Live from Hollywood, Dancing with the Stars returns for Season 35
‘Dancing with the Stars’ is back for Season 35
New faces, returning pros and record-breaking voting statistics are expected when the reality TV competition debuts Tuesday.
Dust off your judging paddles and put on your ballroom heels because Dancing with the Stars Season 35 is waltzing its way onto television screens nationwide.
This season, the show is dusting the audience with extra sparkles in the form of a two-night premiere — back-to-back evenings of live music, dancing and celebrity rehearsal content on full display, airing Sept. 15 and 16 on ABC and Disney+ at 8 p.m. EDT.
This season’s lineup of 16 celebrities is nothing short of showstopping, featuring actress Jenna Dewan (The Rookie, Step Up), Paralympic gold medalist Ezra French, reality star Ciara Miller (Summer House), baseball player Jackson Olson (Savannah Bananas), actress Tatyana Ali (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and actor Harry Shum Jr. (Glee, Grey’s Anatomy).
While welcoming plenty of new faces to the dance floor, former DWTS pro Julianne Hough and Season 19 champion Alfonso Ribeiro are stepping back into the co-hosting spotlight, alongside judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli.
Season 35 is also welcoming back Season 27 champion Sharna Burgess to her role as a pro, alongside former troupe member Hailey Bills, who is partnered with celebrity Sarah Jane Nader (the third same-sex pairing in DWTS history), and Dancing with the Stars: Next Pro winner Adele Zaikman.
Zaikman, now paired with Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Connor Leavitt, was crowned champion of the inaugural season of the DWTS spinoff just days before the regular season’s full cast announcement debuted on Good Morning America. Nicknamed “Rolls-Royce” by Next Pro judging duo Mark and Shirley Ballas for her high-level skills and technique, Zaikman represented her Israeli and Ukrainian heritage on the big screen while filming the eight-episode series in Australia earlier this year.
Dancing with the Stars: Next Pro aimed to build excitement around the upcoming season, and some Syracuse University students like senior Annabelle Rose are taking that excitement to another level.
“My friends and I are making a bracket of who we want to win this season,” Rose said. “We used an app called ‘Bracketology’ to predict the winning pairs last season and will be doing it again before getting together to watch both nights of the show’s premiere.”
Some longtime fans of the show, like Rose, admit their hearts belong less to the celebrities and more to the pros twirling them across the floor.
“I am a big fan of the pros both in their dancing as well as their personalities,” Rose said. “I follow many of them on social media like Rylee Arnold and Ezra Sosa, so I was excited to see who they would each be paired up with.”
@anna_bananaaa7 @hailey bills you and @Sarah Jane have our vote every week @maddie!! #fyp #dwts #syracuseuniversity #viral
SU students Anna Krause and Maddie Alaimo filmed their reactions to Good Morning America’s announcement of the Season 35 DWTS cast, attracting pro Hailey Bills’ reactions in the video’s comments.
Pros like Mark Ballas and Valentin Chmerkovskiy have been commanding the DWTS stage for 22 seasons, with Emma Slater (18 seasons) close behind. Pro Witney Carson (16 seasons), who recently announced that she is pregnant with her third child, will be the first dancer to compete while being several months pregnant with her celebrity partner, Jimmy Kimmel Live! co-host Guillermo Rodriguez. SU student Aurelia Harp was both impressed and felt uneasy about the announcement.
“It is cool that Witney wants to be dancing as much as she can this season, but as her pregnancy progresses, it might give her and her partner a bit of a disadvantage if the pair go far in the competition and she is not at her full movement ability,” said Harp.
Despite having spent years on the DWTS stage, pros Gleb Savchenko and Sasha Farber did not make the cut this year, and Hannah LoGiudice has mixed feelings about their absences.
“While their absences will be missed, I think there are a lot of pros on the show that make up for it,” said LoGiudice. “ABC is a business at the end of the day, so there is definitely favoritism in which pros are cast, but the show wants to get viewers and make money to continue doing Dancing with the Stars.”
Unlike other reality shows, fans around the world can get in on the action by texting their favorite celebrity’s name to 21523 or voting online at dwtsvote.abc.com each week. After a record-breaking 72 million votes last season, fans like LoGiudice are ready to cast their vote for their favorite dancing duo.
“All of the pre-show content creation online is giving fans a closer look at the celebrities’ personalities, passions, and it gives you a reason to care about them,” LoGiudice said. “It helps me decide who to root for. Regardless of how well they dance, if they have a strong personality, I am going to vote for them.”
In just two months, a new duo will take home the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. The season will showcase 11-12 soon-to-be-announced themed episodes before reigning champions Witney Carson and Robert Irwin pass down their title. Fans can cue up the show’s theme song, pick out a pair of fringe pants, and show off their best dance moves online as the countdown to the season begins.
is a Digital Producer for The NewsHouse.