] 13-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler observed the Academy episodes and joined the judging panel for the live shows (also observing and commenting on rehearsals), together with continuing judges Abdul, Derulo and Lythgoe, the three of whom conducted the auditions.[3][16] Leon "Kida" Burns won the top prize of $250,000. J. T. Church was the runner-up.[17]

text: Season 14[edit]

text: On January 30, 2017, Fox renewed the series for a fourteenth season, which returned to its former contestant age range of 18-30 but keeps the All-Star partnerships. The season premiered on June 12, 2017. Contemporary dancer Lex Ishimoto was the winner of the season with contemporary dance Koine Iwasaki finishing as the runner-up and female winner, becoming the first Asian-Americans to take the top two positions of So You Think You Can Dance.[18]

text: Special shows[edit]

text: On September 2, 2009, as prelude to season 6, a special show aired featuring judge picks for the top 15 routines from the first five seasons. At the end of the show, show creator and judge Nigel Lythgoe presented his favorite performance, a contemporary piece choreographed by Tyce Diorio and performed by Melissa Sandvig and Ade Obayomi.

text: In March 2014, Chinese television station CCTV broadcast a promotional episode in which notable all-star dancers from the U.S. and Chinese versions of So You Think You Can Dance competed directly against one-another as teams. Titled Zhōngměi Wǔ Lín Guànjūn Duìkàngsài - Super Dancer Born Tonight, the show was shot in Las Vegas but never aired on U.S. television.

text: Ratings[edit]

text: So You Think You Can Dance premiered with over 10 million viewers in 2005. For Season 1, it was the No. 1 summer show on television. However, when NBC's America's Got Talent premiered in the summer of 2006, it took the title of "#1 summer show" and, over the following few years, broadened its lead. In summer 2009, SYTYCD premiered strong with a 3.4 rating in its target demographic, although with the start of America's Got Talent roughly a month later in the same timeslot, Dance fell to No. 4 on the ratings board. It continued to lose viewers throughout the summer of 2009 and ended up with an average of approximately 8 million viewers. Fox then moved SYTYCD to its fall 2009 schedule where its ratings continued to decline; hitting an all-time series low of 4.6 million viewers for a "special" episode hosted by Nigel Lythgoe on September 2, 2009. The move to the fall was short-lived. After dropping to an average of 6 million viewers, Fox moved SYTYCD back to the summer in 2010. With Mia Michaels replacing Mary Murphy and former contestants termed as "All-Stars" being used as partners, the ratings for Dance continued to slide to all-time series lows; dropping to just 5.6 million viewers on July 15, 2010. For Season 7, So You Think You Can Dance averaged just over 5 million viewers. After season 7, Mia Michaels was replaced on the judge's panel by returning personality Mary Murphy. The change appeared to have little effect on the ratings, and the show continued to average just over five million viewers per episode in 2011's season 8. Season 9 saw a slight uptick in ratings early on, with each of the season's first five episodes garnering between six and seven million viewers, but the rise was short-lived and the show's ratings hit a new low of 4.16 million viewers on August 29, 2012. Season 10 maintained similar numbers, averaging about 4 million viewers per episode in 2013, with a 4.3 million viewership for the last episode of the season, an all-time series low for a finale.[19]

text: In April 2014, Nigel Lythgoe appealed on Twitter to fans to share information about the show ahead of the 11th season's May premiere in an attempt to augment the show's ratings for the upcoming season and bolster its chances of renewal thereafter.[19][20] The show was renewed for a 12th season, but ratings continued to decline, with an average of around 3.5 million viewers per show. FOX renewed the show for a 13th season, but with a drastically re-worked format focused on child dancers. Ratings declined further for the new version, with only five episodes breaking the 3 million viewer mark; the finale saw a series low viewership of just 2.27 million viewers.[citation needed]

text: In 2016, a New York Times study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "in general", Dance "is more popular in cities, though it hits peak popularity in Utah".[21]

text: Influence and international franchise[edit]

text: Dance competition had been a part of American television for decades before the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance, but usually in the form of all-around talent searches, (such as Star Search, Soul Train, or Showtime at the Apollo). However, a season-long American Idol-like talent-search show with a sole focus on dance had never been broadcast on American network television. Producers and judges associated with the show have stated on numerous occasions, both within the context of the show and in interviews, that the series was meant to rejuvenate the visibility and appreciation of dance as an art form in the U.S. and to give exposure to struggling dancers. Series judge Mary Murphy says, for example, "Of course you hope you can make a living at it, because you don't want to give up on something that you do, but the honest truth is most dancers have to carry one or two jobs and dance as much as they can on the side -- it's a very lucky dancer who gets a full scholarship."[22] A number of dance-themed competition shows have been produced for American television since the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance, including America's Best Dance Crew, Superstars of Dance, and Live to Dance.

text: In 2009, Lythgoe came together with fellow SYTYCD judge Adam Shankman as well as Katie Holmes, Carrie Ann Inaba, and others in the dance entertainment industry, in an effort to launch The Dizzyfeet Foundation, with the aim of providing scholarships and training to young dancers of limited means.[23] The foundation has been referenced sporadically on the show since. In 2010, Lythgoe, with the assistance of other SYTYCD personalities and long-time healthy lifestyles proponent Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, was successful in getting another of his dance-oriented concepts realized—an official National Dance Day, held now annually on the last Saturday of July, to promote fitness through movement.[24] This national dance day has been celebrated annually by the show since.[25]

text: Before the end of 2005, the year the series first premiered, its format had already been licensed for the first of a number foreign adaptations. To date, the resulting So You Think You Can Dance franchise has produced 26 shows representing 37 different countries and comprising more than 80 individual seasons. These adaptations have aired in Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, India, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palestinian Territories, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, South Africa, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text: Emmy Awards[edit]

text:
[hide]Emmy Awards and nominations

Year
Result
Category
Recipient(s)/
Choreographer(s)
Style
Music

2007
Won[a]
Outstanding Choreography
Wade Robson
Pop-Jazz
"Ramalama (Bang Bang)"—Róisín Murphy

Mia Michaels
Contemporary
"Calling You"—Celine Dion

2008
Won
Outstanding Choreography
Wade Robson
Jazz
Hummingbird and Flower/"The Chairman's Waltz" from Memoirs of a Geisha

Nominated
Mandy Moore
Jazz
Table/"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)"—Eurythmics

Nominated
Shane Sparks
Hip-hop
Transformers/"Fuego"—Pitbull

Nominated
Outstanding Makeup For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special (Non-Prosthetic)

2009
Won
Outstanding Choreography
Tyce Diorio
Contemporary
Adam and Eve/"Silence" from Unfaithful

Nominated
Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo
Hip-hop
"Bleeding Love"—Leona Lewis

Nominated
Mia Michaels
Contemporary
"Mercy"—Duffy

Nominated
Dmitry Chaplin
Argentine tango
"A Los Amigos" from Forever Tango

Nominated
Outstanding Makeup For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special (Non-Prosthetic)

Won
Outstanding Costumes For A Variety/Music Program Or A Special
Soyon An

2010
Won
Outstanding Choreography
Mia Michaels
Contemporary
"Koop Island Blues"—Koop feat Ane Brun

Contemporary
Addiction/"Gravity"—Sara Bareilles

Contemporary
"One" from A Chorus Line

Nominated
Stacey Tookey
Contemporary
Fear/"Two Steps Away"—Patti LaBelle

Nominated
Outstanding Makeup For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special (Non-Prosthetic)

Won
Outstanding Costumes For A Variety/Music Program Or A Special
Soyon An
Graine O'Sullivan

2011
Won
Outstanding Choreography
Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo
Hip-Hop
"Scars"—Basement Jaxx ft. Kelis, Meleka, and Chipmunk

Lyrical Hip-Hop
"Fallin'"—Alicia Keys

Hip-Hop
"Outta Your Mind" (District 78 Mix)—Lil Jon and LMFAO

Won
Mia Michaels
Contemporary
Alice in Mia-Land/"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"—Sting

Contemporary
"When We Dance"—Sting

Contemporary
"This Bitter Earth/On the Nature of Twilight"—Max Richter and Dinah Washington

Nominated
Mandy Moore
Pop-Jazz
"Oh Yeah"—Yello

Jazz
"Boogie Shoes"—KC & the Sunshine Band

Contemporary
"I Surrender"—Celine Dion

Nominated
Stacey Tookey
Contemporary
"Mad World" (Alternate Version)—Michael Andrews ft. Gary Jules

Contemporary
"Sundrenched World" (Live Session)—Joshua Radin

Contemporary
"Heaven is a Place on Earth"—Katie Thompson

Nominated
Travis Wall
Contemporary
"Collide" (Acoustic Version)—Howie Day

Contemporary
"How It Ends"—DeVotchKa

Contemporary
"Fix You"—Coldplay

Nominated
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program
Cat Deeley

Won
Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Series
Robert Barnhart
Pete Radice
Patrick Boozer
Matt Firestone

Nominated
Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
Producers

2012
Nominated
Outstanding Choreography
Stacey Tookey
Contemporary
"In This Shirt"—The Irrepressibles

Contemporary
"Turning Tables"—Adele

Contemporary
"Heart Asks Pleasure First"—Ahn Trio

Nominated
Christopher Scott
Hip-hop
"Misty Blue"—Dorothy Moore

Hip-hop/Contemporary
"Velocity"—Nathan Lanier

Nominated
Spencer Liff
Broadway
"Whatever Lola Wants"—Ella Fitzgerald

Broadway
"Please Mr. Jailer"—Rachel Sweet

Broadway
"(Where Do I Begin) Love Story (Away Team Remix)"—Shirley Bassey

Nominated
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program
Cat Deeley

Won
Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series
Robert Barnhart
Matt Firestone
Pete Radice
Patrick Boozer

Nominated
Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
Producers

2013
Nominated
Outstanding Choreography
Sonya Tayeh
Contemporary
"Possibly Maybe"—Björk

Contemporary
"Turning Page"—Sleeping At Last

Jazz
"Sail"—Awolnation

Nominated
Mandy Moore
Contemporary
"The Power of Love"—Celine Dion

Contemporary
"Wild Horses"—Charlotte Martin

Nominated
Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo
Jazz/Hip-hop
"The Circle of Life/Nants Ingonyama (District 78 Remix) from The Lion King"—Ella Fitzgerald

Jazz[26]
"The Lovecats"—The Cure

Jazz
The Beautiful People (District 78 remix)"—Marilyn Manson

Nominated
Travis Wall
Contemporary
"Where the Light Gets In"—Sennen

Contemporary
"Without You"—Harry Nilsson

Contemporary
"Unchained Melody"—The Righteous Brothers

Nominated
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program
Cat Deeley

Nominated
Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series
Robert Barnhart
Matt Firestone
Pete Radice
Patrick Boozer

Nominated
Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
Producers

2014
Nominated
Outstanding Choreography
Christopher Scott
Hip-hop
"Trigger (Original Mix)"—Kezwik ft. Mel Presson

Jazz
"Sand"—Nathan Lanier ft. Karen Whipple

Contemporary
"The Gravel Road" from The Village (Score from the Motion Picture)

Nominated
Mandy Moore
Contemporary
"I Can't Make You Love Me"—Mark Masri

Jazz
"Feeling Good"—Jennifer Hudson

Contemporary
"Edge of Glory (Live from a Very Gaga Thanksgiving)"—Lady Gaga

Won
Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo
Hip-hop
"Gold Rush"—Clinton Sparks ft. 2 Chainz, Macklemore, & D.A.

Hip-Hop
"Run the World (Girls) (Nappytabs Remix)"—Beyoncé

Hip-Hop
"Puttin' On the Ritz"—Herb Alpert ft. Lani Hall

Nominated
Travis Wall
Contemporary
"Hangin' By a Thread"—Jann Arden

Contemporary
"Medicine"—Daughter

Contemporary
"Wicked Game (Live at Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ireland 2011)"—James Vincent McMorrow

Nominated
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program
Cat Deeley

Nominated
Outstanding Makeup For A Multi-Camera Series Or Special (Non-Prosthetic)

Nominated
Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
Producers

2015
Won
Outstanding Choreography
Travis Wall
Contemporary
"Wave"—Beck

Contemporary
"When I Go"—Over the Rhine

Contemporary
"Wind Beneath My Wings"—RyanDan

Nominated
Sonya Tayeh
Contemporary
"Vow"—Meredith Monk

Contemporary
"So Broken (Live)"—Björk

Contemporary
"Europe, After The Rain" —Max Richter

Nominated
Spencer Liff
Broadway
"Hernando's Hideaway"—Ella Fitzgerald

Broadway
"I've Got the World on a String"—Frank Sinatra

Broadway
"Maybe This Time"—Liza Minnelli

Nominated
Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program
Cat Deeley

Nominated
Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series
Robert Barnhart
Matt Firestone
Patrick Boozer
Pete Radice

Nominated
Outstanding Hairstyling for a Multi-Camera Series Or Special
Sallie Nicole
Sean Smith
Dean Banowetz
Ralph Abalos
Shawn Finch
Melissa Jaqua

Nominated
Outstanding Makeup for a Multi-Camera Series or Special
Heather Cummings
Marie DelPrete
Amy Harmon
Tyson Fountaine
Adam Christopher

Nominated
Outstanding Reality Competiton Program
Producers

2016
Nominated
Outstanding Choreography
Travis Wall
Contemporary
"Beautiful Friends"—Helen Money

Contemporary
"November"—Max Richter

Contemporary
"Gimme All Your Love"—Alabama Shakes

Nominated
Anthony Morigerato
Tap
"Dibidy Dop (Swing Mix)"—Club Des Belugas feat. Brenda Boykin

Nominated
Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series
Robert Barnhart
Matt Firestone
Patrick Boozer
Pete Radice

2017
Won
Outstanding Choreography
Travis Wall
Contemporary
"The Mirror"—Alexandre Desplat

Contemporary
"Send in the Clowns"—Sarah Vaughan and the Count Basie Orchestra

Contemporary
"She Used to be Mine"—Sara Bareilles

Nominated
Mandy Moore
Contemporary
"Unsteady (Erich Lee Gravity Remix)"—X Ambassadors

Contemporary
"This is Not the End"—Clare Maguire

Nominated
Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Series
Robert Barnhart
Matt Firestone
Patrick Boozer
Pete Radice

As of 2017, nine former SYTYCD contestants have been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography. Five were nominated for their work on Dancing with the Stars: Chelsie Hightower in 2010, Travis Wall and Nick Lazzarini in 2012 (with Teddy Forance), Alison Holker in 2013 (with Derek Hough), and Witney Carson in 2015. Hokuto “Hok” Konishi, Ryan “Ryanimay” Conferido, and Dominic “D-Trix” Sandoval were nominated in 2016 as part of the B-boy troupe Quest Crew for their work on America's Best Dance Crew. Dmitry Chaplin in 2009 and Travis Wall in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 were nominated for their work on SYTYCD, itself. The only former contestants to have won the Choreography Emmy are Konishi, Conferido, and Sandoval in 2016 and Wall in 2015 and 2017. [27]
^a : Wade Robson and Mia Michaels were joint-winners along with Rob Marshall and John Deluca from Tony Bennett: An American Classic.

text: Teen Choice Awards[edit]

text:
Year
Result
Category

2006
Won
Choice TV: Breakout Show

Choice Summer Series

2007
Nominated
Choice Summer TV Show

2008
Nominated
Choice Summer TV Show

Choice TV: Reality Dance

2010
Nominated
Choice Personality: Cat Deeley

Choice Summer TV Show


document_title: Dave Allen (actor)

question_text: who plays the guidance counselor on freaks and geeks

text: Dave Allen (actor)

text: This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text:
Dave Allen

Allen in November 2008

Born
c. 1958 (age 59–60)
Naperville, Illinois, U.S.

Other names
Gruber, Dave Gruber Allen, David Gruber Allen

Education
Augustana College

Occupation
Actor, comedian

Years active
1989–present

text: David (Gruber) Allen (born c. 1958) is an American television and film actor and comedian, who has been credited in many movies and television roles as Dave Gruber Allen and David Gruber Allen. Allen is known for his work on the 1990 TV series Higgins Boys and Gruber and playing guidance counselor Jeff Rosso on the Judd Apatow-produced comedy-drama Freaks and Geeks.[1] He also played Mr. Kwest on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and a town troubadour on Gilmore Girls. Allen had a minor role as an "Electrocuted Ghost" known as "Sparky" in the 2016 film Ghostbusters.

text: Life and career[edit]

text: Allen plays the "Naked Trucker" - a character that first appeared as part of a sketch comedy show Two-Headed Dog. In 1998, at the invitation of Largo owner Mark Flannigan, Allen began to appear as the Naked Trucker as a solo act, opening at Largo in L.A. for Tenacious D, Jon Brion, and others. The act was an instant success and soon expanded to include David Koechner, who plays "T-Bones." Koechner and Allen starred in The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show on Comedy Central, which was picked up for 8 episodes.

text: Allen is a member of comedy group 2 Headed Dog with comedians Jim Turner, Mark Fite, and Craig Anton. He also made an appearance as a minor character, Mr. Woodward, one of Reese's teachers on the television show Malcolm in the Middle. In addition, Allen frequently plays the character "Todd Carlin", a hippie and fictional relative of George Carlin. This character is usually involved in comedy shows at Largo. Allen has guest starred on Gilmore Girls, where he played a town troubadour, organic farmer, and a de facto minister officiating a wedding. He has been credited in many movies and television roles as Dave Gruber Allen and David Gruber Allen.

text: Allen has provided multiple voiceovers, such as his voice to the animated series King of the Hill episodes, "Unfortunate Son", "Phish and Wildlife", "Raise the Steaks", and "Bill's House". Allen has also provided his voice for the TV short Moobeard the Cow Pirate, playing Dark Blade of Fire. Later on, Allen also played several different characters in NBC's Newsradio, and appeared as night school teacher "Randy" teaching basic auto repair and maintenance in the episode "Motor Skills" of the eighth season of the sitcom Frasier. He has appeared as a hippie on Mr. Show with Bob and David and a protester on Arrested Development. In 2006, Allen appeared in the Stan and Lois sketch on Norm Macdonald's comedy album Ridiculous (released by Comedy Central Records).

text: In November 2008, Allen appeared as "Todd"—and was credited as "Todd Carlin"—in the Cinematic Titanic episode "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" during the pre-movie sequence, introducing the movie to the crew. With Allen having a long-standing friendship with Joel Hodgson and several other CT crew members, it is expected he will reprise this role as a fixture of the series going forward. Additionally, Allen has been touring periodically at live shows with Cinematic Titanic, performing his stand-up routine. In 2010, Allen was featured as a sci-fi author in season two of Party Down and made a cameo in the film The Mother of Invention as Dr. Henry Miller. In 2011, Allen had a small role in the movie Bad Teacher. In 2012, Allen played the salesman of a futuristic elder care center in "Life Begins at Rewirement," an episode of the ITVS/PBS sci-fi series Futurestates. He also appeared in a recurring role on the CBS series Mike & Molly. As of November 2012, Allen continues to tour with Cinematic Titanic as the MC of the pre-show warm up act.

text: Dave also provided the voice of Frostferatu, among several other characters, in Cartoon Network's Mighty Magiswords episodes "Share and Share Dislike", "Hideous Hound" and "Transylbabies", created by MooBeard the Cow Pirate's creator, Kyle A. Carrozza. In 2017, Allen appeared as the recurring character Dave the Taxidermist in NBC's Trial & Error.[2]