"So You Think You Can Dance" gets off to an emotional start

(CBS News) It is officially "So You Think You Can Dance" season.

Thursday night's premiere  episode showed  auditions in Dallas and New York for the dance reality competition's ninth season..

The show has made a few slight changes this year. There will be no results show - just a two-hour show every week with only 18 contestants,  and with two winners, a boy and a girl.

As usual, those who make it past the first round of auditions go either to a choreography session or straight to Las Vegas.

Chief judge/producer Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy are back as judges. Choreographer Tyce Diorio joined the two in New York, while Lil' C joined them in Texas. Among  the dancers sent to  Vegas  were  Leo Reyes, a 21-year-old ballet/modern dancer from Brooklyn, and Shafeek Westbrook, a break-dancer from Philadelphia.

In Texas, two dancers who claim they are influenced by horror films, Stepheon Stewart and Hampton Williams, bring the judges to their feet and Mary to tears. They, too,  and are sent to Vegas.

In a very touching moment in Texas, dancer Jarell Rochelle explains he is dancing before his mother, who was in the audience, goes blind. Nigel invites her down to see him better, and as he dances, his mother cries. The judges love him and send him straight to Vegas.

Next week, the judges head out to Los Angeles.