Dancing With the Stars Season 35 returns with 16 stars, a two-night premiere, surprise elimination and a new voting twist.
By Haven Trends Desk
A two-night premiere, 16 celebrities, a surprise first elimination and a voting-system problem have put Dancing With the Stars back at the center of the entertainment conversation.
The ballroom is officially open again, but Dancing With the Stars has not returned quietly.
Season 35 began September 15 with a two-night premiere that has already delivered a surprise elimination, strong early performances, a record-sized celebrity cast and an unusual competition structure.
The first night focused on the male celebrities, while the female contestants take over the ballroom on September 16. One contestant is being eliminated on each night, creating a double elimination across the opening event.
The season's 16 celebrity contestants include Jenna Dewan, Harry Shum Jr., Julia Stiles, Tyler Cameron, Maura Higgins, Amber Glenn, Giada De Laurentiis, Tatyana Ali and several other recognizable personalities from entertainment, sports, social media and television.
The opening episode also produced the first major shock of the season: Conner Leavitt and professional partner Adele Zaikman were eliminated after receiving 12 out of 30 from the judges.
For a show that has been on television for more than two decades, the new season is demonstrating why the format continues to generate attention.
Why Dancing With the Stars Is Suddenly Everywhere Again
The return of Dancing With the Stars arrives during a particularly busy fall entertainment calendar.
September has brought a wave of major television premieres, but DWTS occupies a distinctive position because it combines live television, celebrity culture, audience voting and social-media conversation.
Viewers are not simply watching performances.
They are choosing favorites, reacting to judges' scores, debating casting decisions and following celebrities they may already know from completely different parts of popular culture.
That creates multiple reasons to search for the show.
Fans want to know who is competing, which professional dancers are paired with each celebrity, who was eliminated, how the judges scored each performance and when the next episode airs.
The current season has amplified all of those questions with a two-night launch.
The first episode aired September 15, while the second premiere episode is scheduled for September 16. After the special launch, the programme returns to its regular Tuesday schedule. Episodes air on ABC and Disney+, with next-day streaming available through Hulu.
The Season 35 Cast Is Bigger Than Ever
One of the clearest reasons the new season is attracting attention is the size of its cast.
Entertainment Weekly reports that Season 35 has 16 celebrity contestants, making it the largest celebrity field in the show's history.
The lineup crosses several entertainment categories.
Jenna Dewan arrives with a background in dance and film. Harry Shum Jr. also has extensive dance experience through his work in music, film and television.
Julia Stiles joins the competition with a connection to dance through Save the Last Dance, while Olympic figure skater Amber Glenn brings elite athletic experience.
Giada De Laurentiis represents another kind of celebrity entirely. The chef and television personality is stepping away from her familiar culinary environment and into the ballroom.
Maura Higgins brings a major reality-TV following, while Tatyana Ali represents a generation of viewers who know her from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and her music career.
The diversity of the lineup means different fan communities have reasons to follow the same competition.
That is strategically important for a television franchise.
Instead of depending on one demographic, the programme can draw attention from film fans, sports audiences, reality-TV viewers, food television followers, music fans and social-media communities simultaneously.
The First Elimination Has Already Changed the Conversation
Season 35 did not wait long to create its first headline.
Conner Leavitt and professional partner Adele Zaikman were eliminated during the first night after receiving 12 out of 30 from the judges. They were among the lowest-scoring couples and ultimately left the competition.
The elimination illustrates the unusual pressure created by the new opening format.
Because the male contestants competed separately on the first night, each performer had less time to establish a public connection with viewers before facing elimination.
The same pressure now moves to the female celebrities on September 16.
One female celebrity couple will also leave the competition, meaning two couples will have disappeared before the regular weekly competition structure fully begins.
That makes the first week more consequential than a typical season premiere.
A New Premiere Format Adds More Pressure
The two-night structure is one of the most notable changes this season.
Instead of bringing the entire cast onto the floor for one premiere, the show divided the contestants by gender.
The male celebrities performed on September 15. The women perform on September 16.
Each group also faces its own elimination.
Entertainment Weekly reported that this double-elimination opening marks the show's first such premiere twist since 2018.
The format creates an immediate competitive disadvantage for contestants who have less time to establish themselves.
It also changes how viewers evaluate performances.
A celebrity may receive a relatively low score but still have a chance to recover in a normal season. Under this opening structure, however, there is almost no runway.
One weak performance can become the end of the competition.
That raises the entertainment stakes from the very beginning.
Harry Shum Jr. Makes an Early Impression
One of the biggest early talking points from Night One was Harry Shum Jr.
The actor and dancer performed a Cha Cha with professional partner Jenna Johnson and received the highest score of the evening: 21 out of 30.
His background also makes him one of the contestants attracting attention before the competition has fully developed.
Shum Jr. has extensive experience in dance and musical performance, including work connected to Glee and the Step Up franchise.
That has contributed to a broader debate surrounding the casting.
Several Season 35 contestants already have meaningful dance or performance backgrounds, leading some viewers to question whether celebrities with previous training have an advantage over contestants who are starting from a less experienced position.
The issue is not new to the franchise.
Previous seasons have also included celebrities with significant dance backgrounds.
Still, the discussion matters because the central appeal of Dancing With the Stars is watching celebrities learn and develop through the professional partnership.
Jenna Dewan Brings a Similar Debate
Jenna Dewan is another major example.
She is one of Hollywood's most recognizable dancers and became widely known through Step Up. She also previously worked as a backup dancer for major recording artists.
Her participation has therefore generated questions about whether her experience gives her an advantage.
But ballroom dancing is a specific discipline.
Experience in commercial dance, film choreography or another dance form does not automatically translate into mastery of ballroom technique.
That distinction has been part of the discussion surrounding the casting.
Cosmopolitan reported that Dewan addressed criticism of her participation, while former professional dancer Mark Ballas has also discussed the fact that previous dance experience does not necessarily guarantee success in the competition.
The debate gives the show another storyline beyond the performances themselves.
Social Media Is Changing How the Competition Is Watched
The modern Dancing With the Stars audience is not limited to people sitting in front of a television at broadcast time.
Clips circulate almost immediately.
A difficult lift can become a viral video. A judge's reaction can become a meme. A surprising score can trigger thousands of comments.
And an elimination can become a social-media argument before the broadcast has even finished.
The programme's live format makes this particularly powerful.
Unlike scripted shows that can be binge-watched months after release, a live competition rewards immediate participation.
Viewers want to vote while voting is open.
They want to see whether their favorite survives.
They want to compare their opinions with those of the judges.
That makes the show naturally compatible with the real-time culture of social platforms.
The Voting Problem Added Another Layer of Drama
The first episode also encountered a technical complication.
According to Entertainment Weekly, an issue affected ABC.com's online voting during the premiere, leaving text voting as the available voting method during the disruption.
Voting is particularly important for Dancing With the Stars because the audience is not merely watching the competition.
Viewers directly participate in determining who stays.
Any technical problem therefore has greater significance than a normal streaming glitch.
The voting issue became another topic for viewers to discuss online, adding an unexpected storyline to an already eventful premiere.
It is worth separating confirmed facts from social-media reaction, however. Reports about the technical problem are documented, while broader claims about its effect on the final elimination should not be assumed without evidence.
Witney Carson's Return Adds Another Human Story
Professional dancer Witney Carson has also become part of the season's early conversation.
Carson returned to the ballroom while four months pregnant with her third child, partnering with Guillermo Rodriguez.
Speaking to Page Six, Carson described the experience as vulnerable but empowering and said she wanted to demonstrate that mothers can continue pursuing personal goals.
Her return adds a personal dimension to the professional-dancer side of the programme.
Professional dancers on DWTS are not simply supporting characters.
They choreograph routines, teach celebrities unfamiliar movement patterns, perform demanding lifts and help construct the emotional story of each performance.
Their own experiences can therefore become part of the show's broader narrative.
The Business Behind the Ballroom
The show's popularity also matters commercially.
A long-running television franchise creates opportunities for ABC, Disney, advertisers, streaming services, professional dancers and participating celebrities.
The two-night premiere encourages audiences to watch on consecutive evenings, while the regular weekly schedule provides a recurring appointment throughout the season.
Disney's involvement also connects the broadcast programme with streaming.
Episodes air live through ABC and Disney+, with later availability through Hulu.
That combination reflects the modern television business, where a programme increasingly needs to work across multiple platforms.
The live broadcast creates urgency.
Streaming provides convenience.
Social media provides conversation.
Together, they extend the commercial life of each episode.
The Celebrity Factor Remains the Show's Secret Weapon
The format works because celebrities arrive with existing identities.
Viewers may already know Jenna Dewan as an actor and dancer.
They may know Giada De Laurentiis from food television.
They may know Maura Higgins from reality television.
They may know Tatyana Ali from classic sitcom culture.
They may follow Tyler Cameron through reality television and social media.
The ballroom then places these familiar personalities into unfamiliar circumstances.
That contrast creates entertainment.
The audience gets to watch someone they recognize attempt something they may never have seen them do before.
The Season Also Reflects the Changing Reality-TV Audience
The casting of social-media personalities alongside traditional film and television celebrities demonstrates how the definition of celebrity continues to change.
Modern television audiences do not necessarily divide celebrities into separate categories.
An online creator can have an audience comparable to a television personality.
An athlete can become a social-media star.
A reality-TV contestant can build a career beyond reality television.
A television chef can become a lifestyle brand.
Dancing With the Stars benefits from that fluid definition because its format can accommodate personalities from almost any corner of popular culture.
The result is a cast designed for a fragmented entertainment landscape.
What Happens Next?
Confirmed: The second night of the Season 35 premiere airs September 16, with the female celebrities competing and another elimination taking place.
Confirmed: After premiere week, the show returns to Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, with next-day streaming through Hulu.
Confirmed: Sixteen celebrities entered the competition, and the field will continue shrinking until one couple wins the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
Prediction: The early casting debate, particularly surrounding contestants with dance backgrounds, is likely to remain part of the online conversation as more performances reveal how those contestants compare with their less-experienced competitors. That is an inference, not a confirmed production storyline.
Prediction: The show's combination of live voting, celebrity fandom and short-form social content should continue generating weekly discussion as the competition progresses. Again, that is a projection based on the format rather than a confirmed audience result.
Why This Season Is Already a Major Entertainment Story
Season 35 has arrived with almost every ingredient modern reality television needs to create conversation.
There is a large celebrity cast.
There is a familiar franchise with a long history.
There is a two-night launch.
There is an unusual elimination structure.
There are celebrities with major existing fan bases.
There is a live voting component.
And there is already enough drama—from the first elimination to the voting-system problem and casting debate—to keep the programme in entertainment headlines.
The season is still in its opening stage, so it is too early to know which celebrity will ultimately dominate the competition.
But the immediate story is already clear: Dancing With the Stars has returned to the center of the entertainment cycle with a format designed to make viewers participate from the first night.
The ballroom has barely opened, and the season already has plenty for fans to debate.
Haven Trends
Are you watching Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars? Tell us which celebrity performance caught your attention and whether you think the two-night premiere format makes the competition more exciting.
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