ENTERTAINMENT'DWTS' Season 35 Gets Off to Rocky Start as Julianne Hough Admits Broadcast Fell 'Behind' Amid Technical Difficulties With ABC's Online Voting
'Dancing With the Stars' Season 35 got off on the wrong foot.
Sept. 16 2026, Published 11:10 a.m. ET
The Season 35 premiere of Dancing With the Stars suffered a few missteps in the ballroom.
On Tuesday, September 15, the popular dance TV show kicked off its new season with a two-night premiere that got off to a rocky start when technical difficulties disrupted the live broadcast and left viewers struggling with ABC's online voting system.
Early into the live broadcast, co-host Julianne Hough shared there were issues with the online voting.
After a performance from Tyler Cameron and pro Sharna Burgess, the second of the night, co-host Julianne Hough acknowledged that the online voting system had crashed as producers spoke to her through her earpiece.
"A quick update for everyone who is voting at home," Hough, 38, announced about 26 minutes into the 2-hour live broadcast. "This is coming through live right now: Voting on ABC[.com] is currently down live. So please make sure that you guys are texting for everyone."
"We will keep you posted as the night goes on," she added.
'Did We Break It With the Voting?'
The issues continued throughout the show with co-host Alfonso Ribeiro sharing, 'We are throwing out online votes.'
Later on in the evening, fellow co-host Alfonso Ribeiro shared that the show was "still having online voting issues" and encouraged fans to still vote via texts. "For tonight and tonight only, we are throwing out online votes," he said. "So text only tonight."
Hough quipped, "Did we break it with the voting? This is kind of rad!" Ribeiro added, "We’re breaking stuff around here."
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Fans Were Not Happy About the Technical Difficulties
Many social media users claimed it 'doesn't seem fair to eliminate anyone,' due to the online voting issue.
However, loyal fans were left outraged by the technical difficulties.
"Voting being down on premiere night with an elimination tn… #dwts pls yall get ur s--- tg," said one person on X.
Another claimed, "With the vote system broken it doesn't seem fair to eliminate anyone."
"How unfair it is to eliminate someone today when the voting was not working for part of the episode? #dwts @officialdwts," a third user expressed.
With a fourth sharing, "Voting on the website is down f--- gotta text family members I haven't spoken to in years to vote."
Connor Leavitt and Pro Adele Zaikman Were Eliminated
Despite the issues, one couple was still eliminated on night one of Season 35.
Hough had to speed through the second half of the episode and rushed through the end-of-the-night scores, admitting to viewers that the broadcast was running "behind."
Despite the voting chaos, the night still ended with a couple going home.
Secret Lives of Mormon Wife's Connor Leavitt and winner of Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro Adele Zaikman's salsa to "Whoomp! (There It Is)" earned them a 12 out of 30 from the judges, landing them at the bottom of the leaderboard alongside Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson, but it was ultimately Leavitt and Zaikman whose season came to an end.
