Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew, often abbreviated as ABDC, is an American competitive dance reality television series that features dance crews from the United States and around the world. It was produced by American Idol judge Randy Jackson and aired on MTV. The series was originally developed for NBC as World Moves. After seven seasons, ABDC was cancelled due to declining ratings.
The show was hosted by Mario Lopez, and featured television personality Layla Kayleigh as the backstage correspondent. The judging panel for the final seasons of the show included entertainers Lil Mama, JC Chasez, and Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval. Former judges included hip-hop choreographer Shane Sparks and R&B singer Omarion.
Overview
America's Best Dance Crew is a reality show where dance crews showcase their talent, and compete for a $100,000 (USD) grand prize and the Golden ABDC Trophy (a golden statue of a B-Boy doing a freeze, with the legs moving like a bobblehead). Each week, the crews are given a challenge. The challenge is different for each crew, but has the same general concept or shares a specific theme. To begin each episode, 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 get to dance one final time on the stage as they "walk it out" to the song of the same name. If a crew is eliminated from the sixth place mark (fifth in Season 4, 5, and 7), the show will play a compilation video of their journey on ABDC.
The Top 10 Performances of All Time
On August 2, 2009, a prologue for Season 4 premiered titled "The Top 10 Performances of All Time," and was hosted by Randy Jackson. The episode aired Jackson's top 10 favorite performances of the first three seasons:
8 Flavahz, Mos Wanted Crew, Rated Next Generation, Fanny Pak, Collizion Crew, Stepboys, Funkdation, Irratik, Mix'd Elements
Controversy
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.
International distribution
ABDC airs on the MTV channel for the Caribbean, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Russia (by the alias of "?????? ????????", lit. "Kings of the Dancefloor"), Finland, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine (by the alias of "??????????? ???", lit. "Dance Battles"), and Romania. Season 6 is currently airing on Viva in the United Kingdom.
In Canada, the show airs on both MuchMusic and Musique Plus 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, Solar TV, Jack TV, and The Game Channel in the Philippines,
Fiji One in Fiji, and YAN TV in Vietnam.
Additional Notes
The opening title sequence created by Framework Studio won a Telly Award in 2009.