NBC’s World of Dance has added American Ballet Theatre star Misty Copeland as a guest judge on season one. Copeland will be guest judging episodes airing on July 18 and July 25, 2017 during the third round of the competition. Per NBC, round three is known as “The Cut” and is when the competitors “face the deepest and most intense cut of the season. More than half of the acts will be sent home, and only the top two acts from each division will move on to the Division Final.”
Season one’s judging panel includes Jennifer Lopez, Derek Hough, and NE-YO. Jenna Dewan-Tatum is pulling double duty as host and mentor to the competitors.
World of Dance has been averaging 8.7 million viewers over its first three weeks, and is now the highest-rated first season summer series since CBS’ Under the Dome debuted in 2013. The series is executive produced by Lopez, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Benny Medina, Kris Curry, Matilda Zoltowski, Alex Katz, David Gonzalez, Matthew Everitt, and Al Hassas.
“When judging the best of the best, we knew we needed an all-star guest judge with passion and credibility to mentor these incredible dancers,” stated judge/executive producer Jennifer Lopez. “Misty Copeland is at the top of her game and we are so honored that she was able to lend her expertise and experience to the World of Dance stage.”
Series Details: In partnership with preeminent global dance brand World of Dance, the series brings the world’s elite dancers together to compete in epic battles of artistry, precision and athleticism. Solo dancers will compete against duos and crews in an unlimited range of dance, including hip-hop, popping, locking, tap, ballet, break dancing, ballroom, stomping and more.
Handpicked from qualifying events around the nation and thousands of online submissions, competitors are divided into three divisions: Junior (any size act, 17 years old and under), Upper (groups of 1-4, 18 and older) and Team (groups of 5+, 18 and older). Our panel of experts score the acts using a precise point system developed by World of Dance, using the following criteria: Performance, Technique, Choreography, Creativity and Presentation. The competition consists of five rounds: Qualifiers, Duels, The Cut, Divisional Final and the World Final. In the first four rounds, dancers only compete within their division, but in the World Final – the winner from each division will compete against each other for the $1 million grand prize.
