'So You Think You Can Dance' finalist Alex Wong suffers severe injury

So You Think You Can Dance's seventh season appears to have lost its early frontrunner.


Alex Wong suffered an apparent Achilles tendon rupture during the Fox reality competition's Tuesday night rehearsals and will likely have to withdraw due to the injury.

"Alex has been for an MRI today.  At best he is going to be off this week," So You Think You Can Dance judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe explained after host Cat Deeley revealed Wong's injury at the beginning of Wednesday night's live Top 8 performance show.

"At worst, we know it's -- we think -- a ruptured Achilles tendon, which is what happened to David Beckham the soccer player and he was off for nearly three months.  We're keeping our fingers crossed, we get the results later on."

Since he was unable to perform on Wednesday night's show, Wong will automatically be part of Thursday night's results show bottom threesome -- which are usually based solely on home viewer voting -- and So You Think You Can Dance's judges will then determine if he should be the bottom three contestant eliminated.


However Wong would then automatically be eliminated from So You Think You Can Dance's seventh season if he were still unable to perform during next week's Top 7 performance show.

"With the new rules this year, he is going to be placed in the bottom three this week and will be judged," Lythgoe said. 

"And then if he can't [perform] next week then he is automatically out of the competition, which is heartbreaking knowing how hard he's worked to get here and how much he has sacrificed to get into the program.  We are all, as he is, devastated."

Wong was disqualified from So You Think You Can Dance's fifth-season Top 20 last summer due to a contract with the Miami City Ballet but returned to compete in this summer's seventh edition and immediately established himself as the competition's early frontrunner.

"I believe that you have just set a new standard for So You Think You Can Dance," Lythgoe gushed after Wong performed on the season's initial Top 11 performance show.


"I have to say that that was the best, hands-down, piece of work danced on the So You Think You Can Dance stage anywhere in the world up to date. Anywhere," fellow judge Mia Michaels added.

Wong had continued to receive accolades during last week's Top 9 show.

"Who the hell are you? I don't even know. You have defied everything about the ballet world. Everything... I'm completely shocked. I wish I could close my mouth, but I can't," Michaels said.

"This is your world and I am just visiting. I cannot tell you how proud you just made me to be on this show so that I can sit here and watch you just do that!" judge Adam Shankman added.  "I can't believe it! I am so proud of you!"

If Wong is forced out of the competition, it would mark the second consecutive season that So You Think You Can Dance has lost a contestant to withdrawal. 


Last fall, sixth-season Top 20 semifinalist Billy Bell was forced to withdraw due to illness. He then returned for So You Think You Can Dance's current season and has been competing against Wong.






About The Author: Steven Rogers