Sarah Jayne Nader Exits DWTS Season 35 After 14/30 Premiere Score

Q: Did ABC's massive website crash secretly alter which celebrity was eliminated during the record-breaking Season 35 premiere?

No clear evidence shows the ABC voting crash changed who went home, though it did alter how the result was decided. On night one of the Season 35 premiere, ABC’s online voting system failed early in the live broadcast. Hosts told viewers to vote by text, and later confirmed that all online votes — even ones submitted before the crash — were discarded. Only text votes counted for the male contestants’ elimination. ABC also said the show still received record-breaking text voting, more than double last season’s premiere. The eliminated celebrity was Conner Leavitt, who had one of the weakest judge totals at 12 out of 30. He was not last on the judges’ leaderboard — Guillermo Rodriguez scored 10 — so viewer voting clearly mattered. But the network has not released the vote breakdown, and there is no public data showing that online votes would have saved Leavitt or eliminated someone else. What can be said is that the crash likely changed the makeup of the voting pool. U.S. viewers could still vote by text, while Canadian viewers and others relying on the website effectively lost their main voting method. That means the outcome was based on a narrower, text-only audience than originally planned. So the crash did not “secretly” alter the elimination in any proven sense. It openly changed the process, but whether it changed the identity of the eliminated celebrity remains unverified.

Q: Why did a celebrity with the lowest score survive elimination while a massive voting glitch discarded thousands of online ballots?

The lowest scorer survived because *Dancing With the Stars* does not eliminate on judges’ scores alone; it uses a combined result of judges’ points and valid audience votes. On the men’s premiere night, Guillermo Rodriguez finished last with 10/30, but Conner Leavitt, who had 12/30, was eliminated because his combined total after audience voting was lower. The confusion came from the voting failure. During Tuesday’s live broadcast, ABC’s online voting system crashed after the second performance. Producers later announced that all online ballots for that night — including votes that may have gone through before the outage — were discarded, and only text votes counted. ABC did not release a full numerical breakdown, so there is no public evidence showing exactly how many online votes were lost or whether the outage changed which contestant went home. What is clear is that the glitch sharply narrowed the voting pool. U.S. viewers could still vote by text, but Canadian viewers, who were eligible to vote online and not by SMS, effectively lost their only voting method. The show said it still received record-breaking text participation, but that does not answer fairness concerns raised by fans, because one of the two intended voting channels was removed mid-show. So the result stands under the rules ABC applied that night: lowest judges’ score did not equal automatic elimination, and only text votes were counted after the website failure.

3 articles · Updated · Deadline · Sep 17

Sarah Jayne Nader became the first female celebrity eliminated at the end of Wednesday’s second Season 35 premiere episode, leaving 14 contestants for Week 2.
A 14 out of 30 for her jive to “Sk8er Boi” with Hailey Bills left her vulnerable after judges praised the performance’s energy but said the pair was out of sync.
Online voting had returned after crashing during Tuesday’s live show, and the elimination followed the usual combined judges’ scores and audience-vote format.
Maura Higgins posted the women’s top score at 21 out of 30, while Jenna Dewan scored 19 and Amber Glenn and Julia Stiles each earned 18.
The result followed Tuesday’s exit of Conner Leavitt and sends the cast into a viral-hits Week 2 next Tuesday on ABC and Disney+.