The third season of American reality competition television series World of Dance premiered on February 26, 2019, on NBC. Ne-Yo, and Derek Hough returned as the judges for their third consecutive seasons. Access Hollywood co-host Scott Evans replaced Jenna Dewan as the new host.
The required qualifier score to enter the duels increased from 80 to 85. The duels feature a redemption round where the Top 2 eliminated acts (in each division) with the highest score compete head to head for a second chance to advance to The Cuts. In the redemption, the 2 acts compete back to back to the same music. Afterwards, the judges vote to decide which act will advance.
In the Divisional Final, the judges pick one more act to advance to the World Final as a wild card. In the World Final, each act performs once instead of twice.
The guest judge is removed this season.
In preparation for season three, handpicked competitors, being talented in any styles of dancing, from qualifying events around the nation and thousands of online submissions, are divided into four divisions:
In some cases dancers who didn't apply were directly contacted by the producers or their agents.
The judges are scoring in 5 categories. Each category is worth 20 points, with a perfect score of 100:
Jennifer Lopez, Ne-Yo, and Derek Hough returned as the judges for their third consecutive season. Access Live co-host, Scott Evans replaced original presenter Jenna Dewan as the host for the third season. Evans became the first male host of the show and the first host/judge to be on the show with no prior dancing experience.
This season there were only two mentors in two different rounds. Original host Jenna Dewan, returned as a mentor for the Junior teams in the round of The Cut. Hip hop dancer, choreographer, entertainer, and former So You Think You Can Dance contestant, Stephen "tWitch" Boss served as a mentor for the Divisional Final round.
The qualifier round took place between February 26 and March 10, 2019. In season 3, the number of points you need to advance to The Duels is now 85. While seasons 1 and 2, the average points was 80. The qualifier round got harder to get past. Some people from last season would not make it this season.
In each round of The Duels, two acts in the same division compete for a spot in The Cut. In each division, the acts with the top scores choose their opponents, then both acts perform back-to-back, receiving feedback from the judges. The act with the higher score moves on to The Cut; the other faces immediate elimination. New in season 3, at the end of each division, the 2 highest scoring eliminated acts will face off in Redemption. The 2 acts will dance to the same song back to back and the judges will decide who will take the last remaining spot in The Cut by majority vote.
Opponent selection proceeded according to rank within each division. Briar Nolet defeated Denise & Josh in the Upper Redemption Duel to advance. The Dancetown Divas defeated MKAM in the Junior Team Division Redemption Duel. Kayla Mak defeated House of Tap on the Junior Division Redemption Duel. Exiles defeated Motiv Crew in the Upper Team division.
In The Cut, the 24 remaining acts (6 in each division) compete for three spots in each of their divisions. As each dance act competes, their final score is displayed on a leaderboard for their division. Once a dance act's score falls out of the top 3, they face immediate elimination. For this round, each of the judges and special guest, former host, Jenna Dewan, acted as mentors for one of the four divisions; Jenna worked with the Junior Teams, Derek worked with the Upper acts, Ne-Yo worked with the Upper Teams, and Jennifer worked with the Junior acts.
The Cut Scores
In the Divisional Final, the 3 remaining acts in each division square off, with only one act going to the World Final to represent their division. Same as The Cut, each of the judges and special guest, Stephen "tWitch" Boss, became mentors for one of the four divisions. Jennifer mentored the Junior Teams, Derek worked with the Junior acts, Ne-Yo worked with the Upper acts, and tWitch worked with the Upper Teams. One act is also chosen as a Wildcard to compete in the World Finals.
In the World Final, the final 4 division champions plus 1 wildcard compete head to head to win the one million dollar prize. Each team performs one routine and the highest scorer is adjudged the world champion.