Updated

Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Sep 30

Taylor Hanson, Britt Stewart Exit DWTS Season 35 After 18/30 Yacht Rock Night Score

Updated

Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Sep 30

Taylor Hanson, Britt Stewart Exit DWTS Season 35 After 18/30 Yacht Rock Night Score

Q: Why was Taylor Hanson eliminated on DWTS Yacht Rock Night when several other couples finished with similarly low judges’ scores?

Taylor Hanson was eliminated because *Dancing With the Stars* does not send home the lowest scorer on judges’ points alone; it eliminates the couple with the lowest **combined total of judges’ scores and viewer votes**. On Yacht Rock Night, Hanson and Britt Stewart scored 18/30, which tied them with Ciara Miller and Jackson Olson and put them above Tyler Cameron’s 17/30 and Guillermo Rodriguez’s 15/30. But those lower or equal judges’ scores did not guarantee elimination. Once audience voting was added, Taylor and Britt ended up with the weakest overall total. That is why Hanson could go home even though other couples were in the same scoring range or scored below him. Reports from the live episode said the final jeopardy group included Taylor and Britt, Jackson Olson and Emma Slater, and Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson, showing that viewer support played a decisive role. In short, Hanson’s judges’ score left him vulnerable, and his viewer vote total appears not to have been strong enough to offset it. Other low-scoring couples survived because they likely received more public support during the live voting window on ABC’s website and by text.

Q: With 13 couples and a nostalgia theme, which Yacht Rock Night performance truly shifted the Season 35 competition?

Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov’s foxtrot to Toto’s “Hold the Line” was the performance that most clearly shifted the Season 35 race. It did more than top the Yacht Rock Night leaderboard. Amber delivered the season’s first 24 out of 30, earning the first set of three 8s and setting a new scoring benchmark. Judges framed it as a breakthrough: Derek Hough said she turned the ballroom into her “own personal ice rink,” Bruno Tonioli praised its “spatial flow” and “musical progression,” and Carrie Ann Inaba pointed to visible week-to-week growth. In a competition where momentum matters, that routine moved Amber from contender to standard-setter. Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson matched the 24 later in the night with a jive to “You Make My Dreams (Come True),” so they also emerged as clear front-runners. But Amber’s dance changed the tone of the episode because it came first and established the night’s ceiling. Everyone after that was chasing the score she posted. Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas also made an important move with their 22 for “Turn Your Love Around.” Her first 8s of the season signaled real upward movement and put her firmly in the upper tier. The shock elimination of Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart underscored that strong name recognition alone would not be enough. But if one routine truly altered the competition’s shape, it was Amber Glenn’s foxtrot: it raised the bar, reset expectations, and confirmed that Season 35 now has a performance to beat.

3 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Sep 30

Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart were eliminated at the end of Tuesday’s Yacht Rock Night, leaving the ballroom stunned in episode four of Dancing With the Stars season 35.
An 18/30 score, combined with viewer voting, sent the pair home under the show’s format, which cuts the couple with the lowest total each week.
Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov set the pace with 24/30 — the season’s highest mark so far — and Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson matched them to share the top of the leaderboard.
Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas followed with 22/30, while several others clustered near the danger zone, including Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess at 17/30.
The exit follows last week’s elimination of Giada De Laurentiis and Alan Bersten, narrowing the field to 12 celebrities still competing for the season 35 mirrorball trophy.