So You Think You Can Dance

From FOX, the creators of American Idol and the producers of American Bandstand and The American Music Awards comes So You Think You Can Dance.In its sophomore season, this show is offering the winner a one year contract for Celine Dion's Vegas show, a brand new car and $100K cash. Contestants perform a particular style of dance each week with a partner. The audience votes on their favorite couple leaving the 3 couples with the least votes up for elimination. After each dancer performs a solo of their choice for the judges, one male and one female contestant are up for elimination.

''We don't have a lot of money. We just have our friends and our dancing.'' What can I say, dear readers? It's this kind of line — delivered with simple sincerity and spirit by Philip Courter after witnessing his friend Yesenia Gomez's year-long dream quashed by a bum knee — that just gets my eyes all soggy no matter how many hair dryers my snark demon Smirkelstiltskin fires up to keep 'em tear free. You can scour through hour upon hour of America's Next Top Models and America's Got Talents, Shear Geniuses and Top Chefs, Project Runways and American Idols, and I doubt you'd be able to find a clean dozen moments that when added together equal the deeply felt heart in Yesenia and Philip's auditions. Yeah, it was a twinge self-congratulatory for Nigel Lythgoe to air so much of Yesenia heaping praise upon him, the other judges, and the show itself for changing her life, but, TV-friendly cliché or no, it's pretty darn clear Nigel, the other judges, and the show itself changed her life, as shown by the 50-pound weight loss, the massive leap in self-worth, the unshakable determination to become a great dancer.

So You Think You Can Dance's Vegas-week show tonight. Nope — if I had any doubt why Nigel and Co. chose to end their audition episodes in the apparent dancing mecca of Milwaukee (which, I'm sure, has nothing to do with its proximity to the more expensive theaters of downtown Chicago), it was blown clear away by Yesenia and Philip's twin bull's-eye shots at my sappy sweet spot. (Meanwhile, because Smirkel's now turned the hair dryers on my ears: Who wants to place bets now on the number of times Cat utters variations on this line tonight during Vegas week: Will both these roommates/partners/BFFs/part-time lovers make it to the Top 20? He's also curious if Cat's stank face over the blizzardy Milwaukee weather really means that she loves it; the calculus of stank facery is evidently too much for his wee horns to handle.