So You Think You Can Dance, an American dance competition show, returned for its eleventh season on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. The commission of an eleventh season was first announced by series creator Nigel Lythgoe on the September 10, 2013, telecast of the season 10 finale. The season again features Lythgoe, who also serves as executive producer, and ballroom expert Mary Murphy as the two permanent members of the judge's panel while Cat Deeley continues in her role as host for a tenth consecutive season. Contemporary dancer Ricky Ubeda won the competition, and his prizes include $250,000, the chance to appear on the cover of Dance Spirit magazine, the offer of a role in the 2014 Broadway revival of the musical On the Town as choreographed by one of this season's guest choreographers, Joshua Bergasse, and the title of America's Favorite Dancer. The runner-up was tap dancer Valerie Rockey. This season saw the show eliminate interactive viewer participation by telephone, with producers preferring to divert weekly voting to the show's website and the network's new proprietary smartphone app, a process that reduced the overall number of votes each participating viewer could cast each week.
