World of Dance season 2

Did You Know?

• Karen y Ricardo was the first act of the season to receive a score of 100 from one or more judges, setting an all-time show high score of 99.7 points.
• Charity & Andres earned the first perfect score of 100 in the show's history during The Duels round.
• Elektro Elite qualified with 80 points and ThaMOST with 84 points, but neither performance was posted as a Digital Exclusive nor listed on the NBC World of Dance website.

Production

Season 2 of the competition was filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood from January through March 2018, wrapping up about two months before it premiered. The overall structure stayed mostly the same, but a few changes were made. The season was given sixteen episodes, six more than the first season’s ten. A new division called Junior Team was introduced for groups of five or more dancers all under 18.

The Qualifiers were shortened from two minutes to one minute per routine, and the Duels went from two minutes down to 75 seconds. In The Cut, the top three scoring acts from each division advanced to the Divisional Final, instead of just the top two as in the previous season. The Cut, Divisional Final, and World Final rounds were all reduced from two minutes to 90 seconds. Guest celebrities served as mentors for each division during The Cut and the Divisional Final.

For the World Final, intermezzo performances were added, featuring Les Twins, Keone and Mariel Madrid, Kinjaz, and Derek Hough. To assemble the cast, producers selected dancers skilled in any style from nationwide qualifying events and thousands of online submissions. Some performers were contacted directly by producers or agents without having applied. Contestants were split into four divisions: Junior (1–4 members, under 18), Upper (1–4 members, 18 and older), Junior Team (5 or more members, under 18), and Upper Team (5 or more members, 18 and older).

The elimination process had four rounds. In the Qualifiers, acts needed at least 80 points to move on. In the Duels, the highest scorer from the Qualifiers chose their opponent first; if a division had an uneven number of contestants, the last duel involved the three remaining unpicked acts. The winner of each duel, based on the highest score, advanced to The Cut.

There, mentors prepared each division, and the top three scoring acts moved to the Divisional Final. That final round added a guest judge to the panel, making four judges total. The top scoring act in each division became division champion and went to the World Final.

Judges, host and mentors

Jennifer Lopez, Ne-Yo, and Derek Hough returned as judges, with Jenna Dewan returning as host. Misty Copeland, who guest judged in season 1, returned as guest judge for the Divisional Final. Julianne Hough, Mel B, Savion Glover, and Paula Abdul joined as guest mentors for The Cut. Tony Award winner Savion Glover collaborated with judge Jennifer Lopez for the Junior Team division. Julianne Hough worked with her brother Derek Hough in the Upper division. Mel B joined forces with Ne-Yo in mentoring the Junior division. Paula Abdul teamed with host Jenna Dewan in the Upper Team division. Ciara joined as guest mentor during the Divisional Final. Three weeks after the season finale, Jenna Dewan publicly announced she would not return as host for season 3, though she confirmed she would return briefly as a mentor.

World Final

The World Final brought the four division champions together to compete for the million-dollar prize. As in earlier rounds, the judges and host Jenna mentored the finalists: Derek guided Charity & Andres, Jennifer mentored S-Rank, Jenna worked with Michael Dameski, and Ne-Yo coached The Lab. Each act performed twice—first to a song chosen by their judge or Jenna, then to their own selection. Scores appeared on a leaderboard after each performance.

The winner was decided by the judges’ average scores from both routines. Before the final results, season one’s Kinjaz and Keone & Mari joined Derek Hough onstage, and season one champion Les Twins performed. The Lab claimed the title with a combined score of 97.5, edging out Michael Dameski by 1.5 points. The final rankings were: fourth place S-Rank (93.5), third place Charity & Andres (94.3), second place Michael Dameski (96.0), and first place The Lab (97.5).

Contestants who appeared on previous season

Season 1 saw several dancers return for the second season with new partnerships or groups. Andres Penate and Jaxon Willard had both been part of 801Squad. Melvin Timtim originally danced with Chapkis Dance Family, while Josh Price was a member of ImmaBEAST. The Lab came back with six additional dancers. Sean Lew also belonged to ImmaBEAST in season 1. Taylor Hatala performed as one half of KynTay with Kyndall Harris, and Josh Beauchamp was another ImmaBEAST member. Eva Igo made it to the World Final and placed second. Luka & Jenalyn, Royal Flux, and DNA all took part in the first season. D'Angelo Castro of The Untouchables competed alongside Amanda Carbajales.