FOX Summer 2012 Preview: 'So You Think You Can Dance' Scaled Back

Summer isn't exactly a television fanatic's golden time, but FOX has a few treats in store despite scaling back a returning hit.

"So You Think You Can Dance" kicks off its ninth season with a two-hour Thursday May 24 premiere, but it's boldly going to a place many fellow prime time competitions don't, according to Deadline: one fewer night per week. Judge, creator and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe announced the news this past January that the "American Idol" for fancy footwork will eschew its weekly result show.

Following the premiere the night after "American Idol" crowns its winner on its own finale, the show moves right back into its familiar time slot on Wednesdays at 8 PM ET/PT. Cat Deeley is back as host, while Lythgoe and Mary Murphy will be the two regular judges. Guest judges will include Lil' C, Adam Shankman, Debbie Allen, Tyce Diorio, Stacey Tookey and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

Gordon Ramsay fans will be jumping and F-bombing with joy to know that the network boasts a triple-crown of original episodes featuring the cantankerous Brit. It starts May 29, when the 10th season of "Hell's Kitchen" bows alongside Ramsay's other kitchen-elimination competition "MasterChef."

Then on June 4, the heat kicks up a notch right alongside the summer's mercury. Ramsay's new series "Hotel Hell" premieres June 4 at 8 PM ET/PT, to be followed from that point forward by new episodes of "Hell's Kitchen" at 9 PM ET/PT. The network had originally planned on debuting "Hotel Hell" in the spring on Fridays, but bumped it in favor of moving freshman "Bones" spin-off "The Finder" from Thursday to Friday.