Conner Leavitt and Sarah Jane Nader are joining the Dancing With the Stars season 35 cast this fall, adding two more family names to a rollout that has already built momentum ahead of the full reveal. The additions widen a lineup that now links the competition to Whitney Leavitt and Brooks Nader.
That is why the Dancing With The Stars 2026 cast is drawing attention now: ABC has said the full season 35 list will be announced on Good Morning America on September 2, before the two-night premiere on ABC and Disney+ on Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET. The staggered release has turned each new name into part of the story instead of a late-stage footnote.
Conner Leavitt, 32, is Whitney Leavitt’s husband, and his addition comes after Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas reached the season 34 semifinals last year. Whitney Leavitt later landed a record-breaking debut in Broadway’s Chicago and is set to play Sandra Dee in Just in Time starting in December. Sarah Jane Nader, meanwhile, is Brooks Nader’s sister, which extends a family connection already familiar to viewers who watched Brooks Nader and Gleb Savchenko finish ninth on season 33 in 2024.
That family thread is now part of a cast that has been rolled out in pieces. Ciara Miller and Maura Higgins were unveiled in April as the first two celebrities for season 35, Jackson Olson and Guillermo Rodriguez were later confirmed, and Tyler Cameron and Jenna Dewan were reported earlier this week to be joining. ABC has also already confirmed that Guillermo Rodriguez will be paired with Witney Carson.
Carson’s pairing adds another layer to the season because she recently announced that she is expecting her third baby with Carson McAllister. She said on GMA on Monday, August 17, that competing while pregnant is daunting, even as she and Robert Irwin won season 34 together. The pressure is part performance and part reality, and it makes the season feel less like a clean cast announcement than a live test of how much this show can absorb at once.
Jackson Olson, 28, offered the most direct picture of that pressure when he said he expects nerves about 10 seconds before the music starts. For a cast being assembled in public, that kind of honesty matters. The full season 35 lineup is still not complete, but the next checkpoint is set: ABC will put the whole cast on Good Morning America on September 2, and that is when the rest of the puzzle should finally lock into place.
