Why Was Conner Leavitt Eliminated From DWTS Instead of Guillermo Rodriguez?

The first elimination of Dancing With the Stars Season 35 produced an immediate question. Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman were sent home after their premiere salsa earned 12 points out of 30, but they were not the lowest-scoring couple of the night. Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson had finished below them with only 10 points.

That does not mean the judges’ scores were ignored or that the result was necessarily a mistake. DWTS eliminations are decided using both the judges’ scores and the audience vote, which meant Guillermo could survive despite sitting below Conner on the judges’ leaderboard. The unusual voting problems during the September 15 premiere added another complication, but the show has not released enough information to determine whether the technical failure changed the eventual result.

Related: Why Are the DWTS Season 35 Scores So Low? The Tougher Premiere Judging Explained

Conner Leavitt Scored 12 Out of 30

Conner made his DWTS debut alongside Adele Zaikman, who had earned her place as a professional dancer by winning Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro. The pair performed a salsa to Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is),” bringing plenty of personality to the floor but struggling with some of the technique the judges expected from the style.

Carrie Ann Inaba found the performance entertaining but described it as chaotic. Derek Hough praised Conner’s personality while noting that he did not see enough salsa technique, particularly through the hips. Bruno Tonioli also focused on timing and told Conner that he needed to stay with the rhythm more consistently.

Those criticisms resulted in three 4s, leaving Conner and Adele with 12 points. It was one of the lowest totals of Night 1, although it was not the lowest.

Guillermo Rodriguez Actually Had the Lowest Score

Guillermo and Witney Carson followed with a cha-cha that became one of the night’s biggest crowd-pleasing performances, even though the judges found significant technical problems.

Hough acknowledged Guillermo’s effort but criticized his timing and footwork, while Tonioli also made it clear that the technique had a long way to go. Carrie Ann Inaba responded more positively to the commitment and entertainment value of the performance.

The scores reflected those technical weaknesses. Inaba gave Guillermo a 4, while Hough and Tonioli each gave him a 3, producing a total of only 10 out of 30. That placed Guillermo two points below Conner on the judges’ leaderboard.

If the elimination had been based only on judges’ scores, Guillermo would have been in the weakest position. DWTS, however, does not determine its elimination that way.

Why Did Guillermo Stay Over Conner?

The judges’ leaderboard represents only part of the DWTS result. Viewer votes are combined with the judges’ scores, and the couple with the lowest combined result is eliminated.

Alfonso Ribeiro explained that process during the premiere, telling viewers that the lowest combined total of scores and votes would determine who went home.

That means Guillermo’s lower score did not automatically send him home. The final outcome shows that once the audience vote was added, Conner and Adele ended up in the weakest overall position.

Because ABC does not publish the individual vote totals, it is impossible to say exactly how many more votes Guillermo received or how close the final result was. What can be said is that Guillermo’s viewer support was enough, when combined with his 10 points from the judges, to keep him in the competition ahead of Conner.

That is one of the reasons the lowest-scoring contestant on DWTS does not always become the contestant eliminated at the end of an episode. A strong audience vote can compensate for a poor position on the judges’ leaderboard.

Did the Online Voting Crash Hurt Conner Leavitt?

The premiere result became more complicated because DWTS experienced a major online-voting problem during the live show.

Shortly after Tyler Cameron’s performance, Julianne Hough told viewers that voting through the ABC website had gone down and encouraged fans to vote by text instead. Later in the broadcast, Ribeiro announced that the online problems were continuing and that the show would throw out all online votes submitted that night. Only text votes would count toward the Night 1 result.

That naturally raises questions about whether the voting failure affected Conner’s elimination. There is currently no evidence that proves it did.

DWTS has not released the number of text votes received by Conner, Guillermo or any of the other contestants. It has also not published the discarded online totals. Without those numbers, there is no way to know whether including the online vote would have changed the ranking.

The most accurate conclusion is that Conner was eliminated under the modified voting system used that night, but it would be speculation to claim that the technical problem specifically cost him his place in the competition.

Could the Two Conners Have Caused Voting Confusion?

Season 35 also has an unusual voting complication because two male contestants share almost the same first name: Conner Leavitt and Connor Wood.

During text voting, viewers were required to distinguish between them by using “CONNER L” for Leavitt and “CONNOR W” for Wood. People reported that a text without the required identifier would not be counted and would instead return an error message.

That could understandably create confusion for viewers, particularly during a live episode already dealing with an online voting outage. However, there is again no evidence showing that this issue disproportionately affected Leavitt or determined the elimination.

It is another reason to avoid treating the result as something that can be reconstructed from the public information available. The only numbers viewers know with certainty are the judges’ scores, while the audience voting totals remain private.

Why Conner Went Home Despite Beating Guillermo With the Judges

Conner’s elimination ultimately comes down to the difference between the DWTS leaderboard and the actual elimination result.

He beat Guillermo on judges’ points by 12 to 10, but judges’ points alone were never enough to guarantee safety. Once the valid text votes were combined with the scores, Conner and Adele finished with the lowest overall result and became the first couple eliminated from Season 35.

The outcome also demonstrates how important audience support can be, particularly for contestants who struggle technically during the opening weeks. Guillermo’s debut earned the lowest score of Night 1, but the viewers who voted by text provided enough support for him to remain in the ballroom.

For Conner, the timing was particularly unforgiving. Season 35’s unusual two-night premiere required the male celebrities to face an elimination immediately after their first routine, leaving no second week in which he and Adele could address the timing, hip action and salsa technique the judges had criticized.

The online-voting crash will inevitably remain part of the conversation surrounding that result. Unless ABC releases detailed voting data, however, it cannot be blamed for Conner’s elimination with any certainty. What the result does establish is that Guillermo’s 10 from the judges was not the lowest number that mattered. The combined score and audience vote determined who stayed, and on Night 1, that calculation put Conner Leavitt at the bottom.