The series premiered on July 20, 2005 and has a similar premise to the American Idol series of singing competitions, with nationwide auditions leading to the discovery of the next big star. The show was created by Idol's Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions. A mixture of contestants is chosen for the show, ranging from unknown street dancers to winners of national championships. All contestants have to work their way through a rigorous audition process, and then over the course of the show are assigned different dance styles and partners each week to test their versatility.

It was the #1 rated show in summer 2006 for adults aged 18-49, and on July 24, 2006, while still in production of its second season, it was renewed for its third season. The first season was hosted by Lauren Sanchez, the second by Cat Deeley. Deeley is also host for the third season, which began on May 24, 2007. In August 2006, it was also announced that there are now spinoff versions of the show in New Zealand, Turkey, Israel, Malaysia, and Norway, with several other countries in the works.

So You Think You Can Dance holds auditions across the major cities of the US, looking for the top dancers in each city. All types of dance backgrounds are encouraged to audition. Salsa, ballroom, hip hop, street dancing, contemporary, jazz, ballet and many other types of dancers can be seen auditioning for a chance to win a new Hybrid SUV, $100,000 in cash and a dancing role in Celine Dion's Las Vegas show.

Top dancers are then put through grueling rehearsals and auditions and slowly narrowed down to a top 20 list of 10 men and 10 women. These contestants are then paired up and must randomly pick a partnered dance. Often this is not a style that they are familiar with and the dancers must learn the style from scratch. Couples will then perform the routine(s) and America votes for their favorite couple. The bottom couples must then do a solo performance of their choice to win over the judges' votes so that they do not get eliminated. This continues weekly with one male and one female eliminated weekly.