''America's Best Dance Crew'', often abbreviated as ''ABDC'', is an American

competitive dance Competitive dance is a popular, widespread sport in which competitors perform dances in any of several permitted dance styles—such as acro, ballet, contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, modern, musical theatre, tap, and improv—before a ...

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

television series featuring both national and international dance crews. The show was produced by singer, record producer, and former ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...

'' judge

Randy Jackson Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American record executive, television presenter and musician, best known as a judge on ''American Idol'' from 2002 to 2013. Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing b ...

. The series premiered on February 7, 2008, on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

. It was originally developed for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

as ''World Moves''. The show was hosted by actor

Mario Lopez Mario Lopez (born October 10, 1973) is an American actor and television host. He has appeared on several television series, in films, and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. He is known for his portrayal of A.C. Slater on ''Saved by the Bell'', ''S ...

and featured television personality Layla Kayleigh as the backstage correspondent. The judging panel consisted of hip hop recording artist Lil Mama, singer-songwriter

JC Chasez Joshua Scott "JC" Chasez (; born August 8, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He started his career as a singer, actor, and dancer on '' The All-New Mickey Mouse Club'' before rising to prominence as a ...

, and dancer Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval. Former judges included hip hop choreographer Shane Sparks and R&B singer

Omarion Omari Ishmael Grandberry (born November 12, 1984), better known by his stage name Omarion, is an American R&B singer, dancer and actor. He rose to prominence as lead vocalist of the boy band B2K, which was formed in 1998 and managed by record e ...

. After an initial seventh season run, ''America's Best Dance Crew'' was cancelled in 2012 due to declining ratings. However, on January 10, 2015, MTV announced that the series would be revived for an eighth season. The eighth season, titled ''America's Best Dance Crew All-Stars: Road to the VMAs'', premiered on July 29, 2015. Hosted by

Jason Dundas Jason Dundas (born 25 July 1982) is an Australian-born television presenter, actor, producer and director, known for his roles as special correspondent for CBS's ''Entertainment Tonight'', the host of ''The X Factor Australia'' in 2016, host o ...

, the revival featured a new judging panel: hip hop artist

T-Pain Faheem Rashad Najm (born September 30, 1984), known professionally as T-Pain, is an American singer and rapper. He is known for popularizing creative use of Auto-Tune pitch correction, often used with extreme parameter settings to create electro ...

, recording artist

Teyana Taylor Teyana Me Shay Jacqueli Taylor (born December 10, 1990) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, model, dancer, choreographer, and music video director. After choreographing the video for Beyoncé's 2006 single " Ring the Alarm," she signed ...

, and Broadway performer

Frankie Grande Frank James Michael Grande Marchione (born January 24, 1983)Murphy, T. Michelle"10 Facts you won't learn about Frankie Grande on ''Big Brother 16''" Metro.us, September 22, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014 is an American actor, singer, dancer ...

Overview

''America's Best Dance Crew'' is a

reality competition Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

where dance crews showcase their talent and compete for a $100,000 (

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

) grand prize and the golden ''ABDC'' trophy (a figure of a b-boy doing a freeze, with its legs moving like a

bobblehead A bobblehead, also known by nicknames such as nodder, wobbler, or wacky wobbler, is a type of small collectible figurine. Its head is often oversized compared to its body. Instead of a solid connection, its head is connected to the body by a ...

). Each week, the crews are given a challenge. The challenges are different for each crew, but have the same general concept or share a specific theme. To begin each episode, host

reveals, in no particular order, which crews are safe and which crews are at risk for elimination. After the crews in the bottom perform their routines, the judges decide which crew will advance to the next round. Another unique aspect of ''ABDC'' is the crew banner. Each banner's logo represents its respective crew, appearing during interviews, performances, and on various merchandise. It is also used as a transition effect. When a crew is eliminated, their banner falls from the top of the stadium, where the banners of the crews still in the running stand. The contestants are allowed to dance one final time on the stage as they " walk it out" to the song of the same name. ;Key : Host of America's Best Dance Crew. : Judge of America's Best Dance Crew

Controversy

MTV and Randy Jackson were sued by entertainer and activist Dwight McGhee, publicly known as rapper Citizen Charlie Kane, in 2010. Kane had pitched the show concept to MTV in 2004 and MTV "passed" on the concept. When Charlie Kane saw a commercial that depicted the 1970s Warriors' movie that looked exactly like his pitch demo DVD, he filed the suit. Many production elements between the show and Kane's 2003 copyright registration of a "break-dancing league" were identical. TMZ and NYPost were a couple among the many major media organizations to run the story. Viacom/MTV and Charlie Kane came to a mutual settlement in 2011.

International distribution

ABDC airs on

in the Caribbean, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Russia (by the alias of "Короли Танцпола", lit. "Kings of the Dancefloor"), Finland, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine (by the alias of "Танцювальні бої", lit. "Dance Battles"), and Romania. In Canada, the show airs on both

MuchMusic Much is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. It is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in what was o ...

and Musique Plus (the episodes on MP are 2 years late) and in Latin America, the show airs on Warner Channel. The show also airs on AB1 and MTV France, where it is called ''Dance Crew USA'' in France,

Solar TV Solar TV (stylized as SOLARtv) was the flagship television network of Solar Entertainment Corporation's television arm subsidiary Solar TV Network, Solar TV Network, Inc., which is the replacement of C/S 9. This was the revival of the former So ...

Jack TV Jack TV (capitalized as JACK TV) is an online web portal owned by Solar Entertainment Corporation and based in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. It was known as a Philippine pay television network mainly offering multi-genre programming from the U ...

, and The Game Channel in the Philippines, Fiji One in Fiji, and YAN TV (?), VTV3 (Nhom nhay sieu Viet, 2021) in Vietnam.

Additional notes

* The opening title sequence created by Framework Studio won a Telly Award in 2009.

References

External links

* * {{Hip-hop dance 2008 American television series debuts 2012 American television series endings 2015 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings 2000s American reality television series 2010s American reality television series American English-language television shows MTV reality television series Television series by Warner Horizon Television American television series revived after cancellation