Dancing with the Stars has spent several seasons expanding what a partnership on that ballroom floor can look like, and season 35 was supposed to continue that.The show has featured same-sex pairings before. One reached the finale in 2021. And for a program built on a format that was rigidly gendered for most of its history, that shift mattered to a lot of viewers who had spent years watching a dance competition that did not seem to have room for them.Season 35 premiered this week with one same-sex pairing in the cast.After the women competed for the first time, that pairing was eliminated.The reaction was immediate, and it split in exactly the directions you would expect.What HappenedSarah Jane Nader and professional partner Hailey Bills were eliminated following the first round of competition.They were the only same-sex pairing in this season’s cast.Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman were also eliminated this week.Credit: ABCThe Detail Fans Noticed ImmediatelyHere is the piece driving the more substantive conversation, and it is not really about the couples themselves.Both eliminated pairings were partnered with new professionals.Hailey Bills and Adele Zaikman are both new to the show this season. Zaikman came to the program through the competition to find the next pro.So in the first week of season 35, the two couples sent home were the two couples anchored by the newest professionals on the cast.That is a pattern worth noting, and it points to something structural rather than something about any individual dancer. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Good Morning America (@goodmorningamerica)The Case That This Was About Voting BiasA number of viewers argued the elimination reflected audience prejudice rather than performance.One post celebrating the result framed it in openly political terms, suggesting people were “tired of having a woke agenda shoved into everything they watch.”That framing drew significant pushback.“‘Woke agenda’ is apparently what we’re calling two women dancing now,” one user responded. “Nobody shoved an agenda at you. You voluntarily watched a dance show, saw two women dancing, got offended by their existence, and then celebrated their elimination like you personally defeated the LGBTQ+ community.”Another pointed to the format’s own history. “Hey so the Argentine tango is traditionally danced by two men and a same sex couple got to the finale in 2021.”Credit: ABCThe Case That It Was About Name RecognitionThe counterargument is more mundane, and several viewers made it without any hostility.“Or it could be that 1. They’re not well known and 2. They weren’t very good,” one user wrote.Another laid out a fuller version: lower social media following, a new professional partner, and a cast stacked with considerably more recognizable names.That reading fits the structural pattern. Week one on this show has always rewarded fame and existing fanbases over technique, because audiences vote before they have had time to become invested in anyone’s progress.It is worth being precise here. Nobody can see inside voting behavior. An elimination result cannot prove motive, in either direction, and anyone claiming certainty about why millions of individual votes were cast is guessing.Both explanations are plausible. Neither is provable.The Judging Criticism Is More SpecificSeparate from the elimination, a significant number of viewers raised concerns about how the pairing was discussed on air.Several posts criticized judge Carrie Ann Inaba’s commentary as sexualizing rather than evaluating.“I’m pretty sure one of the points of them dancing together is to get away from that mindless drooling ‘oOoOoH LeBiAnS’ stereotype,” one viewer wrote.Another described the reaction more personally. “Yeah i immediately said ‘eww’ like as a lesbian her comments made me uncomfortable. Like this is the exact thing queer people have been fighting against for years, calling two girls dancing together hot is weird.”Viewers also noted the structure of the critique itself, quoting it as “The hot factor was there. It was out of sync.”That complaint is more concrete than the voting theory, because it concerns something that was actually said on a broadcast rather than an inference about anonymous votes.Credit: ABCThe Taylor Hanson SituationA separate conversation has developed about another contestant, and it requires care.Taylor Hanson’s casting has prompted renewed discussion on social media about past controversies involving his brothers and Hanson bandmates, Isaac and Zac.Those claims circulate widely online; they are not independently verified here, and none of them concern Taylor himself. The most detailed post making the rounds explicitly notes that Taylor has remained neutral on the matters in question, while highlighting his work platforming the restoration of Vernon AME Church, the only standing structure from Historic Black Wall Street, and his involvement with Food on the Move in Tulsa.It is worth separating those threads clearly. Taylor Hanson is the person competing on the show. Allegations about other people, unverified and unrelated to this program, are not his.Where This Leaves Season 35One week in, the show has lost its only same-sex pairing and both of its newest professionals.Whether those facts are connected in the way some viewers believe is not something an elimination result can establish.What is verifiable is that the conversation around season 35 is now partly about who is voting and why, which is not where a competition show wants its narrative in week one.The judging criticism may prove the more durable issue. Commentary on a broadcast is a record. Voting motive is not.This article reflects public social media reaction. Claims about individuals referenced in that reaction are unverified, and voting motive cannot be established from elimination results.The post Carrie Ann Inaba’s Inappropriate Comments Draw Criticism From Dancing With The Stars Viewers appeared first on Inside the Magic.