Tonight on TV: DWTS Horror Movie Night, Kordell Stewart doc, The Drop

**"Dancing with the Stars": Horror Movie Night (8 p.m. ET, ABC and Disney+)**

The ballroom goes full horror tonight. The 10 remaining couples dance to routines themed after scary movies. Guest judge Shirley Ballas joins the panel, and Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough host. The show airs live on ABC and Disney+ from 8 to 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT), and it streams the next day on Hulu.

This is Season 35. It opened with a two-night premiere on Sept. 15 and 16 with 16 celebrities, so six couples have already gone home. The regular judges are Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough. ABC News notes that Inaba and Tonioli have judged since the very first season, while Hough, a former pro, moved to the judges' desk in Season 29. The show is produced in front of a live audience by BBC Studios, per ABC.

Tonight's guest judge brings a family connection. ABC bills Ballas as the "Queen of Latin," and she has been head judge on the BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing" since 2017, Radio Times and The Independent report. ABC notes she was also a judge on its spinoff "Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro." She is the mother of DWTS pro Mark Ballas, a three-time champion, who dances tonight with "The Traitors" star Maura Higgins. Both outlets say tonight is the first time she will judge her son in a competition.

It's also elimination night. ABC says live viewer votes from last week's Dedication Night and tonight's show will be combined with the judges' scores from both nights to determine which couples are eliminated. Fans can vote at dwtsvote.abc.com or by text during the live broadcast in the Eastern and Central time zones. ABC says online voting is open to viewers in any U.S. time zone, U.S. territories and Canada during that window, but text voting works only on participating U.S. carriers, not in Canada.

Among tonight's themes, per ABC: - Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa take on "The Omen." - Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson take on "Saw." - Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik take on "Sinners." - Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess take on "Dracula." - Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas take on "The Lost Boys." - Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy dance an Argentine tango inspired by zombie movies. - Jackson Olson, of the Savannah Bananas, and Emma Slater dance a contemporary routine inspired by "Joker," set to Frank Sinatra's "That's Life." - Paralympian Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach dance jazz inspired by "The Invisible Man." - Olympic figure skater Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov dance an Argentine tango inspired by "Black Swan." - Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold dance a contemporary routine inspired by "Annabelle: Creation."

A few more details from ABC's lineup: Stiles and Sosa's "Omen" tango uses Jerry Goldsmith's score, Cameron and Burgess dance a Viennese waltz to Annie Lennox's "Love Song for a Vampire," and Ali and Ravnik's "Sinners" paso doble is set to "I Lied to You" by Miles Caton. The pros and troupe also perform to classics like Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" and Danny Elfman's "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" theme. After the show, the official DWTS podcast, hosted by Season 34 contestant Andy Richter, posts new episodes on Thursdays on Disney+ and Hulu.

Ribeiro also addressed online claims this week that the competition is rigged. A former contestant's podcast had revisited questions about voting in a past season. Replying in the comments, Ribeiro flatly rejected the idea that the results are fixed, according to Us Weekly. He argued, per Us Weekly, that the show has every reason to keep its most popular contestants around, not push them out.

**"Kordell Stewart: Slash & Burn" (9 p.m. ET, HBO and HBO Max)**

HBO's latest NFL Shorts film profiles Kordell Stewart, the former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback nicknamed "Slash" for lining up at quarterback, receiver and running back. According to HBO, the 40-minute documentary looks at his rise, the scrutiny he faced on and off the field, the personal toll it took, and his search for the truth behind a rumor that followed him for decades.

The film is directed by Brian Rivera and produced with NFL Films and Skydance Sports. It features Stewart along with: - former Steelers coach Bill Cowher - Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis - former offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey - Pittsburgh sportscaster Bob Pompeani - journalist LZ Granderson

It airs 9 to 9:40 p.m. ET on HBO and streams on HBO Max.

HBO says Rivera, whose credits include "WWE: Unreal," directed, produced and edited the film. Its executive producers include Ross Ketover, Keith Cossrow, Ken Rodgers and Jessica Boddy, per HBO's credits. NFL Shorts is HBO's collection of short documentaries made with NFL Films about stories connected to football. Earlier entries include "The Shuffle," a Sports Emmy-nominated short about the 1985 Chicago Bears' famous rap song, and "Miller Night Football," about comedian Dennis Miller's run in the Monday Night Football booth.

If you only know the nickname, here's the background. Stewart played college football at Colorado, where he is best remembered for a last-second pass that beat Michigan. The Steelers drafted him in the second round in 1995. Early on he played quarterback, running back and wide receiver, which is where "Slash" came from. He became the starting quarterback in 1997 and led Pittsburgh to the AFC Championship Game that season. His best year was 2001: he passed for 3,109 yards and 14 touchdowns, the Steelers went 13-3, and he made the Pro Bowl. He later played for the Chicago Bears in 2003 and the Baltimore Ravens in 2004 and 2005, finishing an 11-season NFL career. Those details come from NFL.com, including the AP story it ran when he retired as a Steeler, and his NFL.com career stats. HBO calls him one of the most electrifying players of the 1990s and says he helped change what people thought an NFL quarterback could do.

**"The Drop: A Snowfall Saga" Season 1 finale (9 p.m. ET, FX)**

FX's "Snowfall" spinoff wraps its first season tonight with Episode 8, "Hercules," at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT). FX is also releasing a finale edition of its companion after-show with cast members Gail Bean and Isaiah John. According to Disney+, new episodes stream the same day on Hulu, and on Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. Outside the U.S., the series is on Disney+, Variety reported.

The eight-episode drama premiered Sept. 8 on FX and Hulu, Variety reported. Disney+ describes it as set in early-1990s Los Angeles, picking up shortly after the events of "Snowfall." Variety's review puts the start in 1990, four years after the parent show's final episodes, and notes that "Snowfall" ran six seasons on FX, from 2017 to 2023. Bean and John return as Wanda Bell and Leon Simmons. According to FX's official logline, published by Variety, Wanda believes West Coast rap can reshape American culture and sets out to build a team of young talent around it. That includes her cousins Lamar and James Kinsey (Asante Blackk and Peyton Alex Smith) and a hot-tempered local rapper called Artillery, played by Simmie "Buddy" Sims III. Her internship with a label owner known as DG (Brandon Mychal Smith) opens doors but creates friction with Leon, who is trying to make amends through a free legal clinic.

The series was created by Malcolm Spellman, previously of Marvel's "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," Variety noted. Mykelti Williamson and Nicki Micheaux are also series regulars. Variety's review called the first season evocative but uneven, so the finale is a chance to see whether it sticks the landing.

**Heads-up:** World Series Game 4, Brewers at Rays, is also on Fox tonight at 8 p.m. ET, per MLB.com.

*Alfonso Ribeiro, co-host of "Dancing with the Stars," in April 2016. Photo: Greg2600 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)*

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