that was a little weird

Doesn't Cat Deeley have lovely Raggedy Ann eyelashes?

SYTYCD eliminated its first guy and girl tonight. But not before Season 2 winner Benji Schwimmer dropped his pants and revealed his patriotic undies. What was that about? Anyway, Ashlee and Ricky were not among the six couples I voted for last night. It's just too early to pick one or two favorites and honestly, I didn't think there were any standouts in either direction. Even Ashlee and Ricky were mostly just an awkward physical match. Early interests of mine, though, include Anya (who's super-hot), Jaimie (Nigel compared Lauren to Allison from last season but I think Jaimie shares more of a likeness, physically and in terms of dance potential), Hok (he's pretty amazing but I'm not sure how versatile he's going to be), Lauren (although I think she might be to SYTYCD a little bit what Jade was to ANTM), Kameron, Neil, and Sara (she's pretty great, I just can't wait to see what else she can do).

As you might be able to tell from my lack of parenthetical annotations, there aren't too many standouts yet among the guys for me. I wasn't blown away by Cedric previously either but I think I must not have been paying attention. That boy is cuh-razy on the dance floor! And I just love Shane Sparks' choreography. I like him better than Wade Robson. Zombie dancing aside, the thing that falls apart with Wade's routines - not to his fault, but still - is that they so rely on the dancers being completely synchronized. When they're not you really notice. Shane, on the other hand, allows dancers to really "vibe off each other," and then there are moments where they come together and the whole routine kind of pops. It's great. Plus, there's some serious old school flavor in Shane's routines that I just love.

And, what, no "Suddenly I See" to bid adieu to the departing "beautiful girl"?! I can't decide how I feel about that, actually...