Julia Stiles and pro partner Ezra Sosa were eliminated from “Dancing With the Stars” Season 35 during the show’s Disney Night episode, which aired Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. The episode moved up a day from its usual Tuesday slot because of Election Day. The remaining eight couples each danced to a song from the Disney on Broadway catalog, then split into two teams for group freestyle routines, according to TV Insider.
Stiles and Sosa performed a paso doble to “Satisfied” from “Hamilton” and earned 33 out of 40, finishing the night with 69 combined points after the team dance, according to the Deseret News. Stiles danced through a painful rib injury during the week. The pair landed in the bottom two with Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas, and Stiles and Sosa were sent home, finishing eighth.
Disney Night Scores and Standout Performances
Special guest judge Cynthia Erivo joined regular panelists Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli for the themed episode, TV Insider reported. Two couples earned perfect scores. Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson scored 40 out of 40 for a jazz routine to “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins,” their second perfect score in as many weeks. Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy matched them with a 40 for their quickstep to “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast.”
Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov scored 34 out of 40 for a quickstep to “A Star Is Born” from “Hercules,” with Hough and Tonioli giving 9s and Inaba and Erivo each giving 8s. Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik earned 33 out of 40 for a contemporary routine to “Easy as Life” from “Aida.” Inaba gave Ali a 9 and the rest of the panel scored her an 8, her best mark of the season so far.
Higgins and Ballas scored straight 8s for 32 out of 40 on their jive to “You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!” from “Peter Pan.” Tonioli said the jive “wasn’t bad at all” but needed more elasticity through the legs, and Inaba noted that Higgins’ energy dipped at points, according to TV Insider.
In the team round, Team Wildcats, led by Connor Wood, earned a perfect 40 to “We’re All in This Together” from “High School Musical.” Team Slaytopia, captained by Ali and featuring Stiles, scored 36 to “Zoo” from “Zootopia 2.”
What the Julia Stiles DWTS Exit Means for the Season
Shum and Johnson and Dewan and Chmerkovskiy tied atop the night’s leaderboard with 80 points each. Shum and Johnson won the tiebreaker on season totals, which earned them immunity from the next week’s dance-offs, according to TheWrap.
Seven couples remain: Shum and Johnson, Dewan and Chmerkovskiy, Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach, Wood and Rylee Arnold, Glenn and Pashkov, Ali and Ravnik, and Higgins and Ballas.
Stiles had drawn attention earlier in the season on Super Bowl Night, when she and Sosa paid tribute to her 2001 film “Save the Last Dance” with a jazz routine to “Jenny From the Block,” with co-star Sean Patrick Thomas cheering from the audience.
Dewan’s perfect score keeps her and Chmerkovskiy firmly in the conversation alongside Shum and Johnson. Chmerkovskiy’s season has already included off-camera headlines. In October, he apologized for a since-deleted social media post about Inaba, and BBC Studios, which produces the show, suspended him for one week. He sat out the Oct. 20 Dedication Night episode.
Background on the Season 35 Field
Disney Night is a recurring theme on “Dancing With the Stars,” and this year’s edition leaned into Disney on Broadway, with live vocals from Broadway performers including Heather Headley. Stiles’ exit also closes Sosa’s third season as a pro. Ahead of Disney Night, Sosa told Deadline that dancing with a same-sex partner in a future season is his “dream,” and he has said he already raised the idea with the show’s casting director.
What’s Next
The seven remaining couples moved on to Grammy Night, the show’s first Grammy-themed episode, scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 10, on ABC and Disney+, with next-day streaming on Hulu. Shum and Johnson enter that episode with immunity, while the other six couples face dance-offs.
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