'Live To Dance' with Paula Abdul announces 'Shout Out the Vote'

The new CBS reality-competition series "Live to Dance" with Paula Abdul will give viewers the opportunity to vote for their favorite dancers beginning tonight on www.cbs.com via "Shout Out the Vote." "Live to Dance" premiered last night and moves to its regular time period starting tonight, Wednesday, Jan. 5 (8 p.m., ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network. Paula Abdul serves as executive producer, mentor and lead expert.

In addition to online voting at CBS.com, "Shout Out the Vote" will enable viewers to cast votes for their favorite dance acts via toll-free phone lines and SMS text messaging at the end of each "Live to Dance" broadcast.

During tonight's episode, a dance-off will be held for several acts that the experts feel deserve a second look. Abdul and the experts will also reveal 17 of the 18 dance acts who will make up the "Live to Dance" cast. Fans will then get their first opportunity to pick their favorite dancers as the "Shout Out the Vote" voting begins, allowing viewers to select the act that they feel deserves the 18th and final spot in the cast. Results will be revealed the following week.

Starting Wednesday, Jan. 12, the first of three live semi-final competitions will begin as the first six dance acts compete against each other with two acts advancing to the next round -- one chosen by the experts and one chosen by fans via "Shout Out the Vote." Each week, the experts will select one act to advance and the fans will select a second act.

After a total of three live semi-final episodes, the six dance acts that have advanced will compete against one another in the final round. Following the final performances, fans will then have the opportunity to cast their vote for the winner of "Live to Dance," which will be announced live during the season finale, on Wednesday, Feb. 9 (8 p.m., ET/PT). The winner will be awarded a $500,000 prize.

"Shout Out the Vote" will also encourage fans to recruit their friends to vote for their favorite contestants. After submitting their vote, users will be given the option to get their friends to vote by posting the voting URL to their Facebook or Twitter account. The more unique friends that click on the link and vote for the respective contestant, the higher the user will rise on CBS.com's "Shout Out the Vote" leader board. Additionally, "Ultimate Fan Badges" will be awarded to users after their first friend clicks on the voting link, and for every 10 unique clicks thereafter.

"Live to Dance" is based on a format created by Princess Productions and Shine TV and is produced by Reveille. Elisabeth Murdoch, Howard T. Owens, Abdul, James Sunderland, Anthony Dominici and Robin Ashbrook are executive producers.

For more information regarding "Shout Out the Vote" and "Live to Dance," visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/live_to_dance/.