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America's Best Dance Crew, often abbreviated as ABDC, was an American competitive dance reality television series featuring both national and international dance crews. The show was produced by singer, record producer, and former American Idol judge Randy Jackson.[1] The series premiered on February 7, 2008, on MTV. It was originally developed for NBC as World Moves.[2]
| America's Best Dance Crew | |
|---|---|
 Season 1–7 logo | |
| Also known as | Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew |
| Genre | |
| Created by |
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| Directed by |
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| Presented by | |
| Judges | |
| Composers |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 73 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producers |
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| Production locations | Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, California |
| Cinematography | Scott Hylton |
| Running time | 60–90 minutes |
| Production company | Warner Horizon Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | MTV |
| Release | February 7, 2008 – August 19, 2015 |
The show was hosted by actor Mario Lopez 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, and dancer Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval.[3] Former judges included hip hop choreographer Shane Sparks and R&B singer Omarion.[4][5][6]
After an initial seventh season run, America's Best Dance Crew was cancelled in 2012 due to declining ratings.[7] However, on January 10, 2015, MTV announced that the series would be revived for an eighth season.[8]
The eighth season, titled America's Best Dance Crew All-Stars: Road to the VMAs, premiered on July 29, 2015.[8] Hosted by Jason Dundas, the revival featured a new judging panel: hip hop artist T-Pain, recording artist Teyana Taylor, and Broadway performer Frankie Grande.[9]
America's Best Dance Crew is a reality competition where dance crews showcase their talent and compete for a $100,000 (USD) grand prize and the golden ABDC trophy (a figure of a b-boy doing a freeze, with its legs moving like a bobblehead). 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 Mario Lopez 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.
| Judge | Season | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Mario Lopez | ||||||||||||||||||
| JC Chasez | ||||||||||||||||||
| Lil Mama | ||||||||||||||||||
| Shane Sparks | ||||||||||||||||||
| Omarion | ||||||||||||||||||
| D-Trix | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jason Dundas | ||||||||||||||||||
| T-Pain | ||||||||||||||||||
| Teyana Taylor | ||||||||||||||||||
| Frankie Grande | ||||||||||||||||||
- Key
- Host of America's Best Dance Crew.
- Judge of America's Best Dance Crew
| Season | Dance Crews | Episodes | Originally aired | Winner | Runner-up | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | Network | ||||||
| 1 | 9 | 8 | February 7, 2008 | March 27, 2008 | MTV | Jabbawockeez | Status Quo | |
| 2 | 10 | 10 | June 19, 2008 | August 21, 2008 | Super CR3W | SoReal Cru | ||
| 3 | 9 | 8 | January 15, 2009 | March 5, 2009 | Quest Crew | Beat Freaks | ||
| 4 | 9 | 8 | August 9, 2009 | September 27, 2009 | We Are Heroes | AfroBoriké | ||
| 5 | 9 | 11 | January 28, 2010 | April 8, 2010 | Poreotix | Blueprint Cru | ||
| 6 | 10 | 10 | April 7, 2011 | June 5, 2011 | I.aM.mE | ICONic Boyz | ||
| 7 | 10 | 10 | April 11, 2012 | June 13, 2012 | Elektrolytes | 8 Flavahz | ||
| 8 | 6 | 6 | July 29, 2015 | August 29, 2015 | Quest Crew | Kinjaz | ||
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.[10][11]
ABDC airs on MTV in the Caribbean, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Russia (by the alias of "Короли Танцпола", lit. "Kings of the Dancefloor"),[12] Finland, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine (by the alias of "Танцювальні бої", lit. "Dance Battles"),[13] and Romania.
In Canada, the show airs on both MuchMusic 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,[14] Solar TV, Jack TV, and The Game Channel in the Philippines, Fiji One in Fiji, and YAN TV (?), VTV3 (Nhom nhay sieu Viet, 2021) in Vietnam.
- The opening title sequence created by Framework Studio won a Telly Award in 2009.[15]
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