Got to Dance

Got to Dance
Genre	Dance competition
Presented by	Davina McCall
Judges	Ashley Banjo (2009–2014) Adam Garcia (2009–2012, 2014) Kimberly Wyatt (2009–2014, 2018–) Aston Merrygold (2013, 2018–) Stacey Solomon (2018–) Daniel Wilkes (2018–)
Country of origin	United Kingdom Ireland
Original language	English
No. of series	5
No. of episodes	71 (inc. 5 "Warm Up" shows)
Production
Production locations	Auditions: Various cities (2010–12) Clapham Common (2013) Roundhouse (2014) Live shows: Pinewood Studios (2010–12) Shepperton Studios (2013) Earls Court (2014) Final: Olympia, London (2011–13) Earls Court (2014)
Running time	30–90 mins
Production companies	Princess Productions Shine Limited
Original release
Network	Sky 1
Release	20 December 2009 (2009-12-20) – 28 December 2014 (2014-12-28)
Related
Got to Dance: Auditions Uncut International versions

Got to Dance, originally titled Just Dance, is a British dance competition that was broadcast on Sky 1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland from 20 December 2009 to 28 December 2014. Auditions for the show were held in specially built "Dance Domes" and are open to all dance acts of any age, style or size but must be of an amateur level.

The show is hosted by Davina McCall, with Ashley Banjo and Kimberly Wyatt as judges. In series 1 to 3, Adam Garcia was a judge but was replaced by Aston Merrygold in series 4. However, on 31 January 2014, Merrygold announced that he would be leaving the show. Garcia returned as a judge for series 5 in 2014. Since series 2, the prize money is £250,000 for the winning act. On 24 October 2014, it was announced that the show had been cancelled by Sky after five series.

Format

There are five stages to the competition:

• Stage 1: Producers' auditions (these auditions decide who will perform in front of the judges, but they are not broadcast or acknowledged on the show)
• Stage 2: Judges' auditions
• Stage 3: Callbacks (some acts may have to perform again at this stage for a place in the semi-finals)
• Stage 4: Live Semi-finals (each act performs in one semi-final, with only two advancing to the final)
• Stage 5: Live Final

Voting

Viewers in both Ireland and the United Kingdom can vote via Phone, Red Button (through Sky TV only) or via the official iPhone application, which was introduced in the second series. Viewers can vote for free using their website, which was introduced in the fourth series.

Series overview

Series	Year(s)	Time	Main presenter	Judges	Winner (dance style)	Prize money
1	2010	January–February	Davina McCall	Ashley Banjo Adam Garcia Kimberly Wyatt	Akai Osei (Street)	£100,000
2	2011				Chris and Wes (Street)	£250,000
3	2012	January–March			Prodijig (Irish stepdance)
4	2013			Ashley Banjo Kimberly Wyatt Aston Merrygold	Lukas McFarlane (Contemporary)
5	2014	August		Ashley Banjo Kimberly Wyatt Adam Garcia	Duplic8 (Street) (mentored by Adam Garcia)

Series 1 (2010)

Auditions for the first series were held in October 2009 in Edinburgh, Manchester and London.

The winning act, 10-year-old Akai, won the £100,000 prize money.

Semi-finalists

	First Semi-final – 24 January 2010	Second Semi-final – 31 January 2010	Third Semi-final – 7 February 2010	Grand Final – 14 February 2010
Contestants	Emily, Martin Sierra, Parallel, Status, Jukebox Juniors, Bhangra Heads	Kane Ricca, DNA, Beyond Repair, Matthew Koon, MJ Latin, Raw Edge	Unity Youth, Dance Dynamix, Akai Osei, Eclipse, The Box, Fancy Feet	Emily, Jukebox Juniors, Matthew Koon, MJ Latin, The Box, Akai Osei
Advanced to Final	Emily and Jukebox Juniors	Matthew Koon and MJ Latin	The Box and Akai Osei	Akai Osei (Winner)

Live show chart summary

Legend

Winner

Runner-up

Third place

Won Semi Final

Did Not Dance

Eliminated

Show	Contestant	Result
		SF 1	SF 2	SF 3	Final
Final	Akai Osei			Advanced	Winner
	Jukebox Juniors	Advanced			2nd
	The Box		Advanced		3rd
	Emily			Advanced	4th
	Matthew Koon	Advanced			5th
	MJ Latin		Advanced		6th
Semi Final 3
	Dance Dynamix			3rd
	Unity Youth			4th
	Fancy Feet			5th
	Eclipse			6th
Semi Final 2
	Kane Ricca		3rd
	Raw Edge		4th
	DNA		5th
	Beyond Repair		6th
Semi Final 1
	Status	3rd
	Bhangra Heads	4th
	Parallel	5th
	Martin Sierra	6th

Series 2 (2011)

A second series of Got to Dance began with a special "Warm Up" show that was broadcast on 19 December 2010 then fully on 2 January 2011. The prize money for the second series was £250,000, the largest cash give-away on a television talent show (at the time).

The format of the second series of Got to Dance was slightly different to the first series. There were eight audition shows followed by four live semi-finals, and a live final at Olympia, London on 27 February 2011 in front of an audience of 6,000 people. The dance dome auditions for the series were held in Glasgow, Dublin & London.

The winning act, Chris and Wes, won the £250,000 prize money.

Callbacks

At the Callbacks, the judges could not decide between eight of the acts so they organised a dance-off to fill the last four semi-final places. The acts in each category had to “face-off” their opponent with one dance; the judges then decided the winner of the each "face-off" and that act went through to the live semi-finals.

The eight acts in the dance-off were:

• Alleviate (won) vs Sean and Stacey,
• Dance Dynamix (won) vs Frameous,
• Lauren Hair (won) vs Natalie,
• Addam McMillian vs Crazy Popper (paired as duo named Liquid Metallic)

Semi-finals

The live semi-finals for Got to Dance 2011 began on Sunday 30 January 2011. There were seven acts in each live semi-final (28 in total). Each act performed in one semi-final each with only 2 advancing to the final. The judges awarded gold stars to the acts they believed deserved a place in the final.

Semi-final 1 (30 January)

Order	Contestant(s)	Stars			Result
		Adam	Kimberly	Ashley
1	Cerebro	★	★	★	Eliminated
2	Podilya	★	★	★	Eliminated
3	Luke	★	★	★	Eliminated
4	Chris and Wes	★	★	★	Advanced
5	Eruption	★	★	★	Eliminated
6	Alleviate	★	★	★	Advanced
7	Ghetto Fabulous	★	★	★	Eliminated

Semi-final 2 (6 February)

Order	Contestant(s)	Stars			Result
		Adam	Kimberly	Ashley
1	Shockarellas	★	★	★	Eliminated
2	Guys in Sync	★	★	★	Eliminated
3	Damhsa Dreams	★	★	★	Eliminated
4	QMX	★	★	★	Eliminated
5	Ella	★	★	★	Eliminated
6	Turbo	★	★	★	Advanced
7	Dance Dynamix	★	★	★	Advanced

Semi-final 3 (13 February)

Order	Contestant(s)	Stars			Result
		Adam	Kimberly	Ashley
1	Elmes 3 Style	★	★	★	Eliminated
2	Octavia	★	★	★	Eliminated
3	Trilogy	★	★	★	Eliminated
4	Tap Attack	★	★	★	Eliminated
5	Two's Company	★	★	★	Advanced
6	Back2Back	★	★	★	Eliminated
7	Lauren	★	★	★	Advanced

Semi-final 4 (20 February)

Order	Contestant(s)	Stars			Result
		Adam	Kimberly	Ashley
1	Tamara	★	★	★	Eliminated
2	Mystic Force	★	★	★	Eliminated
3	Liquid Metallic	★	★	★	Eliminated
4	Synergy	★	★	★	Eliminated
5	Razzle Dazzle	★	★	★	Advanced
6	Bolly-Flex	★	★	★	Eliminated
7	Trinity Warriors	★	★	★	Advanced

Final

The live final was 90 minutes long (taking place at Olympia) and featured the eight dance acts that made it through the semi-finals as well as a special performance from 2010's winner Akai Osei and dance troupe Diversity. After the acts performed there was a 6-minute window for voting. For the first time in a UK entertainment program, viewers could vote using a specially designed application for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Live Final (27 February)

Contestant(s)	Number of Gold stars	Result
Chris and Wes	★★★	Winners
Alleviate	★★★	Top 3
Razzle Dazzle	★★	Top 3
Turbo	★★★	Eliminated
Dance Dynamix	★	Eliminated
Two's Company		Eliminated
Lauren	★★	Eliminated
Trinity Warriors	★	Eliminated

Series 3 (2012)

Series 3 started on 1 January 2012. Producer auditions took place during July & August 2011 in Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, London and Dublin. Filming took place in various stages from July 2011 - March 2012. The dance domes auditions again took place in London, Glasgow and Dublin.

A special "Warm Up" show was broadcast on 18 December 2011. The series fully began on 1 January 2012, with the next episode the following day. Seven audition shows were aired followed by a "Home Visits" episode and one 30-minute episode featuring the "Callback" performances.

A new show, Got to Dance: Auditions Uncut aired weekdays at 6pm and was narrated by Will Best. As the name suggests, the show featured uncut auditions from the main show and others which were not shown.

The winning act, Prodijig, won the £250,000 prize money.

Semi-finals

The live semi-finals for Got to Dance 2012 began on Sunday 29 January 2012. Five semi-finals took place, instead of four as previously. In total, 30 acts advanced to the semi-finals in 2012.

Semi-finalists

	Semi-final 1 – 29 January 2012	Semi-final 2 – 5 February 2012	Semi-final 3 – 12 February 2012	Semi-final 4 – 19 February 2012	Semi-final 5 – 26 February 2012
Contestants	Chuck, Tayluer & Elliott, Prodijig, Project G, Sam, Bendy Kate	A Hoofer's Song, Fear Of The Unknown, Luke, Sapnay, Boadicea, Urban Jokers	Supermalcom, Sweet Surprise, Antics, Lil Hustlers, Olivia, Brosena	Rikoshay, Methods Of Movement, Hippy-Joe, The Future, Lloyd & Rebecca, A Team	Kazzum, Belle, Lindsey & Ryan, Dharmz, Reflection, Unity UK
Advanced to Final	Prodijig, Tayluer & Elliott	Boadicea, Fear Of The Unknown	Sweet Surprise, Antics	Methods of Movement, A Team	Unity UK, Kazzum

Final

The live final took place at Olympia in front of 6,000 people on 4 March 2012.

Live Final (4 March)

Contestant(s)	Result
Prodijig	Winners
Fear Of The Unknown	Top 3
Tayluer & Elliott	Top 3
Kazzum	Eliminated
Sweet Surprise	Eliminated
Antics	Eliminated
Methods of Movement	Eliminated
A Team	Eliminated
Unity UK	Eliminated
Boadicea	Eliminated

Series 4 (2013)

Series 4 started in January 2013. Producer auditions took place during July and August 2012. This year, auditions in front of the judges took place at Clapham Common in London. No judges' auditions were held in Glasgow or Dublin. The auditions took place between 13 September and 2 October 2012, in a brand new and bigger dome which can hold up to 760 audience members.

Starting in this series, all acts must receive 3 gold stars from the judges to progress onto the shortlist.

It was also confirmed on 11 August 2012, that Aston Merrygold would be replacing Garcia on the judging panel. Jordan Banjo and Perri Kiely were the backstage team for series 4. They also provided the voice overs for many of the episodes of Got to Dance: Auditions Uncut.

Producer audition dates:

Date(s)	City
28–29 July 2012	Manchester
30 July 2012	Liverpool
2 August 2012	Newcastle
4–6 August 2012	London
8 August 2012	Glasgow
11 August 2012	Dublin
16 August 2012	Birmingham
17 August 2012	Bristol
18 August 2012	Cardiff
19 August 2012	London
26 August 2012

Semi-finals

The live semi-finals for Got to Dance 2013 began on Sunday 10 February 2013. Five semi-finals took place, with six acts performing in each for one of two places in the Grand Final on 17 March.

Semi-finalists

	Semi-final 1 – 10 February 2013	Semi-final 2 – 17 February 2013	Semi-final 3 – 24 February 2013	Semi-final 4 – 3 March 2013	Semi-final 5 – 10 March 2013
Contestants	Lukas, Notorious, Dance For Joy, Molly and Vitaly, Collective Ent, Tom	Buckness Personified, Mechanikool, Mini Moves, Momentum, Pulse Collective, Rhys	G-Nome, Hash Tap, IMD (Intelligent Minds Dance), Poison, Rory O'Shea, Wild G	Godson, Javier and Julie, Amour, Antics, Gaana Rajas, One Step Ahead	Gymtasia Evolution, Juicy, Leon and Dotty, Mindtrick, Ruff Diamond, Shun
Advanced to Final	Lukas McFarlane, Tom Hughes-Lloyd	Rhys Yeomans, Mini Moves	Rory O’Shea, IMD	Antics, Godson	Gymtasia Evolution, Ruff Diamond

Final

The live final took place at Olympia in front of 6,000 people on 17 March 2013.

Live Final (17 March)

Contestant(s)	Result
Lukas McFarlane	Winner
Ruff Diamond	Top 3
Gymtasia Evolution	Top 3
Tom	Eliminated
Mini Moves	Eliminated
IMD	Eliminated
Antics	Eliminated
Godson	Eliminated
Rory	Eliminated
Rhys	Eliminated

Series 5 (2014)

Series 5 began airing on 9 August 2014, with McCall continuing as host. Banjo and Wyatt returned as judges for a fifth time and Garcia returned after his absence in series 4, replacing Merrygold. In this series, the semi-finals were stripped across one week (similar to Britain's Got Talent) and the judges mentored contestants throughout the competition. Six acts from each team progressed to the live rounds. Auditions for this series took place at the Roundhouse concert venue in Camden, London between 6–11 May 2014. This is the first time the dance domes have not been used. Series 2 winners Chris and Wes returned to Got to Dance and were joined by Joe Sugg to form the Backstage/Online team.

Producer auditions for Got to Dance 2014 took place during March and April 2014 in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Dublin.

Producer audition dates:

Date(s)	City
15 March 2014	Dublin
23 March 2014	London
25 March 2014	Glasgow
27 March 2014	Newcastle
29–30 March 2014	Manchester
3 April 2014	London
5 April 2014	Birmingham
6 April 2014	Cardiff
12–13 April 2014	London

Semi-finalists

The following 18 acts made it to the live shows:

Team Ashley (25 August 2014)	Team Kimberly (26 August 2014)	Team Adam (27 August 2014)
Rella Nation Dance Illusion Turbo & Godson Boyband Bitter Harvest Sharifa	Original Kidz Kaner Flex Kofi Academy Of Base Kaine Ward IMD	Duplic8 Unity Academy Dan-I & Sia Freddie Huddleston UnTitled Nicholas Marvel

Finalists

The following 9 acts made it to the live final on 29 August 2014:

Key:   – Winning judge/team. Winner is in bold, eliminated contestants in small font.

Team Ashley	Team Kimberly	Team Adam
Dance Illusion Boyband Bitter Harvest	Original Kidz Kaine Ward IMD	Duplic8 Unity Academy Dan-I & Sia

Got to Dance bursary fund

The second series saw the introduction of the bursary fund. This fund, worth £15,000, was to be distributed amongst auditionees that the judges felt weren't yet good enough to progress in the competition, but whom they felt had real potential, and was to be used to enable them to develop and cultivate their dance skills through professional tuition.

Transmissions

Warm-up shows

Air date
20 December 2009
19 December 2010
18 December 2011
23 December 2012
27 July 2014

Original series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	3 January 2010	14 February 2010	8
2	2 January 2011	27 February 2011	15
3	1 January 2012	4 March 2012	16
4	6 January 2013	17 March 2013	15
5	9 August 2014	29 August 2014	11

Ratings

Episode ratings from BARB. They do not include viewings on Sky 1 +1.

Series 1

Episode no.	Airdate	Total viewers	Sky1 Weekly Ranking
1	20 December 2009	—	—
2	3 January 2010	1,096,000	2
3		1,313,000	1
4	10 January 2010	963,000	1
5	17 January 2010	920,000	1
6	24 January 2010	1,109,000	2
7	31 January 2010	978,000	3
8	7 February 2010	1,218,000	3
9	14 February 2010	1,354,000	1

Series 2

Episode no.	Airdate	Total viewers	Sky1 Weekly Ranking
1	19 December 2010	—	—
2	2 January 2011	1,104,000	2
3		1,336,000	1
4	9 January 2011	1,127,000	1
5		986,000	2
6	16 January 2011	1,248,000	1
7		1,047,000	2
8	23 January 2011	1,001,000	1
9		922,000	2
10		820,000	3
11	30 January 2011	1,327,000	1
12	6 February 2011	1,284,000	1
13	13 February 2011	1,081,000	2
14	20 February 2011	1,284,000	2
15	27 February 2011	1,298,000	3
16		1,376,000	2

Series 3

Episode no.	Airdate	Total viewers	Sky1 Weekly Ranking
1	18 December 2011	—	—
2	1 January 2012	983,000	4
3	2 January 2012	766,000	6
4	8 January 2012	1,034,000	4
5		792,000	5
6	15 January 2012	959,000	3
7		795,000	4
8	22 January 2012	1,145,000	3
9		742,000	5
10		635,000	7
11	29 January 2012	1,264,000	2
12	5 February 2012	1,064,000	5
13	12 February 2012	1,048,000	4
14	19 February 2012	898,000	4
15	26 February 2012	766,000	4
16	4 March 2012	1,206,000	1
17		1,197,000	2

Series 4

Episode no.	Airdate	Total viewers	Sky1 Weekly Ranking
1	23 December 2012	—	—
2	6 January 2013	908,000	4
3		947,000	2
4	13 January 2013	801,000	5
5		847,000	3
6	20 January 2013	716,000	4
7		692,000	5
8	27 January 2013	705,000	5
9	3 February 2013	627,000	5
10	10 February 2013	868,000	3
11	17 February 2013	884,000	4
12	24 February 2013	677,000	5
13	3 March 2013	655,000	5
14	10 March 2013	513,000	8
15	17 March 2013	930,000	3
16		1,131,000	1

Series 5

Episode no.	Episode	Airdate	Total viewers	Sky1 Weekly Ranking
1	Warm up	27 July 2014	—	—
2	Audition Day 1	9 August 2014	630,000	3
3	Audition Day 2	10 August 2014	571,000	4
4	Audition Day 3	16 August 2014	527,000	4
5	Audition Day 4	17 August 2014	591,000	3
6	Audition Day 5	23 August 2014	554,000	4
7	Audition Day 6	24 August 2014	700,000	2
8	Heat 1	25 August 2014	552,000	4
9	Heat 2	26 August 2014	488,000	6
10	Heat 3	27 August 2014	457,000	7
11	Live Final	29 August 2014	515,000	5
12	Results	29 August 2014	558,000	2
Special	A Celebration	28 December 2014

International versions

Colour key

  In production (0)     Discontinued (7)     Not aired (1)  

Current and upcoming versions include:

Country	Local title	Presenter(s)	Judges	Channel	Series
Australia	Got to Dance	Andrew Günsberg	—	Fox8	Cancelled in 2012
Finland	Pakko Tanssia	Satu Tuomisto Jani Toivola	Sami Saikkonen Saana Akiola Dennis Nylund	Yle TV2	Season 1: 2 March – 4 May 2013
France Monaco	Got to Dance: Le Meilleur Danseur	Sandrine Corman	David Carreira Mia Frye Stephane Jarny	TMC	Season 1: 24 June – 12 August 2015
Germany	Got to Dance	Johanna Klum (1–2) Alexandra Simone Maurer (3)	Palina Rojinski (1–3) Nikeata Thompson (1–2) Howard Donald (1–2) Marvin A. Smith (3) Anton Zetterholm (3)	ProSieben (1–3) Sat.1 (1–2)	Season 1: 20 June – 5 July 2013 Season 2: 17 July – 14 August 2014 Season 3: 13 August – 24 September 2015
Poland	Got to Dance – Tylko Taniec	Maciej Dowbor Katarzyna Kępka (1–2) Anna Głogowska (3–4)	Joanna Liszowska Michał Malitowski Alan Andersz Krystyna Mazurówna (1–2) Anna Jujka (3–4) Filip Czeszyk (1–2, Guest) Kimberly Wyatt (3–4, Guest)	Polsat	Season 1: 3 March – 11 May 2012 Season 2: 7 September – 9 November 2012 Season 3: 1 March – 3 May 2013 Season 4: 13 September – 22 November 2013
Romania	Romania Danseaza	George Papagheorghe Andreea Balan	Mihai Bendeac (1) Connect-r (2) Monica Petrica CRBL	Antena 1	Season 1: March – May 2013 Season 2: Spring 2014
United States	Live to Dance	Andrew Günsberg	Paula Abdul Travis Payne Kimberly Wyatt	CBS	Season 1: 4 January – 9 February 2011
Vietnam	Got to Dance Vietnam: Vũ điệu đam mê	Khánh Thi	Trần Ly Ly Dumbo Alfredo Torres Minh Hằng	VTV3	Season 1: 14 September – 28 December 2013

US version

Main article: Live to Dance

CBS announced on 10 April 2010 that there was going to be an American version of the series titled Live to Dance and was set to rival So You Think You Can Dance. The show premiered on the said channel on 4 January 2011 and was cancelled a month later in the same year. Kimberly Wyatt also served as a judge on Live to Dance.

Polish version

Main article: Got to Dance - Tylko Taniec

A Polish version premiered 2 March 2012 on Polsat, titled Got to Dance - Tylko Taniec. Second edition aired from 7 September to 9 November 2012. A third edition began on 1 March 2013 and a fourth in September 2013. Since March 2011, Polsat have also produced a local version of Must Be the Music (which was first aired on Sky1 in 2010) and has aired its sixth edition. Both shows air two seasons a year in Poland.

Australian version

Plans for an Australian version of the show were announced in April 2012. It was expected to premiere on the Australian cable channel Fox8 later in 2012, with Andrew Günsberg as the host. However, it was announced in June 2012 that the show was cancelled due to a scheduling conflict with another dance show Everybody Dance Now on Network Ten.

German version

The German version premiered on 20 June 2013 on ProSieben, with the remaining shows being broadcast on Sat.1. Johanna Klum hosts the show while Palina Rojinski, Nikeata Thompson and Howard Donald are the judges. A second season was aired in 2014 and a third in 2015.

See also

• So You Think You Can Dance
• Must Be the Music
• Strictly Come Dancing
• Dancing on Ice
• Britain's Got Talent

External links

• Official website
• Got to Dance at UKGameshows.com
• Got to Dance at IMDb
• Got to Dance on Twitter