Who Got Eliminated on DWTS? Sarah Jane Nader Out After Premiere Night 2
Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills went home a night after Conner Leavitt — and both times a couple with a lower score survived. All the premiere scores.
- Sarah Jane Nader and pro Hailey Bills were eliminated on night 2 of the Dancing With the Stars season 35 premiere, Sept. 16.
- Night 1 sent home Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman on Sept. 15.
- Both times, a couple with a lower judges’ score survived — the viewer vote made the difference.
Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills are out of Dancing With the Stars. The Love Thy Nader star and her partner were eliminated at the end of the Sept. 16 episode, the second half of the season 35 premiere, after a jive to Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” that scored 14 out of 30.
They are the second couple to leave. Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman went home the night before. This page is updated after every episode with who was eliminated and why.
Why was Sarah Jane Nader eliminated?
Eliminations combine the judges’ scores with the live viewer vote, and Nader and Bills had the lowest combined total of the eight women. Their 14 was not the bottom score of the night: Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik scored 12 and advanced.
Bills, a first-time pro who danced in the season 34 troupe, was part of an all-female partnership with Nader. After the result, Nader spoke about what that meant to her:
“I think that us being on this ballroom floor together as two women is just so powerful. And I hope that it shows you can dance with whoever you want, you can love whoever you want, and being yourself is the best power.”
— Sarah Jane Nader, after the elimination
Who went home on night 1?
Conner Leavitt, of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and Adele Zaikman were the first couple eliminated, on Sept. 15, after a salsa to “Whoomp! (There It Is)” scored 12. Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson had the lowest score of the night, 10, and stayed.
Leavitt, whose wife Whitney Leavitt competed on season 34, said: “This has been the most fun. I have the greatest dance partner in the world in Adele.” Zaikman, the first winner of Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro, called the run “a dream come true no matter what.”
DWTS season 35 premiere scores: night 1 (men)
- Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson (cha-cha): 21
- Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach (tango): 20
- Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess (tango): 17
- Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold (cha-cha): 16
- Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart (quickstep): 16
- Jackson Olson and Emma Slater (cha-cha): 15
- Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman (salsa): 12 — eliminated
- Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson (cha-cha): 10
DWTS season 35 premiere scores: night 2 (women)
- Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas (foxtrot): 21
- Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy (tango): 19
- Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov (cha-cha): 18
- Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa (quickstep): 18
- Giada De Laurentiis and Alan Bersten (tango): 16
- Ciara Miller and Brandon Armstrong (foxtrot): 15
- Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills (jive): 14 — eliminated
- Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik (jive): 12
How does elimination work on Dancing With the Stars?
Each of the three judges — Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli — scores a dance from 1 to 10. The total, out of 30, is added to the viewer vote, and the couple with the lowest combined result is eliminated at the end of the episode.
Votes count only while the show is live on the East Coast, online through ABC’s voting site or by text to 21523, and the window closes shortly after the final dance. West Coast viewers have to vote between 5 p.m. and roughly 6:45 p.m. PT.
On the Sept. 15 premiere the voting website went down, and the hosts told viewers that only text votes were being accepted that night.
When is the next Dancing With the Stars elimination?
From week 2 on, the show airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+ and streams the next day on Hulu. All 14 remaining couples, their partners and scores are in our Dancing With the Stars season 35 cast guide.
Top scorers Maura Higgins and Harry Shum Jr. head into week 2 tied at 21. More from the ballroom and every other franchise is in our TV & Reality section.
The take
Two nights, same pattern: the lowest judges’ score stayed and a couple two points higher went home. With week 1 scores this close, the viewer vote reordered the bottom of the leaderboard both nights. Guillermo Rodriguez and Tatyana Ali start week 2 with the most ground to make up on the scoreboard.
— Bruno Monteiro
Sources: ABC’s live broadcasts of the season 35 premiere (Sept. 15–16, 2026); Dancing With the Stars (@dancingwiththestars) on Instagram. Scores and post-show remarks as reported by The Hollywood Reporter; E! News (Lindsay Weinberg, Olivia Evans, Hayley Santaflorentina); Good Morning America (Shafiq Najib).
Reported from @dancingwiththestars on Instagram.
How FameCrumbs reports · Request a correction
