The ninth season of So You Think You Can Dance will be unlike any season before. That’s mostly because FOX cut the show down so it will only air once a week and there will be two winners: one male and one female.

However, some things remain the same. There will once again be a Top 20 and, once they cut it down to 10, former SYTYCD All-Stars will return to dance with the new contestants.

Despite airing just once a week, the show will still waste very little time on the auditions, unlike other reality competitions which draw it out. So You Think You Can Dance season 9 kicks off Thursday, May 24 at 8pm before moving to its regular home, Wednesday nights. The first four weeks will feature auditions, followed by one week of Vegas callbacks.

The Top 20 will be revealed and will perform in a special introduction show on Wednesday, June 27. SYTYCD will take the following week off (it’s the Fourth of July, after all) and the competition begins on Wednesday, July 11. One week later the lowest-voted couples will be revealed during the next performance show and those dancers will have to dance solos before the judges decide which man and which woman are eliminated.

Here’s the full schedule for So You Think You Can Dance season 9. All episodes are two-hours and begin at 8pm.

Thursday, May 24: Dallas and New York Auditions

Wednesday, May 30: Los Angeles Auditions

Wednesday, June 6: Atlanta Auditions

Wednesday, June 13: Salt Lake City Auditions

Wednesday, June 20: Las Vegas Callbacks

Wednesday, June 27: Top 20 Revealed/Meet the Top 20 Performances (the show’s 200th episode)

Wednesday, July 11: First Performance Show

Wednesday, July 18: Second Performance Show and First Elimination

(Image courtesy of FOX)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.