DWTS Season 35 Eliminations: Who Went Home in Week 1
- Two couples went home in week one, one on each night of the two-night premiere. Conner Leavitt and pro Adele Zaikman left on Tuesday 15 September, and Sarah Jane Nader and pro Hailey Bills left on Wednesday 16 September. Fourteen couples are still competing.
- Neither of them had the lowest judges’ score on their night. Guillermo Rodriguez scored 10 out of 30 and stayed while Leavitt’s 12 went home; Tatyana Ali scored 12 and stayed while Nader’s 14 went home. On both nights the viewer vote, not the judges, decided it.
- Night one’s online voting broke. ABC’s website votes were scrapped and only text messages counted, so the vote that sent Leavitt home was taken on one channel instead of two. Online voting was working again for night two.
- Adele Zaikman had just won the first season of Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro to earn her place on the main show, and was eliminated in her first week on it.
Two couples left Dancing with the Stars in week one, one on each night of the two-night season 35 premiere. Conner Leavitt and pro Adele Zaikman went home on Tuesday 15 September, and Sarah Jane Nader and pro Hailey Bills went home on Wednesday 16 September.
Neither of them was last on the judges’ leaderboard. That is the part worth explaining.
Who was eliminated from DWTS in week 1?
Two couples, one per night.
| Night | Couple | Judges’ score |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 15 Sep (men) | Conner Leavitt & Adele Zaikman | 12 / 30 |
| Wed 16 Sep (women) | Sarah Jane Nader & Hailey Bills | 14 / 30 |
Leavitt is from Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Nader is a model and Love Thy Nader star. Adele Zaikman is a first-year pro who earned her spot by winning the inaugural season of Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro — and was out of the main competition after one week.
Why did the lowest-scoring couple survive?
Because the judges’ score is only half of it. The scores are combined with viewer votes, and on both nights the votes moved somebody above somebody else.
On night one, Guillermo Rodriguez scored 10 out of 30 — the lowest of the evening — and stayed. Leavitt scored 12 and left. On night two, Tatyana Ali scored 12, the lowest of that evening, and stayed. Nader scored 14 and left.
So on both nights the couple in last place with the judges survived, and the couple one rung above them went home. That only happens when the vote is doing the work.
What happened with the voting on night one?
A glitch scrapped every vote submitted on ABC’s website, leaving only text messages counted. The show announced it on air.
The hosts, Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough, said the text-only total still came in at more than double last season’s premiere — and that was with only eight couples dancing instead of the usual full field. Online voting was working again for night two, and the hosts said the Tuesday episode was the highest-rated in nine years.
Worth being precise about what this does and does not mean. The vote that sent Leavitt home ran on one channel instead of two. Nobody has published what the result would have been otherwise, and we are not going to guess at it.
What were the night one scores?
The men danced first, to a number-one song from the year they were born.
| Couple | Dance & song | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Harry Shum Jr. & Jenna Johnson | Cha-cha · “Let’s Groove” | 21 |
| Ezra Frech & Daniella Karagach | Tango · “Since U Been Gone” | 20 |
| Tyler Cameron & Sharna Burgess | Tango · “Are You Gonna Go My Way” | 17 |
| Connor Wood & Rylee Arnold | Cha-cha · “I Like It, I Love It” | 16 |
| Taylor Hanson & Britt Stewart | Quickstep · “Tell Her About It” | 16 |
| Jackson Olson & Emma Slater | Cha-cha · “Wannabe” | 15 |
| Conner Leavitt & Adele Zaikman | Salsa · “Whoomp! (There It Is)” | 12 · OUT |
| Guillermo Rodriguez & Witney Carson | Cha-cha · “Mr. Big Stuff” | 10 |
OUT marks the couple eliminated that night. Artists, in table order: Earth, Wind & Fire, Kelly Clarkson, Lenny Kravitz, Tim McGraw, Billy Joel, Spice Girls, Tag Team, Jean Knight.
What were the night two scores?
The women followed on Wednesday, same theme.
| Couple | Dance & song | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Maura Higgins & Mark Ballas | Foxtrot · “Black Velvet” | 21 |
| Jenna Dewan & Val Chmerkovskiy | Tango · “Call Me” | 19 |
| Amber Glenn & Pasha Pashkov | Cha-cha · “Smooth” | 18 |
| Julia Stiles & Ezra Sosa | Quickstep · “9 to 5” | 18 |
| Giada De Laurentiis & Alan Bersten | Tango · “Venus” | 16 |
| Ciara Miller & Brandon Armstrong | Foxtrot · “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” | 15 |
| Sarah Jane Nader & Hailey Bills | Jive · “Sk8er Boi” | 14 · OUT |
| Tatyana Ali & Jan Ravnik | Jive · “Knock on Wood” | 12 |
Artists, in table order: Alannah Myles, Blondie, Santana featuring Rob Thomas, Dolly Parton, Shocking Blue, Whitney Houston, Avril Lavigne, Amii Stewart.
Who is on top going into week 2?
Two couples are tied at 21: Harry Shum Jr. with Jenna Johnson, and Maura Higgins with Mark Ballas.
At the other end, Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik sit at the bottom on 12, with Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson on 10 just below them. Both survived week one on votes, which is the thing to watch rather than the number.
When is the next episode and how do I watch?
Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, with episodes streaming the next day on Hulu. Week two is Tuesday 22 September, and the theme is viral hits night.
For the full channel and streaming breakdown — including what happens to Hulu as it folds into Disney+ during this season — see our where to watch guide . The full season 35 line-up is in our cast and premiere page .
Bottom line
Conner Leavitt and Sarah Jane Nader are the two week-one eliminations. If you only remember one thing beyond the names, make it this: on both nights the couple the judges ranked last stayed, and the couple just above them went home. Week one’s judges’ scores tell you who danced well. They did not tell you who was leaving.
How we verified this
Every score here is confirmed by two independent sources that agree. Night one comes from ABC7 Los Angeles’ own recap by George Pennacchio and from TVLine’s night-one results recap; both list the same eight totals. Night two comes from ABC7’s night-two recap and from the TVLine, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and TODAY coverage, which agree on all eight. No score in the tables below rests on a single outlet.
⚠️ ABC7 is owned by the same parent company as ABC. That makes it close to a record of what aired rather than an independent check on it, which is exactly why every number was matched against a second source before it was published. The station’s own disclosure line says so.
Two source details conflicted and we went with the spelling used by the trade press. ABC7 writes Guillermo Rodriguez’s partner as “Whitney Carson”; TVLine writes “Witney Carson”, which is the spelling the pro uses. ABC7’s night-two article also refers to that night as “Tuesday” while its own night-one article, published the day before, says the women dance “on Wednesday, Sept. 16”. We have used Wednesday.
No vote counts appear anywhere on this page. ABC does not publish them. Saying the viewer vote decided both eliminations is a statement about how the format combines judges’ scores with votes, which the show states on air, not an estimate of how many votes anyone received.
We have not ranked the two nights against each other. The men and the women danced on different nights, in different styles, and under different voting conditions after the night-one website outage. A single combined leaderboard would suggest a comparability the format does not support, so the chart keeps the nights in separate panels.