DWTS Eliminates Two Couples on Horror Movie Night as Voting System Draws Scrutiny

Jackson Olson and professional partner Emma Slater, alongside Tyler Cameron and partner Sharna Burgess, were eliminated from Season 35 of "Dancing with the Stars" during Tuesday night's Horror Movie Night broadcast on ABC and Disney+. The double elimination narrowed the field from 10 celebrity pairs down to eight. Because no contestants were sent home during the previous episode, the results were decided by combining the judges' scores and viewer votes across both Dedication Night and Horror Movie Night.

The Halloween-themed episode turned the ballroom into a showcase of spooky cinematic numbers, highlighted by Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson earning the season's first perfect score. Their contemporary routine inspired by the horror film "Saw" garnered a flawless 40 out of 40 from the panel. Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy, returning together after Chmerkovskiy's one-week suspension, earned a 37 for an Argentine tango inspired by "28 Weeks Later," tying Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold, who also posted a 37 with a contemporary routine based on "Annabelle: Creation."

For the eliminated couples, the judges' critiques proved decisive. Cameron and Burgess struggled near the bottom of Tuesday's leaderboard, securing a 26 out of 40 for their "Bram Stoker's Dracula" Viennese waltz. Guest judge Shirley Ballas, the head judge on "Strictly Come Dancing" who joined Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli on the panel, criticized Cameron's posture and technique, giving the dance a 5. Meanwhile, Olson and Slater achieved a 35 out of 40 for their "Joker"-inspired contemporary dance, but the combined tally across the two weeks left them at the bottom alongside Cameron and Burgess.

The double departure has refocused attention on how votes and scores interact to determine eliminations on the series. Executive producer and showrunner Conrad Green previously detailed that the competition does not simply combine raw public votes with judges' scores. Instead, both judges' scores and audience votes are converted into ranking points. For instance, if five couples remain, the top-ranked pair from each category earns five points, descending to one point for the lowest. The two ranking totals are then merged in an effectively 50/50 balance, and the couple with the lowest combined points is sent home.

ABC allows eligible viewers to cast up to 10 votes per couple online at DWTSVote.abc.com and up to 10 votes per couple via text message, enabling up to 20 votes per couple during the live voting window. The network keeps raw vote totals strictly confidential. Green has noted that publicizing precise voting numbers could unfairly influence audience behavior and alter how viewers participate in subsequent weeks.

The opacity of the exact voting math has led to recurring questions from fans and former contestants. Discussions resurfaced recently after actress Alexa PenaVega shared an anecdote on her "LexLos" podcast about Season 21 competitor Hayes Grier. PenaVega recalled that Grier, who was 15 at the time of their 2015 season, expressed frustration after being placed in jeopardy, suspecting the results were manipulated despite his substantial social media following. Similar frustrations were aired on the "Giggly Squad" podcast by Paige DeSorbo and Hannah Berner following the October elimination of "Summer House" star Ciara Miller.

DWTS co-host Alfonso Ribeiro, who won Season 19 before moving to the host position, publicly pushed back against accusations that the voting is tampered with, writing, "No chance. We want everyone who's popular to stay on. It's basic logic." PenaVega also clarified that a viral social media clip of her remarks had omitted critical context, emphasizing that she was recounting Grier's personal reaction rather than alleging that the production manipulated the outcomes.

Tuesday's broadcast closed with Olson and Slater, Cameron and Burgess, and Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik standing as the final three awaiting results, though the show noted that group did not necessarily represent the literal bottom three. The eight couples advancing to the next round of competition are Shum and Johnson, Dewan and Chmerkovskiy, Wood and Arnold, Ali and Ravnik, Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa, Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov, Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach, and Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas.