The season 35 premiere of Dancing with the Stars descended into confusion Tuesday after the live voting system stopped working only minutes into the broadcast.
Co-host Julianne Hough, 38, announced that online voting had been temporarily suspended following the night’s second performance.
Viewers who tried to vote through ABC’s website were unable to access the page and instead encountered an “Error 503 Too Many Variants” message.
At approximately 8:45 p.m. ET, co-host Alfonso Ribeiro told viewers that online voting would remain offline for the rest of the evening.
“For tonight, and tonight only, we are throwing out online votes,” he said.
Although online ballots were canceled, fans could still support their favorite couples by voting via text. However, the last-minute change may have kept some viewers from participating.
The season 35 premiere of Dancing with the Stars was thrown into chaos Tuesday when live voting failed just minutes after the broadcast began
Julianne Hough announced that online voting was temporarily unavailable after just the second dance of the evening
The voting outage occurred shortly after former Bachelorette contestant Tyler Cameron performed with DWTS professional Sharna Burgess.
“A quick update for everyone who is voting at home,” Hough said a little more than 25 minutes into the live broadcast. “This is coming through live right now: Voting on ABC is currently down live.”
She then encouraged viewers to “please make sure that you guys are texting for everyone.”
“We will keep you posted as the night goes on,” she added.
About 20 minutes later, Ribeiro said the show was “still having online voting issues.”
He subsequently confirmed that online votes would not be counted during the first half of the two-part premiere. Hough, however, attempted to take a lighter view of the technical failure.
“Did we break it with the voting? This is kind of rad!” she joked.
‘We’re breaking stuff around here,’ Ribeiro joked.
The announcement that online voting had crashed came shortly after former Bachelorette contestant Tyler Cameron had completed his dance with DWTS pro Sharna Burgess
‘A quick update for everyone who is voting at home,’ Hough said just over 25 minutes after the live show commenced. ‘This is coming through live right now: Voting on ABC is currently down live’; seen above on Monday at the Primetime Emmy Awards in LA
Ribeiro gave an update around 20 minutes later and said DWTS was ‘still having online voting issues.’ The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star star said online voting would be thrown out for the episode, but fans could still vote via text; seen above on Monday in LA
After he said that online votes wouldn’t be counted for the first half of the two-part premiere, Hough tried to put a more positive spin on the malfunction. ‘Did we break it with the voting? This is kind of rad!’ she said; (L–R) Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, Bruno Tonioli, Ribeiro, Hough, Maura Higgins, Guillermo Rodriguez and Jack Olson seen on September 2
Fans located in the US and its territories can vote via SMS by texting a keyword with the name of the male celebrity performing on Tuesday’s show to 21523.
Usually, viewers text the first name of the star they’re voting for, but the presence of Connor Wood and Connor Leavitt has forced them to text ‘Connor W’ or ‘Connor L’ to specify whom they’re casting votes for.
Wood is known for being a TikTok star, while Leavitt is the husband of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt.
Viewers are allowed to cast up to 10 votes per couple per voting method for each show, though only texting will be an option for part one of the premiere.
Notably, only the male celebrities will be performing with their professional dancer partners on Tuesday’s episode, while the female celebrities will debut their dancing skills on Wednesday night’s episode.
During the broadcast, Ribeiro clarified that the couple with the ‘lowest combined total scores and votes’ would be eliminated at the end of each night.
On social media, some viewers vented about online votes being thrown out.
‘With the vote system broken it doesn’t seem fair to eliminate anyone,’ one fan suggested.
On social media, some viewers vented about online votes being thrown out
After it was announced that Connor Leavitt had been eliminated at the end of the broadcast, some rushed to blame his failure on the voting glitch
After it was announced that Connor Leavitt had been eliminated at the end of the broadcast, some rushed to blame his failure on the voting glitch.
‘I’m so sad for Conner Leavitt [sic] and I blame the glitch in the voting system because I tried to vote multiple times and they never went through!!!! JUSTICE FOR THE LEAVITTS,’ wrote one furious viewer.
Dancing with the Stars returns with the second night of its two-part season 35 premiere on Wednesday at 8pm ET on ABC, as well as streaming on Disney+. Episodes can also be viewed a day late on Hulu.
