[2] 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.
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.
At the end of the final round of the week, 44 dancers remained, from which the judges selected a Top 20 to proceed into the performance show stage of the competition.
[5] In contrast with previous seasons, the top 20 showcase, in which all the dancers performed in their own styles, was a competitive and special episode.