Dancing With the Stars starts Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 8 p.m. ET, when Dedication Night airs live on ABC and Disney+. The episode will send the 10 remaining couples back to the ballroom to honor the people and places that shaped their lives, with Kym Johnson returning as guest judge.
For viewers trying to plan the night, the time is locked in and the viewing options are straightforward. ABC and Disney+ will carry the broadcast, while DIRECTV offers a 5-day free trial and Fubo offers a free trial period of up to 5 days for new customers.
The spotlight also falls on Jenna Dewan, who will dance with Alan Bersten because Val Chmerkovskiy is sitting out the episode. That change lands after a tense Week 5, when Dewan and Chmerkovskiy earned the season’s first all-9s with a 36 out of 40 for a paso doble to Bad Romance, then tied with Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach’s salsa and finished ahead of Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov’s 34.
The reason for Chmerkovskiy’s absence has not been spelled out, but the fallout has already been public. After the Oct. 13 show, Carrie Ann Inaba criticized Dewan for a lift in the routine, Chmerkovskiy posted and then deleted a TikTok story that read, “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,” and later apologized for what he called a poor decision.
This is Season 35, and the next confirmed event is the Dedication Night broadcast on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 8 p.m. ET. With the judging panel of Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough back in place and Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough hosting, the episode will test how quickly the competition adjusts when one of its most familiar pairings is temporarily broken up.
