Conner Leavitt Eliminated From Dancing With the Stars on the Very Night Online Votes Were Thrown Out

Conner Leavitt became the first star to leave Dancing With the Stars Season 35 on Tuesday, 15 September. He went home the night the show dropped every online vote after ABC's voting website broke down. Leavitt is on the reality series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

Fans who voted online on Tuesday had no say in the result, even if their votes went through. Only texts counted with the judges' scores, and the pair with the lowest combined total leaves the ABC show. Guillermo Rodriguez got the night's weakest score, 10 out of 30, yet the combined total still left Leavitt at the bottom of the eight men.

How the Voting Failed During the Premiere

Three judges, Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli, score each couple out of 10, for a maximum of 30 per dance. Viewers can vote online or by text message during each live episode. Once Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess had finished their tango in the second slot, co-host Julianne Hough announced that online voting had stopped working. She asked viewers to text instead because the network's voting website was down.

Leavitt and his professional partner, Adele Zaikman, danced third, with a salsa set to Tag Team's 'Whoomp! (There It Is)'. When the dance ended, co-host Alfonso Ribeiro said on air that the show would drop any online votes already cast and count only texts. Two similar cast names made texting harder. Anyone backing Leavitt needed to text 'Conner L', while fans of the comedian and influencer Connor Wood, who dances with Rylee Arnold, sent 'Connor W'.

How the Judges Scored Leavitt's Salsa

Each judge gave the salsa four points. Judge Inaba loved the couple's energy but found the routine 'a bit chaotic'. Derek Hough called the dance goofy and playful, but said Leavitt's hips were not really moving in the salsa. Judge Tonioli told Leavitt, 'You definitely popped... at the wrong time, a lot of the time.' Leavitt's total of 12 left him second from the bottom, one place above Rodriguez, a Jimmy Kimmel Live! star.

Harry Shum Jr. of Grey's Anatomy topped the leaderboard with 21 for a cha-cha. Ezra Frech, a Paralympic champion, came second on 20 for his tango. Co-host Ribeiro said viewers had cast 'more than double the votes' of last year's premiere. Every vote behind that figure came by text, because website votes no longer counted. Leavitt later told an interviewer he saw nothing unfair in counting only texts, calling maths his trade.

What Remains Unclear After the Failure

Whether the dropped online votes would have saved Leavitt remains unknown. ABC's show has faced a similar problem before. In October 2018, host Tom Bergeron announced that the previous night's phone votes had not counted. Paralympic skier Danelle Umstead, the first blind contestant, left the contest that night.

Zaikman's exit ends her first season as a professional in its opening week, after she won Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro. Whitney Leavitt, who finished fifth on Season 34, watched her husband from the audience. Eight female stars danced on Wednesday, 16 September, and one more couple faced elimination.