photo: Kristen (Jower-Ho) Shaffer"So You Think You Can Dance" had a rough time during Season 9, a season plagued by unfortunate format changes, timeslot switchups, and a couple of momentum-killing hiatuses. But one thing that did not plague Season 9 was a lack of talent. And when a dozen of this past season's talented dancers (the top 10, plus fan-picked wild cards Amelia Lowe and Matthew Kazmierczak) returned to Los Angeles on October 25 on the SYTYCD 2012 Tour, their dancetastic revue was a welcome reminder of how "So You Think You Can Dance" continues to be one of the best, if not THE best, talent shows on the air.

It's election time, and even though he's not a U.S. citizen, Simon Cowell still nobly wants to stress the importance of voting this November...for "The X Factor," of course, after the show goes live on November 1. Yep, leave it to Simon to always have his priorities in the right place.

Phillip performs at game one of the World Series"American Idol" champion Phillip Phillips may not have the big, belty, booming voice usually associated with the National Anthem--that's usually the domain of his Season 11 co-stars, Jessica Sanchez and Joshua Ledet. In fact, he actually once told Yahoo!'s Reality Rocks that he'd never want to try and tackle the tricky "Star-Spangled Banner," because, as he often humbly likes to say, he's "not that good a singer." But of course, an all-American boy like P-Squared could not turn down an opportunity to perform the Anthem at the opening game of the 2012 World Series, which took place this Wednesday.

Although Phillip had never performed the iconic song publicly before, and he was performing it for a massive television audience that literally made "Idol's" viewing audience look positively minor league, the guy knocked it out of the park (and he stayed on the melody, in case you were wondering.) And he did the song in his own style, staying true to himself, just like he always did with his cover tunes on "Idol."