'Dancing with the Stars' voting: How to help your favourite couples advance

A brand new season of Dancing with the Stars means fresh celebrity contestants to cheer for!

Season 34 kicks off on September 16 and brings an exciting lineup of stars, including Jordan Chiles, Dylan Efron, Danielle Fishel, Robert Irwin, and Elaine Hendrix, along with many more and each week, fans will watch as the celebrities and their professional dance partners perform and compete to stay in the game.

How voting works on Dancing with the Stars

Fans have the power to help their favourite celebrity dance duos stay in the competition. 

Voting opens every Tuesday night once the show begins airing live at 8 p.m. ET and closes shortly after all competitive dances for the night are complete. 

Only viewers who are 18 years or older and living in the U.S. or Canada are eligible to vote.

Two easy ways to cast your vote

There are two main voting systems. 

First, fans can vote online through the official voting website. You’ll need to log in or create an account, choose your favourite couple or couples, and click “Save Votes.”

The second method is SMS text voting.

During the live show, each couple will have a unique keyword, usually the celebrity’s first name as fans can text that keyword to 21523 to cast their vote and you will receive a confirmation text, and if you try to send more than the allowed number of votes, you’ll get a message letting you know.

Voting limits and strategy

Each viewer can submit up to 20 votes per couple and per week, 10 votes online and 10 votes by text message. 

You can split your votes between multiple couples or give all your votes to one pair. This gives passionate fans a big chance to make an impact each week and keep their favourites safe.

Judges’ scores and fan votes

The judges’ panel, featuring Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough, score each performance but they don’t decide who goes home as the results are based on a combination of judges’ scores and fan votes. 

Each week, co-hosts Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro reveal which couples are safe and which are in danger of elimination, building suspense until the final moments.

Tune In and Vote

New episodes air live every Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+ and are available to stream afterwards and voting gives fans a direct way to support their favourite couples and help them move forward in the competition. 

If you want your top team to win the mirrorball trophy, make sure to tune in live and cast every vote you can; every single one matters.