Julianne Hough supports Julia Stiles after the season 35 contestant said the Sept. 22 Dancing With the Stars feedback left her in tears. Hough answered on Instagram with a red heart emoji and, “You are divine.”
Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa
Stiles said she cried after earning a 16 out of 30 in the Viral Hits episode. Carrie Ann Inaba pointed to stiffness, and Bruno Tonioli said some beats were “very, very good,” but there were “a few stumbles.”
Backstage, Stiles told E! News, “To be completely honest, I'm not feeling great because the crazy thing about this show, which I knew going into it, is that you can have great run-throughs, you can have great rehearsals, but really, all that matters is what ends up on television.”
Julianne Hough and Derek Hough
Hough’s note landed on the same day that Stiles said she had “a big old cry fest” in her trailer, with Ezra Sosa there beside her and patient through the reaction. The public response matters because season 35 is already compressing the field: the Sept. 22 episode also sent Giada De Laurentiis and Alan Bersten out of the competition.
Stiles did not frame the moment as a retreat from the show. She said, “It's all a learning process,” and added, “My goal now is really to just keep letting people in and not shut down.”
Season 35 Week Three
The next test is the week-three dance Stiles and Sosa are preparing to take on to a yacht rock song. That keeps the focus on whether she can convert the public support and the judges’ notes into a cleaner run, especially after she opened the episode by saying being on Dancing With the Stars is a chance “to stay open and vulnerable and not run away from it.”
Variety reported in 2019 that contestants make $125,000 for the rehearsal period and first two weeks and can reach a maximum of $295,000, which gives season 35 a real incentive structure as the field narrows. Bobby Bones said he made more than the reported maximum when he won season 27 with Sharna Burgess in 2018, a reminder that the contest can reward survival as much as polish.
