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'Dancing with the Stars' Eliminates 1 After Voting Issue. See Who Went Home
Voting problems forced ABC to rely on text votes alone as the two-night premiere split the cast and sent Conner Leavitt home after one dance.
- Dancing with the Stars Season 35 kicked off on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at CBS Television City with male contestants performing their first routines. Reality star Conner Leavitt and pro dancer Adele Zaikman were eliminated after the night's competition.
- ABC split the 16 contestants vying for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy across a two-night premiere format. Male celebrities performed Tuesday, while female contestants are scheduled for Wednesday, September 16, 2026.
- Actor Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson topped the leaderboard with 21 points for their "emergency disco" cha-cha. Paralympian Ezra Frech earned 20 points, while comedian Connor Wood and reality star Tyler Cameron scored 16 and 17 points, respectively.
- Host Julianne Hough announced mid-show that ABC.com voting was disabled due to technical issues, forcing reliance on text-based voting. Voters had to specify either "Conner L." or "Connor W." to avoid confusion between similarly named contestants.
- Female celebrity contestants take the stage on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, for their first performances of the season. Leavitt and Zaikman will return Thursday for a live afterparty alongside Season 34 winner Robert Irwin.
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Dancing With the Stars Voting Glitch Forces Online Votes To Be Scrapped as Texts Decide First Season 35 Elimination
Conner Leavitt became the first DWTS Season 35 contestant eliminated after an online voting failure forced the show to discard web votes and count texts instead.
·United Kingdom
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The Shock Elimination on Night 1 of ‘Dancing with the Stars’
“Dancing with the Stars” kicked off Season 35 with a shock elimination and a voting snafu. On night one of the two-part premiere the male celebrities got to show off their skills by dancing to a song from the year they were born. Performing on night one were teams: Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess, Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach, Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart, Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman, Jackson Olson and Emma Slater, Guillermo Rodrigu…
Coverage Details
Total News Sources20
Leaning Left8Leaning Right2Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Left
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left
50% Left
L 50%
C 38%
12%
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