Why Kent Boyd Will Lose SYTYCD, Season Seven

This might shock the general public who have been watching the seventh season of So You Think You Can Dance on FOX, but the truth is that Kent Boyd, the contemporary dancer from Ohio will come up short in this coming week's season finale. Despite his personality, charm and a true gift for dance, the farm boy who stole many hearts this summer will go down in reality show history as yet another front runner who couldn't pull out the win at the end. 

It is something that is happening more and more with reality television these days. It is almost a curse to be a strong contestant on any show from the beginning. People like David Archuleta from American Idol and Evan Lysacek from Dancing With The Stars are perfect examples. It seems that it might be better to grow during a competition and start to really shine in the final weeks, as Kent's two opponents have done. 

While Kent has been consistent throughout the season, turning in top notch dances, his finale opponents Lauren Froderman and Robert Roldan have had a more arduous run on the show. As we entered the final three weeks, both began to turn in outstanding performances that earned rave reviews from the judges and grabbed the casual voting audience. It is this part of the audience who ultimately determine the winner since each finalist already has a fan base who will vote for them regardless. When you have someone who has been popular all along, people tend to root for the underdog and for the person you least expect. In some cases, they do it just so that things can be unpredictable.

It doesn't help Boyd that SYTYCD is another reality show where producer and judge manipulation is strong and clear. The dance routines and partners are picked at random, although all fans know it is hardly the case and each dance has been clearly decided before the contestants "pick from the hat". The producers decide the dancing order, outfits for the contestants, song choice for the choreographers, and even have a say in the camera angles that could potentially show some contestants in an unflattering light. The most obvious manipulation, though, comes from the judging table. When you have people like Nigel Lythgoe (who is also the show's executive producer), Mia Michaels, and Adam Shankman telling you what is right and wrong and clearly favoring one or two people over another, an audience is easily swayed. It doesn't take much for a few choice words to cause a viewer to agree and want to pick up the phone or to disagree and vote for someone else. At the end of the day, America deciding who they want to see win often plays second fiddle to who the producers want to see win. 

In this case of Kent Boyd, he is up against the only remaining female in the competition, whom the judges clearly love and a dark horse who, despite lackluster reviews at the show's early stages, has been given stellar praise for the last few weeks. And while Kent has received his fair share of positive reviews, it doesn't take much to realize that his stock has gone down in the eyes of the judges. They no doubt like him but at this point, it looks as though they are happy to have him in the finale because he brings a certain audience, but the end game is clearly to have him come up just a bit short. Even Mr. Lythgoe has admitted that the voting results are too close to call, a clear manipulation tactic for audiences to see that Boyd's two opponents are well within grasp to defeat him.

While I fully expect Kent's fans to vote just as hard as they have done all Summer long, there is no denying that Lythgoe and company are already planning their finale script. They are already setting up how they want the placement to go and what the goal is. And you better believe that I will be watching the two-hour performance finale this coming Wednesday night knowing full well what they are up to. 

Good luck to Kent and at the end of the day, he should have no regrets as he has danced beautifully and made many people, from family and friends to his fans, very happy over the course of the Summer. He should be proud and he should keep on dancing.