Okay, so here’s the Big Fluffy Nothing Show for those who missed it. A chance to see all of the dancers perform in their own style before they’re picked off one by one. I’ll say this: there’s some tapping. Ohhhh is there some tapping. *eyes wide* *brows furrowed* *nose slightly flared* *left cheek– Oh hell it looks like this.

And here’s a video with more of the new guy Brandon. Word has it, he’s replacing Billy Bell who… got the swine flu? Anyway, I know some of you were unsure whether he was at a disadvantage with the judges and wanted to see more of him dancing. Well here you go…

This is one of several videos on his YouTube channel. You can check out the rest here.

OKAY BIG UPDATE: I’ll make this quick:

1. Noelle will not be dancing tonight.
2. Her partner Russell will dance with a choreographer.
3. A female WILL be eliminated tonight, but it won’t be Noelle.
4. Noelle will have a week to recover, if she can’t, then the eliminated girl from Week 1 comes back and Noelle is off the show.
5. How does this effect you? If you picked Noelle and she does not recover by next week, then she will be the Week 1 person voted off, not the girl who goes home tonight.
6. If you want to change your picks, you have exactly 45 minutes (5pm PST).
7. I may include a small bonus to those who get it right tonight but lose it if Noelle drops out… I just need to figure out what would be fair.
8. Sorry for all of this confusion… but you know you love it.

Here’s my source.
BREAKING NEWS: Read this bit of news about two of the dancers before making your picks. And if you’ve already submitted, you have the chance to change your picks until 2pm PST…that’s 5pm on the east coast… and to be honest, I’m lenient, so as long as the show doesn’t air on east coast, if you get it in a little late, I won’t deny you.

This is the first Bonus Pick Post of the FDL. It is also the official entry into the game and required for all players. Please read the rules carefully.

1. Submit a comment to THIS POST with one guy and one girl that you think are going home on Tuesday night’s show. There will not be an elimination show this week, due to the World Series (American Baseball), so the judges will be watching the performances and making their decision that night.
2. Make sure that in the comment’s Name Field you write something that matches you to the email you’ll be sending next week with your full picks. Including your email in the comment’s Email Field, for example, would be the best way (Your email address will NOT be posted in the comment or anywhere else publicly). Otherwise you’ll have to be sure when you send me your full card of picks that you include a name that’s the same as the one you include with your comment. If you don’t, I may have a hard time figuring out who is who.
3. In the comment field that says website, include the web address you want to represent your online presence (ie your blog, twitter, tumblr, facebook, blip etc.) This is optional, of course.
4. Leave this comment anytime between now and 2pm Pacific Standard Time this Tuesday (10/27/2009)
5. If you change your mind after submitting, no problem. Just submit another comment the same way with different name(s). I’ll accept the later of the two as your official picks.

Doing the above will officially enter you into the game. Then you’ll have until 12pm PST on the day of Week 2′s performance show to submit your full card of picks to dance@johncabrera.com. Please read the rules on how to format that submission as well as how these Week 1 picks will be factored into your total points.

Week 2 is also likely to have no elimination show and be judged the same way. I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll include a Bonus Pick for that week if it doesn’t… but just check back here. I’ll post something either way.

I actually think there’s something interesting about the judges choosing who goes home that night. They aren’t going to have much time to decide, so theories that the judges rig things may play less of a roll this elimination. If those theories do play a role, I think it’ll be even more obvious, because they’ll have less time to come up with a realistic excuse.

Okay, so let the FDL begin. Submit your Week 1 guy and girl dancers below as a comment. I suggest doing it sooner rather than later, if you’ve already decided. I won’t post anyone’s comment until after the show airs, so you won’t be able influence your decision by seeing who others have picked. But I WIIILLL! Hehe!

And if you’d like to catch up on the past audition episodes and you don’t have them recorded, Register here at my blog, then send me a tweet, message, email (my first name AT johncabrera.com), etc. saying you’ll be joining the FDL, and I’ll give you permission to read special posts designed to help you catch up.

Good luck.

Okay, we’re getting another week! Yay!! We’ll now have until Week 2′s performance show (3pm EST that day) to get in our full card of picks. It’s exactly like last season, and you were totally right… we do need to see a bit of them competing

So the game will now have 11 weeks rather than the 12 of my previous post, and I’ll be doling out 11 points for correct answers rather than 12. It’s exactly the way we played last time.

The prizes will stay the same, so if you need to refresh yourself on that, take a read of my previous post.

Now here’s how it’s different for Week 1. We will begin the FDL with just two picks: the 2 dancers we think are going home Week 1. In the last FDL, we did the same thing. It was an optional week, allowing participants to gain an extra 3 bonus points.

This time the bonus is 6 points per dancer for correct answers.
All incorrect answers will receive 2 points for each dancer.
Players will also receive an additional 1 bonus point for each of their Week 1 dancer picks voted off Week 2…. sounds like a good deal right???

Ha! There’s a catch.

For each of your Week 1 picks that end up in the final four, you will be DEDUCTED 3 points… and if it is the winner… 6 points. Oooooooo scary.

I should remind you that last season, Jeanine was a dark horse, and a few people predicted her to go home Week 1. I’m just sayin.

But the most important part of this new change is that this time it is mandatory for game play. In fact, it will be your official entry into the game. The deadline will still be Tuesday at 3pm and any players who don’t get their picks in by then won’t be able to participate the following week with their full cards.

We’ll still be turning in our full card via email to dance@johncabrera.com the following week… but our Week 1 picks will be submitted differently. This weekend I’ll be posting the first “Bonus Point Post” that will be used to submit your Week 1 picks as comments. I will not approve any of them until after the deadline, so I’ll be the only one who knows everyone’s picks. Hahaha. (<- I really did just laugh out loud while writing that)

Here's an updated rundown of the point system if you need a refresher.

Week 1 – 17th Place (2)

Week 2 – 15th Place (2)

Week 3 – 13th Place (2)

Week 4 – 11th Place (2)

Week 5 – 9th Place (2)

Week 6 – 7th Place (2)

Week 7 – 5th Place (2)

Week 8 – 4th Place (1)

Week 9 – 3rd Place (1)

Week 10 – 2nd Place (1)

Week 11 – 1st Place (1)

Obviously, Weeks 8 -11 will actually only be one week/episode of television viewing.

· Each player receives 11 points for each correct placing.

· For incorrect placing, each player receives 10 points minus the difference between the place predicted and the actual placing.

· Each player receives 3 bonus points for each member of the final four correctly predicted (12 total points possible)

· Each player receives one-half (0.5) bonus point for each additional correct prediction made on a weekly basis independent of their official entry. These predictions can only be made between the episode and the next day by 8pm EST just before the results show. The player may predict any dancer remaining regardless of who is listed on their official entry, and must post that prediction as a comment here to the weekly “Bonus Pick Blog Post”.

For example, say in Week 2, Noelle and Legacy are eliminated:

If I had Noelle exiting in week 2 but Legacy exiting in week 6, I would receive 17 points: 11 + [10 – (6 -2)].

If I had Noelle exiting in week 5 and Legacy exiting in week 1, I would receive 16 points: [10 – (5 -2)] + [10 – (2 -1)]. But this time let’s say that after watching this week’s episode, I had a bad feeling about Noelle’s and Russel’s performance, so just before the results show I post a Bonus Pick comment at johncabrera.com saying that I changed my mind and thought Noelle and Russel would be the next to go… then I would recoup half a point for Noelle even though she will remain placing in week 5 on my entry… and I’d receive nothing for Russel since Legacy was the one to go home instead.

Make sense?

Again, you'll be sending your entry to dance@johncabrera.com. It has to be in by no later than 3PM EST on the day of Week 2's performance show (I'm not totally certain what day that is, since FOX only shows two weeks at a time). I’ll be lenient to those who accidentally miss the deadline by an hour or so. But if the show airs on the east coast, you'll be disqualified from the FDL even if you participated in Week 1.

Format your submission like this:

Subject: SYTYCD Fantasy League

Body:
1.) Your name
2.) (Optional) One web address you would like me to associate with your web presence if you have one (can be a blog, FB, twitter, tumblr, etc).
3.) The order in which you think the 20 will be going home. It should be listed like this.

1. 1st place winner of SYTYCD
2. 2nd place
3. 3rd place
4. 4th place
5. 5th place guy, 5th place girl
6. 7th place guy, 7th place girl
7. 9th place guy, 9th place girl
8. 11th place guy, 11th place girl
9. 13th place guy, 13th place girl
10. 15th place guy, 15th place girl
11. 17th place guy, 17th place girl
(Here's a nice list of the names of the top 20.)

And remember, if you register here at my blog (the link is in the upper left on the HOME page), you’ll have access to posts designed to help some of you catch up on episodes you’ve missed. It’s not mandatory, though, nor necessary for playing the game… just an added nuance to the FDL.

Happy larking.

I’m not sure if this is how I’m gonna title these posts in the future, but consider this a jumping off point.

So again yeah, these will mostly serve as a way for you to catch up on what you’ve missed… or review what you’ve seen. I know many of you have DVRs, but for those who don’t… or for those who live outside the US, this is for you. And who knows… these posts could evolve into something else that includes all members of the FDL.

Anyway. Here are three embeds that I don’t really want to post publicly on my blog. They’re full episodes from Vegas week. One thing about these, if you aren’t already familiar with MegaVideo, is that when you click on the red play button it forces a pop up that goes behind your current browser. It’s usually not a big deal, but some of them do have audio, so you’ll need to close them out.

Vegas Week 1

Vegas Week 2

Top 20 Chosen

If any of these embeds don’t work, or if you’d like to catch up on any other previous episodes of the show, check out Surf the Channel. The site links to dozens of versions of previously aired TV show episodes… including non user submitted sources like Hulu and ABC.com.

I really wish Fox would start offering full episodes of this show on their site or on Hulu. I understand why they don’t. It relies on the live element for voting. But still. It’s lame.