The cast of “Dancing With the Stars” 2026 features sixteen celebrities who took the ballroom floor when Season 35 premiered on ABC and Disney+ on September 15, 2026. The new lineup pairs actors, athletes, musicians, and reality television personalities with the show’s professional dancers for what has become the largest cast in the program’s history, tied with two previous seasons.
The Full Season 35 Celebrity Cast and Their Partners
ABC revealed the complete roster on “Good Morning America” on September 2, 2026. Here is the full pairing list for the cast of Dancing With the Stars 2026:
- Tatyana Ali, known for “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” partnered with Jan Ravnik
- Tyler Cameron, “The Bachelorette” alum and real estate personality, partnered with Sharna Burgess
- Giada De Laurentiis, the Food Network chef, partnered with Alan Bersten
- Jenna Dewan, actress and former backup dancer, partnered with Val Chmerkovskiy
- Ezra Frech, Paralympic track and field champion, partnered with Daniella Karagach
- Amber Glenn, Olympic figure skater, partnered with Pasha Pashkov
- Taylor Hanson, frontman of the band Hanson, partnered with Britt Stewart
- Maura Higgins, television personality known for “Love Island UK” and “The Traitors,” partnered with Mark Ballas
- Conner Leavitt, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” cast member, partnered with Adele Zaikman
- Ciara Miller, “Summer House” star, partnered with Brandon Armstrong
- Sarah Jane Nader, model and “Love Thy Nader” personality, partnered with Hailey Bills
- Jackson Olson, second baseman for the Savannah Bananas, partnered with Emma Slater
- Guillermo Rodriguez, longtime “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” sidekick, partnered with Witney Carson
- Harry Shum Jr., actor and trained dancer, partnered with Jenna Johnson
- Julia Stiles, actress and director, partnered with Ezra Sosa
- Connor Wood, stand-up comedian known online as Fibula, partnered with Rylee Arnold
Several of the names carry family ties to the show’s history. Sarah Jane Nader is the younger sister of Brooks Nader, who competed in Season 33 with Gleb Savchenko, and Conner Leavitt is married to Whitney Leavitt, who reached the semifinals of Season 34. Both connections drew extra attention when the pairings were finalized in August 2026.
Notable Storylines Within the Cast
The cast of Dancing With the Stars 2026 brings a handful of milestones with it. Witney Carson, the reigning Mirrorball champion from Season 34, returned to compete while four months pregnant with her third child, making her the first professional to join an installment of the show that far into a pregnancy. She is paired with Guillermo Rodriguez for the season.
Sharna Burgess also rejoined the professional lineup after a five-year hiatus, taking on Tyler Cameron as her partner. Two newcomers rounded out the professional roster: Adele Zaikman, the first-ever winner of the spinoff series “Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro,” made her professional debut partnered with Conner Leavitt, and Hailey Bills, previously a troupe member, was promoted to a full-time pro and paired with Sarah Jane Nader. The Nader and Bills pairing marked the third same-sex partnership in the show’s history, following JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson in Season 30 and Shangela and Gleb Savchenko in Season 31.
Gleb Savchenko did not return as a professional dancer for this cycle, a departure that drew questions from fans following the September 2 cast reveal.
Hosts and Judges for Season 35
Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough returned as co-hosts for the fourth consecutive season, a decision announced on September 1, 2026, one day before the celebrity cast reveal. The judging panel also stayed intact, with Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli returning to their seats at the judges’ table.
Beyond the main broadcast, the show expanded its companion programming this season. A second season of the official “Dancing With the Stars” podcast, hosted by Season 34 quarter-finalist Andy Richter, launched on September 10, 2026. An official aftershow hosted by Season 34 champion Robert Irwin aired live immediately following the second night of the premiere.
How the Season 35 Premiere Unfolded
Season 35 opened with a two-night premiere format that split the cast by gender for the first time in years. The male celebrities danced on Tuesday, September 15, while the female celebrities took the floor on Wednesday, September 16. Each night ended with one couple going home, meaning two couples exited during premiere week rather than the usual single elimination. Producers had not used this format since Season 26, when only athletes competed across a shortened four-episode run.
The Tuesday night broadcast ran into technical trouble. After the second performance of the evening, co-host Julianne Hough told viewers that online voting through ABC’s website had gone down, with some fans reporting an “Error 503 Too Many Variants” message when they tried to cast a ballot. Alfonso Ribeiro later confirmed that web voting would stay offline for the rest of the night and that only text-message votes would count toward the first elimination. Viewers were directed to vote by texting a designated keyword to 21523, with separate codes set up to distinguish between the two male contestants who share a similar first name, Conner Leavitt and Connor Wood.
Despite the glitch, Ribeiro announced that the premiere pulled in more than double the number of votes recorded during the previous season’s opening episode.
Results From the First Elimination
On the men’s competition night, Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach earned an early lead with a tango that brought their score to 20 out of 30, while Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson closed the night with the highest score, earning all three sevens from the judges. Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess also drew strong marks, though Derek Hough momentarily referred to Cameron by the wrong name during critiques.
When the votes and scores were combined, Harry and Jenna, Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart, Jackson Olson and Emma Slater, Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach, and Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess were named safe. The bottom three couples were Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman, Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold, and Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson. Conner Leavitt and Zaikman received the lowest combined total and became the first couple eliminated from the cast of Dancing With the Stars 2026, ending the pairing after their salsa routine to “Whoomp! There It Is.”
The women’s competition continued on September 16, featuring performances from Tatyana Ali, Giada De Laurentiis, Jenna Dewan, Amber Glenn, and the rest of the female cast members, each dancing to a song from the year they were born, matching the theme set on premiere night.
What Comes Next for the Cast
With the premiere’s double elimination behind them, the remaining fourteen couples move into a full season of weekly competition for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. Season 34 concluded with wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin taking the title over Alix Earle and Jordan Chiles, and the current cast now carries that momentum into a season already drawing a noticeably larger voting turnout than the year before.
Between the size of the roster, the family connections among contestants, and the early technical hiccups on voting night, Season 35 has generated plenty of conversation just one episode in. As eliminations continue in the coming weeks, the competition will narrow toward a new champion, with fans continuing to track how each pairing performs on the ballroom floor.
The cast of Dancing With the Stars 2026 has already delivered surprises before the season is even a week old, and with sixteen original couples now down to fourteen, the competition for the Mirrorball Trophy is only getting started.
Share your predictions for who will make it to the Season 35 finale in the comments, and check back for updates as the competition continues.