Dancing with the Stars Season 35 Premieres With Witney Carson Competing While Pregnant

LOS ANGELES — Witney Carson is entering her 14th season of Dancing with the Stars as she has entered nearly every other: by treating the part that is supposed to be difficult as incidental.

The difference this time is that she is in her second trimester.

Carson, one of the show’s most decorated professional dancers, confirmed last month that she is pregnant with her second child. She plans to compete regardless, becoming the first expectant professional dancer in the franchise’s 21-year history.

Her partner is Guillermo Rodriguez, the comedian and co-host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, who told producers he was quietly relieved by the assignment. His reasoning was characteristically direct: he was glad to be paired with Witney because it would guarantee food breaks during rehearsals.

Dancing with the Stars Season 35 opens Tuesday on ABC with consecutive episodes on September 15 and 16, also streaming live on Disney+. Hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough return alongside the judges’ panel of Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough, and Bruno Tonioli.

Sixteen celebrity contestants step into the ballroom for a premiere designed to establish frontrunners and fan favorites in the same opening night. The roster balances dance credentials with comedic potential: Jenna Dewan, the actress and choreographer whose background makes her the season’s most obvious early threat; Julia Stiles, whose film work in Save the Last Dance and the Step Up franchise built a specific expectation that DWTS either confirms or cheerfully dismantles; Harry Shum Jr., the Glee and Crazy Rich Asians performer paired with Jenna Johnson; and Taylor Hanson of Hanson, the 1990s nostalgia entry the show has reliably cast since its earliest seasons.

Stiles is partnered with professional Ezra Sosa. Amber Glenn, the figure skater, and Ezra Frech, the Paralympic sprinter, represent the athletic contingent that typically draws early praise from the judges before technique refinements arrive. Tyler Cameron, Tatyana Ali, Giada De Laurentiis, Ciara Miller, Maura Higgins, Sarah Jane Nader, Jackson Olson, and Connor Wood complete the field.

The human story the production did not need to construct is Carson’s. At a moment when competition formats increasingly rely on manufactured tension, a professional dancer in her second trimester offers something no casting session could design. The practical question is not whether she can dance pregnant. She has already answered that. The question is how her choreography adapts as the season progresses and what the judges, who have not previously had to calibrate their scoring for this specific variable, decide to do when they see it.

Rodriguez brings his own uncertainty. A comedian with no competitive dance background, paired with a dancer who cannot commit to every lift, is a combination that depends entirely on chemistry and his willingness to be coached rather than applauded. The dynamic could make them one of the season’s most entertaining pairings. It could also turn instructive about the distance between stage presence and ballroom control.

Season 35 also marks the main-series debut of Adele Zaikman, winner of Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro, the franchise spinoff ABC launched in July. Hosted by Robert Irwin and judged by Mark Ballas, the spinoff was the franchise’s first dedicated training-ground series, and Zaikman’s arrival as a professional dancer partnered with Conner Leavitt is the first formal test of whether that pipeline produces main-show competitors or footnotes.

The premiere arrives as ABC enters fall with considerable momentum. Last weekend’s Emmy ceremony, hosted by Mariska Hargitay, delivered a record eighth win for Jean Smart in Hacks, reinforcing the network’s standing in scripted drama even as reality competition anchors its weeknight lineup through sweeps. The dual release on ABC and Disney+ reflects the hybrid broadcast-streaming strategy the network has committed to for its highest-priority unscripted properties. The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the Carson pregnancy development this summer, noted that producers did not hesitate when she informed them of her news.

The premiere has one structural advantage more conventional seasons lack: Carson’s storyline does not require the audience to wait for the field to thin before there is something at stake. She is in the opening number, with a situation that carries genuine consequence regardless of where the judges’ scores land.

Whether that translates into a championship run, an early exit, or something more complicated is information the competition has not yet produced.

The opening-night answer is Tuesday. The rest is being choreographed in real time.