Andy Richter Unveils 10 Themes for Dancing With the Stars Season 35

Q: With a mystery theme lurking in Week 5, what major twist is DWTS hiding from its loyal fans?

At this point, there is no confirmed “major twist” for Week 5 beyond the fact that ABC has not announced the theme yet. What is known is that former contestant Andy Richter, on the show’s official podcast, revealed nearly the full Season 35 lineup: Viral Hits in Week 2, Yacht Rock in Week 3, Mariah Carey Night in Week 4, an unannounced Week 5, then Dedication Night, Horror Movie Night, Disney Night and Grammy Night before the semifinals and finale. Multiple outlet reports and ABC-related coverage repeat the same schedule, listing Week 5 only as “TBA.” So the mystery is real, but the show has not publicly disclosed what it is hiding. There is also no solid evidence in the available reporting that Week 5 involves a format overhaul, surprise return, or special elimination twist. The biggest verified format twist so far this season was the two-night premiere split by gender, with separate eliminations of Conner Leavitt and Sarah Jane Nader. In other words, loyal fans are being teased, not informed: Week 5 remains an intentional blank spot in the schedule. Until ABC, Disney+ or the official “DWTS” podcast confirms more, any claim about a “major twist” would be speculation rather than fact.

Q: Did the unprecedented gender-split premiere give female celebrities an unfair advantage in the viewer votes?

Probably not in any provable way, but the format did create unequal conditions. The two-night, gender-split premiere did not pit men and women against each other directly for the same elimination. Each night had its own voting window and its own bottom finisher, so a woman could only knock out another woman, and a man could only knock out another man. On that basis alone, the split did not automatically give female celebrities an advantage over the male field. What does make the setup look uneven is that the two nights were not identical in voting conditions. Night one, featuring the men, was hit by an ABC online voting crash, and the show said only text votes would count. Night two, featuring the women, had online voting restored. That likely gave female contestants access to a broader, easier voting pool than male contestants had the night before. There is also no public vote data from ABC, so there is no hard evidence that women actually benefited in results. The available outcomes do not show a clear female boost: the top score among men and women was tied at 21, and one woman and one man were each eliminated from their own group. So the fairest reading is that the gender split itself was not inherently unfair in vote totals, but the technical failure on the men’s night created a stronger argument that male contestants faced a disadvantage that female contestants did not.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Sep 18

Andy Richter used the official DWTS podcast to reveal the remaining Season 35 themes, with Week 2 set as Viral Hits and later episodes including Yacht Rock Night, Mariah Carey Night, Dedication Night, Horror Movie Night, Disney Night and Grammy Night.
Season 35 opened this week with 16 celebrities dancing to No. 1 songs from the year they were born, under hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough and judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough.
Two contestants have already exited after the premiere's split eliminations: Conner Leavitt on Monday and Sarah Jane Nader on Tuesday, leaving 14 couples for next week's second dance.
The season will run through Week 10 semifinals and a Week 11 finale, airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+ and streaming the next day on Hulu.