[This story contains spoilers from the season 35 premiere of Dancing With the Stars.]
It was ladies’ night on Dancing With the Stars, as the female celebrities hit the ballroom for the first time.
Season 35 of DWTS began with a special two-night premiere split by gender; Tuesday night saw the eight male stars perform, while Wednesday night was reserved for the women.
Coming off season 34, the cast is full of reality stars, Olympians and (ABC) television stars a plenty. For both nights of the premiere, stars danced to a No. 1 song from the year they were born, and one celebrity was eliminated each night.
Competing on Wednesday night was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Tatyana Ali; celebrity chef and Food Network host Giada De Laurentiis; The Rookie and Step Up star Jenna Dewan; Olympic gold medalist Amber Glenn; reality star (Love Island, The Traitors) Maura Higgins; Summer House star Ciara Miller; Love Thy Nader reality star Sarah Jane Nader; and 10 Things I Hate About You actress Julia Stiles.
By the end of the episode, Sarah Jane was eliminated from DWTS, becoming the second star to exit season 35. She was partnered with Hailey Bills, a first-time pro and member of the season 34 troupe.
During the episode, Amber and Pasha Pashkov earned Wednesday night’s early high score of 18/30. Julia and Ezra Sosa went on to tie their score after they performed their quickstep to Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.”
However, Maura and Mark Ballas crept up on the competition towards the end of the episode, becoming the first female celebrity to earn a seven paddle from all judges (21/30). Maura led the leaderboard for the women on Wednesday night, tying with Tuesday’s high score earned by Harry Shum Jr.
The Bachelorette alum Tyler Cameron; Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech; “Hanson” band member Taylor Hanson; Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt’s husband Conner Leavitt; Savannah Bananas baseball star Jackson Olson; Jimmy Kimmel Live! star Guillermo Rodriguez; Grey’s Anatomy actor Harry Shum Jr.; and influencer/comedian Connor Wood all competed on Tuesday night.
Harry finished at the top of the leaderboard amongst the men, earning a 21/30 with his partner Jenna Johnson. Conner Leavitt became the first eliminated celebrity at the end of Tuesday’s premiere episode. He was partnered with Adele Zaikman, the first-ever winner of Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro.
Just ahead of Wednesday night’s episode, preliminary Nielsen ratings showed that the first DWTS premiere episode drew 6.67 million viewers, marking a 24 percent increase from last year’s debut (5.38 million). The season 35 premiere also marked the most-watched premiere since season 29 in September 2020.
Voting online via ABC’s website during the first premiere episode on Tuesday night also crashed during the live show; because of the crash, Alfonso Ribeiro said the show was only accepting votes via text for Tuesday night’s premiere.
The couple with the lowest combined total of judges’ scores and viewer votes is eliminated at the end of each DWTS episode. Live voting takes place during the East Coast airing of each show and ends shortly after the final performance is completed; that means if you’re a West Coast viewer and want to vote, you must do so between 5 p.m. PT to roughly 6:45 p.m. PT, as voting ends after the final performance.
See the full list of scores for the second premiere episode of DWTS season 35, featuring only performances from the female stars, below.
Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik: 12/30
Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov: 18/30
Ciara Miller and Brandon Armstrong: 15/30
Giada De Laurentiis and Alan Bersten: 16/30
Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa: 18/30
Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas: 21/30
Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills: 14/30 (ELIMINATED)
Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy: 19/30
Season 35 of Dancing With the Stars premieres on Tuesday and Wednesday at 8 p.m., simulcasting across ABC and Disney+, and streaming the next day on Hulu. Check out all of The Hollywood Reporter‘s DWTS coverage here.