I wondered if the teams with one woman were helped or hurt in "doing" Beyonce. Thoughts?

I think it depended on the group. Vogue Evolution nailed the "Beyonce," helped by the fact that Leomi is such a wonderful capital-D Diva. But the others faded in comparison, IMO.

Other than VE, my favorite dances of the night were those that didn't try and have a "Beyonce"--I liked Rhythm City's nightmare number (especially the "Thriller" shoutout!), the Seattle group's hula hoop number, and We Are Heroes, of course.

I liked Rhythm City's nightmare number (especially the "Thriller" shoutout!), the Seattle group's hula hoop number, and We Are Heroes, of course.

Those are the ones I pretty much liked. I don't get why Vogue Evolution was so praised, they seemed way sloppy to me.

This is the first season I'm watching. Does it always work the same way (i.e., votes from the previous week determine the two bottom teams and the judges have to pick from those two)? So, regardless of their routines, certain crews are safe and others aren't?

It was kind of confusing this week. The judges picked the lowest crew last week during the show. Then the audience voted, and the bottom two danced and the judges selected a winner from the bottom two.

I'm sure that Vogue Evolution has a strong lobby calling in.

It always works that way. The audience determines who is B2 and then both crews do a DoD and the judges decide "on the spot" who goes home that night. That happens up until the final two crews and that is all up to the audience. I actually prefer this format because it takes some of the Evan factor out of the results. This judge panel usually rewards excellence above popularity.

I guess I just don't expect a vogueing crew to give me clean, crisp choreography a la Southern Movement or Rhythm City. I expect over the top exuberance and an almost frenetic energy because they are coming out of the serious, straight up battle dance culture. And not even B-Boy style battles most of the time. These are normally individual, winner take all battles decided by a ballroom full of vicious queens not battles between the different houses. So I really appreciate VE because they are up there making a crew out of a style that is really not based around being a crew and still being true to the style of dance that they represent. I found their performance all over fierce. I think both VE and Afroborike might struggle with challenges as the show progresses.

And I would agree that VE probably has a ridiculously solid voting block. But I also hope that they are winning over some b-boys and hip hop heads through their appearance on this show, especially given the extreme homophobia on display in a lot of rap culture.

I didn't care for Rhythm City because I feel like they really cheated the challenge. That half a milisecond of foot shuffling that looked like half of them were doing the Mashed Potato in no way fulfilled the spirit of the task, IMHO. And I didn't care for the business of having the guy in the PJs dance on the bed for the entire routine. And they didn't hit their ending pose it didn't seem. The two guys were still scrambling to get back under the bed when the music ended. I was all over underwhelmed which is sad, because I had really enjoyed them week one.

PR fans, Tim Gunn is on The Daily Show tonight.

On PR, how do we all feel about a guest appearance by Nicole Kidman? I don't know if that's even a spoiler because it's been everywhere but I figured better safe than sorry. Anyway, I'm excited about it for the most part. Sure to be a better fit than Posh as an AI guest judge. I'm already weeping over that one.

We hates it.

I would rather not have "star" guest judges. Heck, I don't even want stylists in that chair.

Posh SPICE as an AI judge? For real?

I also heard they're having Joe Jonas during auditions. Um.

I don't know if that's even a spoiler because it's been everywhere but I figured better safe than sorry

A spoiler is anything that hasn't been broadcast (perhaps it's been discussed in commercials, but as I tend to FF through commercials, maybe I haven't seen it). If you're being safe, then white font, which perhaps you meant to do?

eta: ah, you fixed it, good. I know I'm a spoiler nazi, but our rules are our rules.

Yeah, sorry to anyone who inadvertently saw that. I was trying to white font it from the beginning because while I myself am a total spoiler ho, I know that others are not. Sadly, my HTML skills are nigh unto non-existent and every time I try to use the handy dandy quick edit function that I'm sure is super easy, I prove that I am crap at most things technological.

Yes, Posh will be guest judging on AI, at least during the early audition rounds (Boston maybe?). Although her "people" deny that there are any plans to add her as a permanent judge. And I hope that wasn't a spoiler, but in addition to reading about it in Entertainment Weekly, I saw it on Entertainment Tonight or Extra or some other widely broadcast show, so I apologize to anyone who didn't know or didn't want to know, but I honestly didn't think that was a spoiler.

ETA: As apparently are my spelling skills, so maybe I should just stop posting today.