Happy mirror-ball season, readers!
“Dancing with the Stars” has returned with a sparkly bang, complete with familiar faces, noteworthy firsts, a technical snafu, and a giant disco-ball banana. This year, the show’s 16-celebrity cast had to be divided into two full episodes, with the celeb men competing on Tuesday and the women on Wednesday. And while things got off to a rocky start technically—the show’s online voting platform crashed on Tuesday after just two dances—it was likely due to an unexpectedly high volume of viewer votes, which is good news. In fact, co-host Alfonso Ribeiro shared at the end of Tuesday’s episode that the show received over twice as many votes as it had for last year’s premiere. (And that was only after the first night!)
Both evenings kicked off with high-octane group performances from the pros and troupe, with choreography by Jamal Sims on Tuesday and Mandy Moore on Wednesday. Among the roster were two newbies—promoted troupe dancer Hailey Bills and “Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro” winner Adele Zaikman—as well as returning pro Sharna Burgess, who last appeared on the show five years ago. (Check out a full list of pros and their celeb partners, with their current scores, below.)
Frankly, with this year’s cast, “DWTS” is doing us dancers a favor. With stars from Step Up (Jenna Dewan), Save the Last Dance (Julia Stiles), and “Glee” (Harry Shum Jr.), Season 35 feels like a giant early-2000s-dance–themed watch party. Forgive us here at Dance Spirit if we show some nostalgic bias…But that doesn’t mean we won’t be cheering on their fellow contenders. After this week, Irish TV host Maura Higgins, Paralympic track and field athlete Ezra Frech, and Olympic-gold–winning figure skater Amber Glenn are standing out as hot competition.
Season 35 also comes with a lot of exciting “firsts,” namely:
- The first time that pro Emma Slater has been partnered with an under-30 star (Jackson Olson of the Savannah Bananas)
- The first “The Next Pro” winner competing as an official cast member (Adele Zaikman)
- Hailey Bills’ first run as a pro following her promotion from the “DWTS” troupe
- Kamri Peterson’s first season as a new troupe member
- And the first official “DWTS After Party,” hosted on Wednesday night by Season 34 winner Robert Irwin
Plus, the third time a same-sex partnership has appeared on the show (Bills and Sarah Jane Nader), following Season 30’s Jenna Johnson and Jojo Siwa and Season 31’s Gleb Savchenko and Shangela.
This is all very exciting. And while (spoiler alert) Bills and Zaikman were both eliminated with their partners this week, we’re looking forward to seeing them dance in group and interlude numbers as the season continues.
On that note, here is the official score sheet from Week 1, along with a few quotes of the week:
- Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas: 21/30
- Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson: 21/30
- Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach: 20/30
- Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy: 19/30
- Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov: 18/30
- Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa: 18/30
- Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess: 17/30
- Giada De Laurentiis and Alan Bersten: 16/30
- Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart: 16/30
- Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold: 16/30
- Ciara Miller and Brandon Armstrong: 15/30
- Jackson Olson and Emma Slater: 15/30
- Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills: 14/30 (ELIMINATED)
- Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik: 12/30
- Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman: 12/30 (ELIMINATED)
- Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson: 10/30
“DWTS” Quotes of the Week
“We love bananas, don’t we? Very healthy.” —“DWTS” judge Bruno Tonioli being Bruno, and commenting on Savannah Bananas second-baseman Jackson Olson’s dance with Emma Slater
“We’re not playing around this season.” —An especially fierce Britt Stewart, after tearing up the floor with celeb partner Taylor Hanson
“I’m excited to move the way I want to in my head.” —Actress and singer Tatyana Ali, looking forward to getting back into dance and performing with partner Jan Ravnik
“You can dance with whoever you want. You can love whoever you want. And being yourself is the best power.” —TV personality Sarah Jane Nader, whose partnering with pro Hailey Bills was the show’s third same-sex pairing
See you for next week’s episode!
Facts Only
* Dancing with the Stars Season 35 premiered with a 16-celebrity cast.
* The premiere was split into two episodes: men competed Tuesday and women competed Wednesday.
* The online voting platform crashed on Tuesday.
* Co-host Alfonso Ribeiro stated Tuesday's vote volume was over twice that of last year's premiere.
* Group performances featured choreography by Jamal Sims (Tuesday) and Mandy Moore (Wednesday).
* New cast members include pro Adele Zaikman, pro Hailey Bills, and troupe member Kamri Peterson.
* Returning pro Sharna Burgess appeared for the first time in five years.
* The premiere featured the first official "DWTS After Party" hosted by Robert Irwin.
* Hailey Bills and Sarah Jane Nader formed the show's third same-sex partnership.
* Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills (14/30) and Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman (12/30) were eliminated.
* Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas tied for the highest score of 21/30.
Executive Summary
Dancing with the Stars Season 35 has launched with a restructured premiere format, dividing the 16-celebrity cast across two nights by gender. The opening was marked by high viewer engagement, as evidenced by a voting platform crash and reported vote totals doubling those of the previous year's premiere. The season introduces several milestones, including the integration of "The Next Pro" winner Adele Zaikman and the show's third same-sex pairing between Hailey Bills and Sarah Jane Nader.
The initial scoring indicates a competitive field, with Maura Higgins and Harry Shum Jr. leading the leaderboard. Despite the high-profile nature of the cast, which includes several stars from dance-centric films and series, the first round of eliminations claimed both new pro dancers, Zaikman and Bills. While the technical start was rocky, the production has expanded its ecosystem with the introduction of an official after-party.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative is a celebration of growth and inclusivity within a legacy entertainment franchise, highlighting increased viewership and a diversifying approach to partnerships and cast recruitment. It presents the show as a bridge between nostalgic early-2000s dance culture and modern representation.
The prose employs a high degree of enthusiastic framing, utilizing "fan-speak" to align the narrator with the audience. However, this is consistent with the nature of entertainment commentary. There is a subtle attempt to frame a technical failure—the voting platform crash—as a victory of popularity, effectively pivoting a negative user experience into a metric of success.
Patterns detected: none
The driving paradigm is the "spectacle of the new," where the value of the season is measured by "firsts" and "noteworthies" rather than purely the quality of the dance. This echoes the broader media trend of prioritizing novelty and identity milestones to maintain relevance in a fragmented attention economy. The benefit accrues to the production by generating social media discourse around these milestones, while the cost is a potential shift in focus from technical merit to narrative novelty.
If this were a coordinated influence campaign, the playbook would involve "hype-inflation"—using anecdotal evidence of a crash to manufacture a perception of overwhelming demand to attract sponsors. The actual content does not match this; it is standard promotional enthusiasm for a reality competition.
Bridge Questions:
1. How does the shift toward "novelty firsts" affect the long-term prestige of the competition's technical standards?
2. Would the perceived success of the premiere be different if the voting crash were attributed to poor infrastructure rather than high volume?
3. In what ways does the casting of "dance-movie" stars change the stakes of the competition for the non-dancer celebrities?