Fox has announced that the second season of So You Think You Can Dance, the network's American Idol-like reality series that searches for America's best undiscovered dancing talent, will debut Thursday, May 25 at 8PM ET/PT with a special two-hour premiere.

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After the two-hour premiere that will feature coverage of the show's New York and Charleston dance auditions, So You Think You Can Dance (created by Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, Idol's executive producers) will move to an Idol-like twice-weekly schedule in which it will air Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9PM ET/PT.

Once coverage of Dance's Chicago and Los Angeles auditions air during the week of May 29, the show will move on to its Las Vegas call-backs (the equivalent of Idol's Hollywood round) in which over a hundred dancers will work with the show's five choreographers and attempt to secure a spot in the judges' Top 20 finalists (ten male, ten females.)

After So You Think You Can Dance's judges select the season's twenty finalists, viewers will get their first chance to begin deciding who will be crowned the show's second season champion. A special two-hour edition of So You Think You Can Dance's first performance show (featuring the finalists performing as couples) will air on Wednesday, June 14 at 8PM ET/PT, after which the show will cut the first of its finalists during its initial hour-long live results on Thursday, June 15 at 9PM ET/PT.

Lauren Sanchez, who hosted So You Think You Can Dance's initial Summer 2005 edition, will not return for the show's second season. Instead, Dance's second season will be hosted by Cat Deeley, who despite her unfamiliarity to most American viewers, is a well known British television host that Fox touts as "the UK's hottest television personality."

Also not returning will be first season choreographers Alex Da Silva and Dan Karaty, who will be replaced by Ron Montez and Shane Sparks. Returning for So You Think You Can Dance's second season will be Brian Friedman, Mia Michaels, and Mary Murphy. Similar to last season, the choreographers -- along with Lythgoe, who also serves as one of the show's three executive producers -- will also serve as the members of So You Think You Can Dance's rotating judging panel.

Nick Lazzarini, a 20-year-old from Van Nuys, CA, won last year's initial So You Think You Can Dance edition. As the show's winner, he received a $100,000 cash prize and a free one-year lease on a New York City apartment.

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