DWTS Reveals 8 Night 2 Routines for Season 35 Premiere

Q: After a shocking first-night elimination, which female star's nostalgic ballroom routine failed to save her from going home?

Sarah Jane Nader was the female celebrity whose nostalgic routine did not keep her in the competition. She performed a jive to Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” on Night 2 of the Season 35 premiere, but despite the throwback theme and combined judges’ scores and audience votes, she was eliminated at the end of the episode. That exit followed Night 1’s surprise elimination of Conner Leavitt, which came after technical problems limited voting to text messages only.

Q: How did Giada De Laurentiis manage to pull off a grueling Tango routine while secretly battling a broken toe?

She pushed through by rehearsing and performing despite a badly bruised, likely broken middle toe on her right foot, an injury she revealed about a week before the premiere. De Laurentiis said the toe had turned purple “all the way around” and that she expected to lose the toenail, but she treated it as part of the physical toll of the competition and kept going with partner Alan Bersten. Her own comments suggest the key was simple persistence rather than any dramatic workaround. In social media updates from rehearsal, she acknowledged the pain — “It hurts” — but added, “We’ll figure it out tomorrow. Part of the game.” She returned to practice instead of stepping back, continuing to prepare the Tango for Night 2. That mindset matched what viewers saw on the show. Even with the injury, she took the floor for a demanding Tango to “Venus” by Shocking Blue, showing that she had chosen to dance through discomfort rather than withdraw. Coverage around the premiere did not indicate that she missed rehearsals or altered her plan to compete. The broader context also helps explain how she managed it: “Dancing With the Stars” contestants routinely train through sore muscles and minor foot injuries, and judge Carrie Ann Inaba even reacted to De Laurentiis’ post by joking that she was “officially a dancer now.” In short, De Laurentiis pulled it off through pain tolerance, continued rehearsal, and determination to stay in the competition.

Q: Did the massive voting crash strike again during the women's premiere, or were fans finally able to vote online?

Fans were finally able to vote online during the women’s premiere. Night 1 of the Season 35 launch was hit by a major technical failure that knocked out ABC.com voting, forcing the show to discard online ballots and count only text votes. Producers said they hoped to fix the problem for the second night, and the available reporting around the women’s episode indicates the online system was back in use. The strongest evidence is that coverage ahead of and during Night 2 described the standard voting process as active again, with viewers able to vote both online through the official DWTS site and by text. The show’s own social media also urged fans to vote for the female contestants, without any repeat notice that online votes would be voided. No reports tied to Night 2 said the same crash happened again. So, unlike the men’s premiere, the women’s episode appears to have proceeded with normal online voting restored, alongside text voting.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Sep 16

Eight women-led routines will close Dancing With the Stars' two-night Season 35 premiere on Wednesday, with songs and styles now set ahead of the live show.
The lineup spans Cha-Cha, Foxtrot, Jive, Quickstep and Tango, pairing Amber Glenn with “Smooth,” Ciara Miller with Whitney Houston’s “Exhale,” and Julia Stiles with Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.”
Giada De Laurentiis, Maura Higgins, Jenna Dewan and Tatyana Ali are also on the Night 2 slate, with judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli scoring the performances.
One couple will be eliminated at the end of the night based on combined judges' scores and fan votes after Night 1 technical problems limited voting to text only.