America's Best Dance Crew Season 5: What happened to Shane Sparks?

The fifth season of "America's Best Dance Crew" premiered Thursday night on MTV, and singer Omarion (formerly of boy band B2K) replaced Shane Sparks on the judges' panel.

Choreographer Sparks was arrested in December and charged with child molestation. In interviews, Sparks' attorney has maintained the accusations are unfounded.

Of the judges' swap, "ABDC" executive producer Randy Jackson told Entertainment Weekly, "Shane is going through some personal things, and we wish him the best with all that, but we had a role to fill."

Thursday's installment of "ABDC" kicked off the regional rounds of the competition leading up to the main show. It was the South's night to shine.

The advancing crews all hail from Georgia: Royal Flush from Atlanta, Jungle Boogie from Stone Mountain and Swagger Crew from Atlanta.

Eliminated crews were Ghost Crew and X-Treme Motion, both from Houston.

Watch "ABDC" videos by visiting the show's Web site, which you can access by clicking on the link that accompanies this page.

We interviewed Sparks last June, months before his legal struggles. Read that article with the link on this page.

This story was originally published January 29, 2010 at 7:52 AM with the headline "America's Best Dance Crew Season 5: What happened to Shane Sparks?."