How to Vote for ‘Dancing With the Stars’ 2026: Text Number and Website

• Fans can vote for their favorite Dancing With the Stars couples online at DWTSVote.abc.com or by texting a couple’s keyword to 21523.
• Voting is live only: it opens with the 8 p.m. ET broadcast and closes shortly after the final dance.
• The viewer vote is combined with the judges’ scores, and the couple with the lowest total goes home.

Your vote can decide who stays in the ballroom. On Dancing With the Stars season 35, fans vote live during each episode, online or by text, and those votes are added to the judges’ scores to decide who is eliminated.

It already mattered in week 1: the couples with the lowest judges’ scores on both premiere nights were saved by the vote, while pairs two points higher were sent home. Here’s everything you need to know.

How do you vote on Dancing With the Stars online?

Go to DWTSVote.abc.com, ABC’s official voting site, and log in or create an account. Pick the couples you want to support and save your votes before the window closes.

Online voting is limited to viewers in the United States, its territories and Canada, according to the voting site.

What is the DWTS text number?

The text number is 21523. To vote, text the couple’s voting keyword, which is shown on screen during the episode, to 21523.

Text voting requires a U.S. wireless carrier, so viewers in Canada have to vote online. Standard message and data rates may apply.

When does DWTS voting open and close?

Voting opens when the live show starts, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and closes shortly after the last couple dances. There is no voting after the live episode ends.

That matters for the West Coast: voting follows the live East Coast broadcast, so viewers in the Pacific time zone have to vote between 5 p.m. and roughly 6:45 p.m. PT, even if their local station airs the show later.

How are votes and judges’ scores combined?

Each of the three judges — Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli — scores a dance from 1 to 10, for a maximum of 30. That total is combined with the viewer vote, and the couple with the lowest combined result is eliminated at the end of the night.

The formula is why a low score isn’t a death sentence. On night 1 of the premiere, Guillermo Rodriguez scored a 10 and stayed, while Conner Leavitt scored a 12 and went home. Night 2 went the same way for Tatyana Ali (12, safe) and Sarah Jane Nader (14, eliminated).

What happened when voting crashed on premiere night?

ABC’s voting website went down during the Sept. 15 premiere. Hosts Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro told viewers mid-show that only text votes were being accepted that night.

If the site has trouble again, texting 21523 is the backup.

See all 14 remaining couples in our DWTS season 35 cast guide, and who’s been sent home so far in our elimination tracker. Top scorers so far include Maura Higgins and Harry Shum Jr. More reality TV news is in our TV & Reality section.

Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+ and streams the next day on Hulu.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: ABC’s official voting site (DWTSVote.abc.com); ABC’s live broadcasts of the season 35 premiere (Sept. 15–16, 2026). Voting rules and premiere results as reported by The Hollywood Reporter and Hollywood Life.