SYTYCD: Season 8 Finale

Marko, Sasha, Melanie, & Tadd

While the final performance episode that aired last night was a bit lackluster and the results tonight were a bit anticlimactic, So You Think You Can Dance can still celebrate a largely entertaining and winning season. The immensely talented and personable top four consisted of the smooth Marko Germar, the eclectic Melanie Moore, the fierce Sasha Mallory, and the strong Tadd Gadduang. All of them made an impression on me from the very start, I called Marko "cute," Melanie "sick," and Sasha "dynamic." For Tadd, I wanted to like him, but his hair was distracting. Thankfully his moves throughout the season made me forget about his hair.

As I said, last night's performance's episode was a tad disappointing. With the exception of Melanie, everyone seemed to falter with one or more routines. Still, they all had at least one great number and really at this point of the competition the number of casual voters are quite small as they've long consolidated their fanbase. From the very beginning Melanie and Marko rode the frontrunner wave, never once appearing in the bottom, becoming instant judge and audience favorites. Sasha went toe to toe with Melanie as judge Nigel Lythgoe's favorite contestant. Tadd grew the most knocking off styles that were foreign to him week after week.

All-Girl Top 2

Very early in the season, the judges called the girls "beasts" warning the boys to step up their game or else they'll be left in the dust. Last night, Nigel reiterated this, in somewhat poor taste, to Marko and Tadd pretty much brushing off their journeys and already declaring Melanie or Sasha the winner. For his part Nigel did apologize tonight, but the end result was the same as Sasha and Melanie were the final two left standing (the duo getting 79% of the vote!). After they danced an encore of their magnificent Sonya Tayeh duet, which got them a standing ovation a couple weeks ago from Lady Gaga, Cat Deeley declared Melanie Moore "America's Favorite Dancer." She becomes only the third SYTYCD champ to win without appearing in the bottom, joining season 2 winner Benji Schwimmer and season 4 winner Joshua Allen.

Congratulations Melanie!