DWTS Season 35: Three Cast Members Confirmed So Far

Dancing With the Stars is slowly but surely building out its Season 35 ballroom, and the third confirmed cast member is someone you might already be following online. Jackson Olson — internet personality and baseball player for the viral Savannah Bananas — was revealed at the Disney Upfronts on May 12, joining a cast that’s shaping up to be one of the more reality-and-internet-savvy lineups in the show’s history.

Olson joins Ciara Miller of Summer House and Maura Higgins — the Irish fan favorite who became a breakout star on both Love Island and The Traitors — as the first three celebrities confirmed for the fall season. All three had massive moments in 2025, which makes their casting feel less like a coincidence and more like executive producer and casting head Deena Katz knew exactly what she was doing.

Higgins, for her part, is fully ready to put in the work. “I know it’s going to be so, so hard, but because I really want to do it I’m going to put my all into it,” she said. “I’m just so excited. I just want to get going now, to be honest.”

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The Full Cast Reveal Is Coming September 2

The rest of the celebrity lineup — along with which professional dancers will be paired with whom — won’t be officially unveiled until the September 2 episode of Good Morning America. In the meantime, Just Jared reports that several additional celebrities are rumored for the season, a few have confirmed they were approached, and at least one has publicly shot down the reports linking her to the show. The rumor mill, as always, is very much running.

What’s new this cycle is the addition of a companion series: Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro, set to air this summer, where a group of dancers will compete for a spot on the pro cast. Showrunner Conrad Green told The Hollywood Reporter that the winner has already been determined — “secretly in the bank,” as he put it — and explained what the spinoff revealed about what it actually takes to be a DWTS pro.

“Just being a good ballroom or Latin dancer is the basics,” Green said. “But you have to be able to do group dancing, choreograph, manage difficult people, manage time pressure, format a dance and choreograph for a one-minute routine that’s got moments that might get picked up on social media that might make your couple pop.”

Tuesday Nights, No Results Show, Same Three Judges

ABC confirmed at the Upfronts that DWTS Season 35 will air Tuesdays from 8/7c to 10/9c. No specific premiere date has been set, but the show typically returns in mid-September, so a September 2026 kickoff is the safe bet.

One thing that won’t be returning: the results show. During Season 34, Tom Bergeron came back as a guest judge and publicly urged ABC to bring back the two-night format, citing record ratings and arguing that the old overnight voting window gave the show a different energy. ABC isn’t biting — with only one night of DWTS on the schedule, the results show stays gone.

The judging panel, at least, remains unchanged. Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli are all back. Inaba and Tonioli have been judging since the very first season in 2005; Hough joined later during Len Goodman‘s tenure, and has remained a fixture since Goodman’s passing in April 2023. Guest judges will likely pop up throughout the season as well, though those names are typically kept under wraps until just before their episodes air.

For now, all eyes are on September 2 — and whatever names Deena Katz has been quietly assembling for what is, after all, a landmark 35th season.