Dancing with the Stars Season 35: Full Cast and Premiere Recap

Who is in the Dancing with the Stars Season 35 cast?

This season matches the largest cast size in franchise history at 16 couples. The full lineup: Tatyana Ali & Jan Ravnik, Tyler Cameron & Sharna Burgess, Giada De Laurentiis & Alan Bersten, Jenna Dewan & Val Chmerkovskiy, Ezra Frech & Daniella Karagach, Amber Glenn & Pasha Pashkov, Taylor Hanson & Britt Stewart, Maura Higgins & Mark Ballas, Conner Leavitt & Adele Zaikman, Ciara Miller & Brandon Armstrong, Sarah Jane Nader & Hailey Bills, Jackson Olson & Emma Slater, Guillermo Rodriguez & Witney Carson, Harry Shum Jr. & Jenna Johnson, Julia Stiles & Ezra Sosa, and Connor Wood & Rylee Arnold. That's an eclectic mix, spanning reality TV, sports (Ezra Frech, the Paralympic track star; Amber Glenn, the figure skater), music (Taylor Hanson of Hanson), Bachelor Nation (Tyler Cameron, Maura Higgins), celebrity chefs (Giada De Laurentiis), actors (Jenna Dewan, Julia Stiles, Harry Shum Jr.), and even Jimmy Kimmel's longtime sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, whose casting alone generated a huge amount of pre-season buzz.

Who are the hosts and judges this season?

Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough are back as hosts, and the judging panel remains Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli. That's a fairly stable creative core for a show in its 35th season, and stability at the judges' table matters more than fans sometimes give it credit for. DWTS has cycled through a lot of hosting configurations over the decades, and the current combination has settled into something that feels like it knows exactly what it's doing.

What made this premiere different from past seasons?

First, the sheer size of the cast: 16 couples ties the franchise record, which means a longer, more sprawling premiere broken into two nights, with the men dancing Tuesday and the women dancing Wednesday. Second, there are two notable storylines threaded through this season. Witney Carson, one of the show's longest-tenured professional dancers, is competing while pregnant with her third child, reportedly the first pro to compete on the show while expecting. And Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills form the show's third same-sex partnership in its history, following JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson in 2021 and Shangela and Gleb Savchenko in 2022.

Why was Conner Leavitt eliminated first?

Leavitt, best known from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (and married to Whitney Leavitt, who competed on DWTS the previous season), danced a salsa with partner Adele Zaikman and scored the lowest of the night: 12 out of 30. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba said, "That was fun and I love your enthusiasm. However, it was a bit chaotic." Derek Hough called it "goofy, playful" and "a whole lot of fun," but added, "I just didn't really get the salsa, and when you did the salsa, the hips weren't really going." Combined with the audience vote, that low score sent them home at the end of the two-night premiere. Leavitt took it in stride, telling Entertainment Tonight afterward that he "could not be more thrilled to be part of such a wonderful cast and to have such a wonderful dance partner" in Adele.

Is there a real pattern to who goes home first on DWTS?

If you've watched the show for any length of time, you'll notice first eliminations tend to fall into a few recurring categories: reality TV personalities who are famous for being personalities rather than performers, older contestants who need more time to build technical dance skill, or celebrities whose actual investment in the competition turns out to be lower than the judges and audience expect. Leavitt's elimination fits comfortably into that first category. Reality stars often arrive with built-in fan bases that get them through a round or two on pure name recognition, but salsa technique doesn't care how many seasons of your show are streaming.

My honest take on DWTS Season 35

I have a slightly contrarian opinion about Dancing with the Stars: it might be the single most reliably well-produced piece of competition television currently on network TV, and it doesn't get nearly the critical respect that other long-running franchises get for simply staying good at what they do for decades. What DWTS does better than almost any format is take people who are famous for something completely unrelated to dance and force them into a vulnerable position: learning a skill from scratch, in public, on a tight weekly deadline, with real technical standards being applied by judges who know exactly what good technique looks like. That vulnerability is the show's secret weapon. It's why a figure skater like Amber Glenn is a fascinating watch this season: does elite athletic grace in one discipline translate cleanly to ballroom? It's why Ezra Frech's presence matters beyond the feel-good headline, and why Witney Carson competing while pregnant isn't just a nice human-interest story, it's an interesting professional and physical challenge the show is choosing to foreground rather than hide. On Conner Leavitt specifically, I think the elimination is a pretty clean example of how the show's format is fair in a way people don't always give it credit for. Reality fame gets you in the door and gets you some vote-cushion in week one, but it doesn't survive contact with actual technical judging for very long if the dancing isn't there. Where I do have a mild critique of the season format: 16 couples is a lot, and while that means more storylines and more variety, it also means the early weeks are necessarily going to feel a little crowded, with less screen time per couple than a smaller cast would allow.

What should you watch for as the season continues?

A few storylines worth tracking: how Witney Carson's pregnancy is handled as the season progresses and rehearsals presumably get more physically demanding, whether Ezra Frech and Amber Glenn's elite-athlete backgrounds translate into a real Mirrorball contention, and whether any of the actor contestants (Stiles, Shum Jr., Dewan) can leverage prior performance training into a genuine competitive edge over the reality-TV and sports contestants who often dominate viewer voting in early weeks.

Frequently asked questions

When did Dancing with the Stars Season 35 premiere? September 15, 2026, on ABC and Disney+ simultaneously.

How many couples are competing this season? 16, tying the largest cast size in franchise history alongside seasons 9 and 31.

Who was eliminated first? Conner Leavitt and pro partner Adele Zaikman, after scoring 12 out of 30 on their salsa.

Who are the hosts? Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough.

Who are the judges? Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli.

Is Witney Carson really competing while pregnant? Yes, reportedly the first professional dancer to begin a season while pregnant.

What is notable about Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills's pairing? It's the third same-sex partnership in the show's history, following JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson in 2021 and Shangela and Gleb Savchenko in 2022.

Who is Conner Leavitt? A star of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, married to Whitney Leavitt, who competed on DWTS the previous season.

Where can I watch Dancing with the Stars? Live on ABC or streaming on Disney+, with episodes also on Hulu the next day.

Is the premiere always two nights? No, this is a format change tied to the unusually large 16-couple cast; most seasons use a single-night premiere.

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