Dancing with the Stars kicked off its 35th season on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, with a gender-split premiere, introducing technical mishaps, early front-runners, and an elimination that sent home Conner Leavitt.
The competition returned with a structural twist. Producers divided the 16 celebrity contestants across a two-night premiere, putting the eight male contestants on the ballroom floor first on Tuesday night, while the female celebrities are scheduled to make their live debuts on Wednesday night.
For their opening routines, every competing pair danced to a No. 1 song from the year the celebrity was born, setting a nostalgic tone for the run. But the festive atmosphere hit immediate technical snags before the first hour concluded.
Voting Tech Failures Force Emergency Text-Only Balloting
Viewers trying to cast their ballots during the live broadcast hit unexpected digital roadblocks. After the second dance of the evening, host Julianne Hough interrupted the broadcast to reveal that voting was down on ABC’s website, directing the audience to switch to mobile text messaging instead.
Alfonso Ribeiro confirmed later in the night that the web portal remained offline, announcing that the production was exclusively accepting text votes for the remainder of the premiere to determine who would face the first elimination.
Scores, Stumbles, and Early Front-Runners
Despite the voting platform issues, the men’s division established a clear tier of competitors on the leaderboard.
Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech closely followed, pulling in a 20/30 alongside partner Daniella Karagach after performing a tango to Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone
.
Other contestants experienced mixed reactions from the judging panel, which features returning judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Derek Hough. During Tyler Cameron’s critique for a tango to Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way
with partner Sharna Burgess, Derek Hough mistakenly called him Dylan. Name mishap aside, Cameron secured an early 17/30 score.
Conner Leavitt Eliminated After Opening Night Salsa
The combined total of judges’ scores and live viewer votes resulted in the season’s first exit. Conner Leavitt, husband of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt, was eliminated from the competition.
Leavitt was partnered with Adele Zaikman, who made her professional debut as the first-ever winner of the spin-off series Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro. The pair performed a salsa to Tag Team’s Whoomp! There It Is
, which resulted in a 12/30 score.
Looking Ahead to Night Two
The split-premiere format continues on Wednesday night as the eight female celebrity contestants make their ballroom debuts.
- Tatyana Ali partnered with Jan Ravnik
- Giada De Laurentiis partnered with Alan Bersten
- Jenna Dewan partnered with Val Chmerkovskiy
- Amber Glenn partnered with Pasha Pashkov
- Maura Higgins partnered with Mark Ballas
- Ciara Miller partnered with Brandon Armstrong
- Julia Stiles partnered with Ezra Sosa
Following Wednesday’s performances, a second contestant will be eliminated, completing the premiere week eliminations before the remaining couples advance toward next week’s regular programming.