Dancing with the Stars opens Season 35 with men-only night and voting glitch

Dancing with the Stars opened Season 35 with the men dancing first and a voting failure that wiped out online votes.

Sixteen celebrities are competing for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy this season, with the premiere organised across two nights, Tuesday and Wednesday. Only the male celebrities performed on night one, while the female celebrities were held over to night two, according to Deadline.

Hosts Afonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough led the Tuesday, September 15 launch. The two-night premiere aired live at 8/7c on ABC and Disney+ and streamed on Hulu, according to ABC.

Night one ran into trouble off the floor. Online voting through ABC.com went down during the broadcast and those votes were thrown out. Only text votes counted.

That put extra pressure on a fiddly detail. Season 35 includes two contestants with the same first name, so text voters had to specify Conner L. or Connor W. for their vote to count.

Jackson Olson and Emma Slater opened the show with a cha cha to Wannabe by the Spice Girls. They scored 15 out of 30. Tyler Cameron followed with Sharna Burgess with a tango. They scored 17 out of 30.

Conner Leavitt danced with Adele Zaikman, performing a salsa to Whoop There It Is by Tag Team. They scored 12 out of 30. Zaikman is a newcomer pro and winner of DWTS: The Next Pro.

Guillermo Rodriguez also performed a cha cha with Witney Carson. Carson is the Season 34 champion and returned for Season 35 while pregnant.

Other partnerships for the season include Harry Shum Jr. with Jenna Johnson, Ezra Frech with Daniella Karagach, Connor Wood with Rylee Arnold and Sarah Jane Nader with Hailey Bills, according to Gold Derby. ABC also lists Amber Glenn, Ciara Miller, Giada De Laurentiis, Jenna Dewan, Julia Stiles, Maura Higgins, Tatyana Ali and Taylor Hanson in the 16-person cast. Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli are listed as judges.

For viewers following at home, this means half the cast is still to dance. The women perform on Wednesday, September 16, followed by a live aftershow at 10:00 p.m. on ABC and Disney+, available next day on Hulu. Andy Richter hosts the official podcast.