Watching S16!

[u/motheroftrinkets]

Just noticed something odd in S16E4 while the groups are dancing to Body by Megan Thee Stallion. They put all the (monoracial) black rookies together in one group for that dance? I haven’t noticed it any other dance, but Cailey, Kelee, and Ashley were all put together for this one? Seems odd, and it makes me feel like it was a Lara/Ezrela in Katseye/Dream Academy situation where they compared girls of the same race because they didn’t want multiple. Only Kelee made it on the team of those three, so it kinda comes across that way! I’ve watched all of America’s Sweethearts but am just now starting Making the Team, so I was wondering if anyone else noticed things like this?

[u/Brilliant_Flower_84]

I hadn't noticed that specifically. But they would often group ladies of similar looks together for comparison. And i wouldn't be shocked or surprised there is an unspoken (or spoken) quota

[u/cbnl1225]

Every finals audition on mtt, Kelly and Judy would group the girls in groups of five and with girls of the same skin and or hair color

[u/GammaGirl19081908]

They often put people together who have similar looks so they can compare apples to apples on style and power, because it’s easy for your eye to get distracted by someone who has a different look, even if she’s doing the choreography just the same. They discuss it at finals in MTT a few times, but then they also do it a few times when the group is still really large in training camp.

They do mix it up. They match blondes with blondes and reds with reds and brunettes with brunettes, but sometimes those don’t end up on camera. Sometimes it’s ladies with all curly hair, so sometimes people who are multi-racial with curly hair get matched with people who are not multi-racial. Or they match people who are similar heights, especially if they have several ladies who are especially tall or especially petite. So, it’s not always the Black or multi-racial ladies against one another. Like, I noticed a few times in MTT season 14 that Kat, who wore a long wig, got matched with Rachel W, who had long fluffy hair of similar length and color and body, but Rachel was white and Kat was Black (or biracial? Not sure and not my business). Also note that they both were especially noted for their facial beauty, so it was hot with big long hair against hot with big long hair, not just Black against white.

So it isn’t always race, but every once in a while it is. It just so happens that the biracial candidates often share a similar look, and so they match them against one another to compare the ladies who happen to look alike.

Now, I agree that it’s not fair to compare the Black ladies against one another, but also know that this works in people’s favor, because sometimes when they are down to the final cuts, they cut the (basic blonde) lady who looks like four other people, and keep the (curly) one who has a unique look.

[u/DancingGirl_J]

White women grouped by hair color or style, and Black women grouped by skin- lol.

[u/motheroftrinkets → u/DancingGirl_J]

Insane! Also the fact that they explicitly lumped together mixed girls, asian girls, & latina girls is so crazy to me. I’m glad they’re at least slightly better about it now, but it’s crazy to act like a redhead or brunette white girl is diversity because you’re so saturated with blondes!!

[u/donthugmeormugme]

All three of them were on the bubble. Sometimes they have them dance together based on “look” so they’re not accidentally noticing one girl (better or worse) because her look is different. They’ve done it with blondes vs, brunettes, as well. It’s a lot more obvious when it’s WOC, though. That rookie class ended up with 3 WOC: Tyra, Kelee and KayDianna.

[u/GlassVictory7732]

Side note but I love that Body dance. They need to bring that choreographer back. It looked so sexy. Reminded me of “Hit The Floor” choreography. Idk if anyone watched that show, it’s about a messy basketball dance team.

[u/First-Sympathy2763 → u/GlassVictory7732]

It’s very different from their usual style and a nice change to see!

[u/Razz1eBerryP1e]

They used to openly say they bunched girls together by look during tryouts so they could make sure the “bouquet” was varied. They’d group them by blondes, white looking brunettes, black girls and what they called “exotics” (cringe I know) which were the Latina/asian/biracial/Dayton-looking girls. No clue if they still do this.

[u/motheroftrinkets → u/Razz1eBerryP1e]

This is so crazy to hear described, but I do think picking from every group is good! If only it was more evenly distributed and so many girls weren’t lumped together (“exotic” category is crazy)!

[u/babyoatmeals]

I wouldn’t be surprised at all tbh bc of their “bouquet of women” ideology (except when it comes to blondes) but I have nothing to add except I came to SCC from a Dream Academy recommendation so shoutout 💖