With cuts made following each round of choreography, thirty-five dancers remained at the close of the week, prior to the selection of the Top 20.
This contrasts with the season one format where judges would nominate a bottom three couples and home viewers would vote out two dancers, the results being pre-taped and shown at the beginning of the next week's episode.
[6] These above changes all proved to be in place once the season's performance shows began airing but were also accompanied by a number of other format tweaks.
These additional changes most notably include the fact that the season will crown two winners (one male and one female) and that voting for individual dancers (as opposed to couples) began with the first week of the Top 20 competition with 1-855-GO-HIM## for the guys and 1-855-GO-HER## for the girls as opposed to halfway through the performance show phase, as in previous seasons.
The ninth season is also the first in which dancers have been able to exert some control over the styles they dance for their duets; Lythgoe revealed during the week 3 performances that during this season couples are given the ability to pick their styles from the pool of available routines for a given week, with the order of choosing determined by drawing lots.
The judge's panel still chooses which of these bottom dancers will be eliminated each week until the Top Ten.