What time does Dancing with the Stars start tonight? Season 35 hits Dedication Night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+ Tuesday, Oct. 20, with the 10 remaining couples set to perform live. The schedule matters because viewers need the exact start time if they want to watch the episode as it airs.
Jenna Dewan and Alan Bersten
Jenna Dewan will dance with Alan Bersten this week while Val Chmerkovskiy sits out. That makes her pairing one of the episode’s clearest lineup changes, and it arrives after Dewan and Chmerkovskiy scored the season’s first all-9s, a 36 out of 40, for a paso doble to Bad Romance.
The night is built around dedication routines, with the 10 remaining couples honoring the people and places that shaped their lives. ABC and Disney are framing the broadcast as a live event, so the 8 p.m. ET slot is the key marker for anyone trying to join from the opening minutes rather than catching up later.
Val Chmerkovskiy and the TikTok post
After the Oct. 13 show, Chmerkovskiy posted a TikTok story that read, “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.” He later deleted it and called it “a poor decision,” while Studios said the post “was inappropriate and does not reflect the values or standards expected of anyone connected with the show.”
That sequence is why his absence on Dedication Night lands as more than a routine cast change. The week after a public misstep, the show is moving ahead with a different partner for Dewan and a guest judge in Kym Johnson, a 2-time Mirrorball champion returning to the panel.
ABC and Disney+
Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough are co-hosting the episode, while Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough return as judges. For viewers, the cleanest path is simple: tune in at 8 p.m. ET on ABC or Disney+ if they want the live broadcast, not a clipped version after the fact.
Week 6 starts with a fixed clock and a changed dance floor. The live slot, the partner switch, and Chmerkovskiy’s sit-out make this the most operationally useful hour of the season so far.
