How to Vote for Your Favorite Couples on 'Dancing With the Stars' Tonight
Judges' paddles only tell half the story on "Dancing With the Stars." The other half comes down to the fans, and for Season 35, knowing exactly how and when to vote could make the difference for your favorite couple.
Season 35 kicked off with a two-night premiere: the male celebrities danced Tuesday, Sept. 15, and the female cast took the floor Wednesday, Sept. 16, with one couple eliminated at the end of each night based on a combination of judges' scores and viewer votes. With 16 couples competing this season, tying the record set in Seasons 9 and 31, fans have plenty of favorites to root for and plenty of ways to make their votes count.
When Voting Opens and Closes
Voting opens the moment the live broadcast begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC and Disney+ and closes shortly after the final competitive dance of the night. That window matters: voting only happens during the live simulcast, so fans need to cast their votes in real time rather than after the fact.
Viewers on the West Coast face a wrinkle here. Because the show airs on tape delay in Pacific time, West Coast fans have to vote during the live Eastern and Central time zone broadcast window, not when the episode airs locally.
How to Vote Online
Online voting happens at DWTSVote.abc.com. Fans need to create or log into an account, select their favorite couples, and click "Save Votes" to lock in their picks. Votes can be changed and resubmitted throughout the voting window as many times as a fan likes, as long as "Save Votes" is clicked each time.
Online voting is open to viewers 18 and older located in the United States, its territories or Canada.
Night one of the premiere hit a snag when the online voting system crashed, with fans encountering an "Error 503 Too Many Variants" message. Co-host Alfonso Ribeiro announced partway through the broadcast that only text votes would count for that episode. Conner Leavitt and pro partner Adele Zaikman were eliminated as a result.
How to Vote by Text
Text voting requires a participating U.S. wireless carrier, and fans must be located in the U.S. or its territories; Canada is not eligible for SMS voting. To vote, fans text their favorite celebrity's designated keyword to 21523. A one-time confirmation text arrives after a fan's first vote for a couple each voting window, along with another message if a fan hits the 10-vote limit for that couple.
Vote Limits and Name Mix-Ups to Watch For
Regardless of method, fans can cast up to 10 votes per couple, per voting method, for a maximum of 20 total votes per couple when combining online and text voting. There is no cap on how many different couples a fan can vote for each week, so spreading votes across multiple favorites is allowed.
This season brings a few spelling traps for text voters. Conner Leavitt and Connor Wood share nearly identical first names, so fans need to include the correct spelling and a last initial to vote for the right one. Sarah Jane Nader's keyword uses her full name, "Sarah Jane," since "Sarah" alone won't work, and fans voting for Giada De Laurentiis or Tatyana Ali should double-check the spelling before hitting send, since a misspelled keyword may not register.
Who's Competing This Season
Season 35's cast includes Julia Stiles, Tatyana Ali, Ciara Miller, Sarah Jane Nader, Maura Higgins, Amber Glenn, Giada De Laurentiis and Jenna Dewan on the women's side, paired with professional partners across the two premiere nights. The season also marks a historic first: Olympic figure skating gold medalist Amber Glenn and Paralympic champion Ezra Frech are competing in the same season, a first for the show. Glenn's pairing also marks only the third same-sex partnership in "Dancing With the Stars" history.
Hosts Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro, along with judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli, return for the new season. New episodes air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, with episodes also available to stream on Hulu the following day.
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