The hugely successful international So You Think You Can Dance franchise now has a bona fide hit Canadian version as well. CTV’s homegrown installment of the competition show debuted on Sept. 11, not only winning its 8 p.m. ET timeslot, but emerging as the number one show of the night. It maintained the top spot in its second episode, averaging 1.23 million viewers.

‘It’s fantastic,’ says Susanne Boyce, president of creative, content and channels at CTV. ‘The show brought a lot of young people to CTV. It is also heavily female-skewed, but in the second episode the male demo has gone up. And the big thing for me is that our first episode debuted ahead of the season-four premiere of the American So You Think You Can Dance on CTV [in May].’

Considering that Fox’s version of the series was the top show of the summer on CTV, one might assume that the success of the Canuck edition was a given. But show executive producer Sandra Faire says she didn’t take anything for granted. It’s still a new series, without benefit of an American simulcast, and launched in the fall, when audiences are faced with numerous viewing choices.

Boyce also points out that the Canadian version, is, in fact, faced with an initial disadvantage in relation to the popular U.S. series.

‘Your production values can’t just be the same [as the U.S. version] – they have to be better, because inevitably there will be comparisons made,’ says Boyce. ‘Our budgets are smaller than American shows’, but you have to give the producers what they need to create the best so that it stands up.’

Faire is also quick to point out that SYTYCDC is not simply a rehash of the American show.

‘Obviously the show is a franchise, so there is a brand there and you have a format to follow,’ says Faire, who runs Toronto’s Danse TV, which is producing the new series. (Trisa Dayot is also exec producer.)

‘But creatively you are on your own,’ adds Faire, who is married to CTVglobemedia president and CEO Ivan Fecan. ‘You have 100 percent leeway, which is what makes it such a terrific show. Dance is very culturally specific, so each country brings its own culture to it, and I think the Canadian show is quite different.’

Where SYTYCDC distinguishes itself from its southern counterpart, according to Faire, is that it is much more ‘a dance show – not a reality show.’

‘We didn’t get as many bad or angry dancers as they get on the U.S. show,’ she explains of the 2,500-plus performers who auditioned.

As a result, the Canadian series has less of a Gong Show element. You won’t see many inept dancers that have the judges shaking their heads.

‘Most of them are extraordinary dancers. I really didn’t expect the depth of talent,’ says Faire, who is vice-chair of the National Ballet of Canada, serves on the fundraising board of the National Ballet School, and studied dance herself.

‘If someone is really fun and we can put them in to add an extra element, we did, but for the most part we are taking a very straight-ahead approach to the dancing,’ she continues. ‘To me the show is about dance, and everything else is just part of the package.’

The series – the format for which has sold in more than a dozen countries – comprises of cross-country auditions to find the best dancers, picked by a panel of judges. Select competitors are then invited to finals week, where they work with top choreographers and vie for a spot in the top 20, as chosen by the judges. At that point, it is up to the public to vote for their favorite weekly dancers, who are assigned partners and must test their skill in various styles.

Faire notes that the types of dance styles viewers will see on the show are tailored to Canada’s diverse landscape.

‘We will do Capoeira – an Afro-Brazilian dance you don’t see on the American show – and we will introduce an aboriginal element. We also have a stronger classical dance component, as many of Canada’s dancers have ballet training,’ she says.

Faire insisted all the judges be not only working dancers, but also esteemed choreographers and teachers.

‘On the American show some of the judges are dancers, some choreographers and some teachers, but I wanted to combine all three all the time,’ says Faire. ‘We really went out of our way to find people that would further the dance credibility of the show.’

The two permanent judges are Tré Armstrong, a dancer and choreographer who has worked with Rihanna, Missy Elliott and Sean Combs, and stars in the movie How She Move, and Jean-Marc Généreux, an international ballroom champion and guest judge and choreographer on the American series.

Special guest judges include Mary Murphy (she who speaks of the ‘hot tamale train’) and Dan Karaty – both judges from the American series – in addition to a who’s who of Canadian dancers and choreographers.

‘People know the show from Mary and Dan, so we wanted to give [viewers] that familiarity in the first year,’ explains Faire.

MuchMusic VJ Leah Miller was chosen to host the series – not only because of her built-in fan base and on-air interviewing experience, but also because she danced competitively up until the age of 16.

‘I wanted someone who could connect with the dancers in terms of understanding what they are going through,’ says Faire.

CTV capitalized on the buzz surrounding the early August finale of the fourth season of the American version – the most-watched episode ever on CTV – by launching SYTYCDC early in September while there was still water-cooler talk about the show.

‘And we wanted to get out before the U.S. series,’ adds Boyce. ‘I thought audiences were really looking for original material at this time, especially with all the delays from the [Writers Guild of America] strike.’

She also notes that Canadian Idol wrapped the week before SYTYCDC premiered, so they took advantage of that show’s finale to ‘promote and pass the baton.’

Adding to the hype, the network rolled out its biggest-ever multi-platform promotional campaign. That has included ‘street dance parties’ with teams of dancers strutting their moves at locations in major cities, on-air promos across the CTV family of channels, and a national outdoor, radio and online campaign. In Toronto, Union Station featured dominant SYTYCDC branding, and two subway cars were completely wrapped in promo material, as were the interiors of another six cars.

SYTYCDC airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET, with an encore presentation on MuchMusic, which also aired the Fox version.