America's Best Dance Crew (season 2)

The second season of America's Best Dance Crew premiered on June 19, 2008. The live auditions special took place on June 8, 2008. It was hosted by Mario Lopez and featured Layla Kayleigh as the backstage correspondent. The judges included rapper Lil Mama, former *NSYNC singer JC Chasez, and hip-hop choreographer Shane Sparks. On August 21, 2008, Super Cr3w was declared the winner of Season 2 and received the $100,000 (USD) prize.

Auditions

America's Best Dance Crew features dance crews from all over the United States. During the second season, these dance crews auditioned in four cities: New York City, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles. A total of fourteen dance crews were chosen and split up into West Coast, East Coast, Midwest, and South based on the audition city.

Crews

Results

Performances

• Starting from the Final 6, when a crew gets eliminated, they take a look back at the eliminated crew's journey on the show while playing "Take a Bow" by Rihanna.

Live Auditions Special

• Aired on June 8, 2008

The JabbaWockeeZ made an appearance and performed to a master mix of "The Boss" by Rick Ross featuring T-Pain at the end of the episode.^[1]

Week 1: Crew's Choice Challenge

• Aired on June 19, 2008

Each crew performed to songs of their own choosing.

• Safe: SoReal Cru, Supreme Soul, Xtreme Dance Force, A.S.I.I.D., Boogie Bots, Super Cr3w, Phresh Select, Sass x7
• Bottom 2: Fanny Pak, Distorted X
• Eliminated: Distorted X

Week 2: Video Star Challenge

• Aired on June 26, 2008

Each crew was given a different video with a dance sequence in it, which they had to perform while keeping their own style as a crew.^[2]

• Safe: Super Cr3w, Fanny Pak, Supreme Soul, Phresh Select, A.S.I.I.D., SoReal Cru, Xtreme Dance Force
• Bottom 2: Boogie Bots, Sass x7
• Eliminated: Sass x7

Week 3: Rock the Title Challenge

• Aired on July 3, 2008

Each crew was given a song whose title was used as inspiration for their dance.^[3]

• Safe: A.S.I.I.D., SoReal Cru, Super Cr3w, Boogie Bots, Fanny Pak, Supreme Soul
• Bottom 2: Phresh Select, Xtreme Dance Force
• Eliminated: Xtreme Dance Force

Week 4: Speed Up Challenge

• Aired on July 10, 2008

Crews must transition from a slow tempo song to a faster one while still remaining on beat.^[4]

• Safe: Boogie Bots, Super Cr3w, A.S.I.I.D., SoReal Cru, Fanny Pak
• Bottom 2: Phresh Select, Supreme Soul
• Eliminated: Phresh Select

Week 5: Janet Jackson Challenge

• Aired on July 17, 2008

At the beginning of the show, all of the crews danced to Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation". The crews performed together and each had a small moment in the performance to dance with their group members for a section of the routine. Then each crew was given a Janet Jackson song and had to incorporate some of her moves in their dance, similar to the Michael Jackson challenge of Season 1.^[5][6]

• Safe: Fanny Pak, Supreme Soul, Boogie Bots, SoReal Cru
• Bottom 2: Super Cr3w, A.S.I.I.D.
• Eliminated: A.S.I.I.D.

Week 6: Bring The Beat Challenge

• Aired on July 24, 2008

All of the crews were assigned a song and a school subject that takes place in a gym which they have to incorporate into their routine.^[7]

• Safe: Fanny Pak, SoReal Cru, Boogie Bots
• Bottom 2: Super Cr3w, Supreme Soul
• Eliminated: Supreme Soul

Week 7: Missy Elliott Challenge

• Aired on July 31, 2008

Missy Elliott starred as the first guest judge of the show to help the original judges choose who goes home as the remaining four crews danced to her songs. The crews adapted the videos' innovative footwork to showcase their own style. All the crews danced with Missy Elliott to her Shake Your Pom Pom.

• Safe: SoReal Cru, Super Cr3w
• Bottom 2: Boogie Bots, Fanny Pak
• Eliminated: Boogie Bots

Week 8: Eighties Theme Challenge

• Aired on August 7, 2008

The remaining three crews had to perform a dance move from the 80's. In addition, all of the crews had to complete a physical challenge.

Challenge #1: Groove Step Challenge

Challenge #2: Dance Movie Challenge

The crews created a routine that incorporated elements of an 80's dance movie. Similar to the "Broadway Challenge" from Season 1, the crews were given remixed versions of the songs from their respective movies.

• Safe: SoReal Cru
• Bottom 2: Super Cr3w, Fanny Pak
• Eliminated: Fanny Pak

Week 9: Championship Showdown

• Aired on August 14, 2008

Challenge #1: Around The World Challenge

The final two crews created a 2-minute routine that included different forms of dance from around the world.

Challenge #2: Original Dance Craze Challenge

Instead of dancing to a dance craze, the crews created their own dance craze, both in the form of the actual music, lyrics, and choreography.

Challenge #3: Last Chance Challenge

The crews created a routine for the Last Chance Challenge to show America why they should be crowned the winner. The remaining two crews then performed their prepared routines before the lines opened for the final voting session of the season.

Week 10: The Live Finale

• Aired on August 21, 2008

The eliminated crews of season 2 returned and teamed up with the remaining two crews for a regional collaboration each region with a song by an artist that represents the regional performance each crew wearing a different flag jacket. Instead of going head-to-head, Super Cr3w and SoReal Cru teamed up for their last performance.

On August 21, 2008, Super Cr3w was crowned the winner of America's Best Dance Crew Season 2, while SoReal Cru was declared the runner-up.

• Winner: Super Cr3w
• Runner-up: SoReal Cru

Special Episode: Battle for the VMAs

At the beginning of the show, champions JabbaWockeeZ and Super Cr3w performed to a remix of We Are the Champions choreographed by Shane Sparks.

Five crews from Seasons One and Two were given music videos nominated for Best Dancing in a Video. Like the Video Star Challenge, crews performed with the video behind them and tried to match up the moves in the video while keeping their own style. In the end, the judges picked the top three performances. America voted and the two crews with the highest votes would perform at the VMA Preshow.

Fanny Pak and Kaba Modern faced off at the VMAs Preshow and America was asked to vote again.

Fanny Pak danced to Damaged by Danity Kane and Kaba Modern danced to Closer by Ne-Yo. Lindsay Lohan and Ciara later announced that Fanny Pak was the winner of the face-off and $25,000 (USD) for charity.

America's Best Dance Crew Live

America's Best Dance Crew Live, the first ABDC tour, featured crews from the first two seasons of the show: Super Cr3w, JabbaWockeeZ, Breaksk8, Fanny Pak, and A.S.I.I.D. The tour lasted from September 18, 2008 to October 23, 2008.

Ratings

The season 2 finale of America's Best Dance Crew ranked #1 across all of cable programming among the 12-34 demographic (1.8 rating). For the season, the competition series delivered a 1.8 rating among 12-34 and averaged 1.9 million total viewers (1.4 million viewers age 12-34). The full season of America's Best Dance Crew reached more than 76.7 million total viewers (35.5 million in the 12-34 demographic).

The show's online area averaged nearly 470,000 visits a week and averaged at 390,000 weekly unique visitors a week, with weekly unique usage that grew +63% from the second season premiere to the finale. Additionally, nearly 23 million page views and more than 6 million streams for content were generated for the second season to date. The show has had 45 million streams since the first season's premiere.^[8]

References