Dancing With The Stars – What You Need To Know To Support AJ

Man does this post take me back. Five years ago when the blog was brand new and I basically was doing this by the seat of my pants ready to give all my support for Nick’s run on Dancing With The Stars in 2015. So much happened during that run and all I have are wonderful memories of it. Now we’re in 2020, I feel like I know what I’m doing…things are crazy and unreal but hey, we’re going to get to see AJ dancing every week! Okay this technically isn’t official yet. But ET is a solid source and AJ is following the DWTS pro Cheryl Burke on social media, the same way Nick started following Sharna before his official announcement.

So…I’m going to run with this.

Mainly because holy shit am I excited. Why else would I be throwing this together at 1am after I settled down after work? I’m ready and I’m here to make sure y’all are ready too!

Update 8/27 – It’s official! We’re supporting our Boy AJ on Dancing With The Stars!

And can we talk about how cute Nick’s video of support is? We love it. So much.

Now it’s been five years since we’ve done this so I figured we all need a refresher on how things work. One thing that changed up last season? Voting. We don’t know yet if voting will change back or stay how they were in season twenty eight so I’ll put in what went down last season and update it. Because voting? It’s important. I’m determined to see a Backstreet Boy win this show and I know you are too! Let’s get that mirrorball!!!

When does this season air?
September 14th. And man does that not seem soon enough!
Voting
So last season they ditched the phone number calling method of voting. Instead you could vote both online and by text, limited to only 10 votes per couple per method. There was no “post-show” voting. Meaning if you’re like me and in the west coast? You’re voting blind. Okay, fine. I know I’m voting for AJ all season. Will the show even be live this season? They’re not sure yet so this system can DEFINITELY change. But be prepared.
Update: Per ABC’s press release here’s how voting will go.

For the show’s first broadcast of the season, there will not be a viewing audience vote, and only the judges will score the routines. Those scores will carry over and be combined with judges’ scores from week two, which also marks the first weekly live viewing audience vote of the season (via abc.com and SMS/text) – and the first elimination. The live votes will occur each week only during the live broadcast in the EDT/CDT time zones (but fans in all U.S. time zones may vote within that window).

Moving forward with each subsequent episode, the live vote combined with the judges’ scores will be revealed during the broadcast.

So basically the first week, it’s judges scores only. In week two, live voting starts ONLY during the show. I hate that the west coast gets shafted but screw it, we all know we’re voting for AJ anyway. Vote blind during 5pm – 6PM PST. I’ll update this with the number once we have it.

Update: And we have it!

Update! The Team Name was….Team Get Down but now it’s Team Pretty Messed Up. AJ is being, well AJ haha. We’ll update again once we know the new name. Either way you can vote by texting AJ to 21523 or by voting online at abc.com. You can vote 10 times per method (20 votes altogether) but ONLY again during the show. 5pm – 6pm PST or 6pm – 9pm EST.

Judge’s Save
Last season also saw them starting what’s known as Judges’ Save,” where the judges chose who would go home out of the bottom two couples every week. I hope they keep this honestly. This way good contestants don’t go home due to dumb voting. Mind you I hear last season had some serious kinks so again this could change. If they do, I’ll update it.

Update: still waiting to see if this will be a thing this season.

Will TDS be doing recaps and live tweeting again?
ABSOLUTELY. I loved doing this last time. And fun fact I for the most part create my own schedule. Guess who won’t be doing Mondays for awhile. Priorities. Gemma will be live tweeting on the TDS Twitter and I’ll be providing your weekly recaps for those who may not be able to watch. Besides it’s fun talking about this week to week. I’ll be posting videos from their YouTube channel in here as soon as they’re uploaded and of course updating the Media Archive every week for all of you around the world.

We’re going balls to the walls for this, just like we did for Nick.

Can I vote by phone outside the US?
While some fans say it works, it didn’t on Nick’s season. So I doubt that’s changed. You cannot vote by phone outside the US. You can vote at abc.go.com because with those you can use a VPN to circumvent the system. Those of you in the US can also text the numbers ten times for your votes or vote on the ABC app. I think they got rid of voting by Facebook as well.

I’ll update with the phone number to text once they officially announce the cast and partners.

Who is AJ’s Partner? Is it Sharna?
While that would be wonderful as the fandom loves her for not only being a BSB fan herself, and for all the love and support she’s given Nick…I’m going with no. Nothing has been announced, remember. That said, due to AJ suddenly following long time pro (who is a fan fave and crazily talented like Sharna) Cheryl Burke and her following him back? I think it’s Cheryl. I’ll make sure to edit this once we know for sure.

That said, Sharna seems to be just as excited as us at the possibility of him being on the show.

Love you Sharna!

Where can I watch outside the US?
Okay here’s where online streams come in handy. This is one I’ve used in the past that seems to hold pretty steady on days the time difference gets me. Another link is right here for you guys. Now another fanpage, BSB Germany found another! This season I have streaming so I’ll probably do Hulu live. But remember all the dances get posted on YouTube, worst case scenario. And they WILL make it on the archive. I promise you won’t miss it. You might have to vote blind but you won’t have to miss out.

I hope that clears everything up for you guys! If you have any more questions, comment, or hit us up via twitter. I will be keeping an eye out and will edit this post with new questions and answers for you. Let me know if I covered everything because I want nothing more than the fandom to be united and help AJ bring home the Mirror Ball Trophy!