Savannah Bananas on Dancing with the Stars: Jackson Olson's Season 35

Jackson Olson is the Savannah Bananas player who competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2026. He partnered with professional dancer Emma Slater in Season 35, and their competition run ended with elimination on October 27, during Horror Movie Night. As of November 11, the useful way to follow his ballroom journey is through completed routines, episode replays and interviews—not an assumption that he is still competing each week. This guide identifies the right player, explains the key dates and performances, and separates ballpark entertainment from the demands of partnered television dancing. It also shows where to start watching and how to explore Banana Ball afterward, while keeping Olson distinct from other Bananas players whose dance clips appear in the same search results.

Which Savannah Bananas player went on Dancing with the Stars?

The player is Jackson Olson, the Savannah Bananas infielder whom ABC introduced as a second baseman and content creator. He joined the 2026 cast as a celebrity contestant, bringing an individual baseball-and-entertainment background to the show. The Bananas did not enter the competition as a team, and the professional dancer beside him was not another member of their roster.

Olson had a substantial baseball background before viewers met him in the ballroom. The University of Hartford identifies him as a 2020 graduate who studied marketing and played four years for its baseball team. He appeared in 161 games, started 146 and belonged to the 2018 group that won the program's first America East championship. That history helps explain why descriptions such as “internet personality” and “baseball player” both fit him. One does not cancel the other.

Hartford also connects a social video he made in 2022 with his arrival on the Bananas' radar. His route therefore differs from the familiar story of a retired major-league star trying television. A college baseball career, a capacity to entertain and an audience built through short videos all form part of the background. Calling him an MLB veteran would add a credential these accounts do not establish.

For a new viewer, this makes the crossover easier to follow. Someone who enjoys his food videos may recognize the creator first; someone who has visited a ballpark may remember the player. Dancing with the Stars gives those audiences a shared point of reference while asking him to work within another competitive format. Familiarity with a personality, however, says little by itself about how a particular routine will be judged.

To explore the baseball side, begin with the Savannah Bananas team page. Keep that club information separate from the television season: a roster listing explains his baseball connection, while a dated episode or recap establishes what happened on the dance floor.

Jackson Olson and Emma Slater: the Season 35 timeline

The professional partner and the premiere

Emma Slater was Olson's professional partner. ABC's cast announcement and Slater's own professional biography name the pairing. Their season was the 2026 edition of Dancing with the Stars, numbered Season 35. That combination of name, partner and season is more useful for finding a performance than searching for “the dancing baseball guy.”

The program opened with a two-night premiere on September 15 and 16. Olson performed on the first night. When an episode platform displays a date a day later, distinguish that catalog or streaming date from the original live broadcast. Otherwise, two listings for the same routine can look like separate performances.

Milestone	Date in 2026	What it establishes
ABC casting announcement	May 12	Olson joined Season 35 as a celebrity contestant.
Full cast and partners announced	September	His professional partner was Emma Slater.
Premiere performance	September 15	His competition run began with the season's opening program.
Horror Movie Night	October 27	Olson and Slater were eliminated.

The run ended on Horror Movie Night

As of November 11, 2026, Olson is no longer competing for the Season 35 trophy. The October 27 Horror Movie Night recap identifies him and Slater as one of the two pairs eliminated that evening. Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess were the other pair. ABC's later Grammy Night announcement lists its remaining seven couples without Olson and Slater.

This matters when a search result still calls him a cast member or advertises the autumn premiere. A biography can remain available after an elimination because it documents the season's participants. An old “joins the show” headline is also still historically correct. Neither is a promise that the contestant will perform in the next competitive episode.

If you are catching up, look for his completed routines and episode replays. Do not plan around an assumed new Olson competition dance or an old voting prompt. A possible later guest appearance would require its own announcement; elimination alone neither confirms nor rules out a separate invitation. Keeping those possibilities distinct makes the published result useful without guessing about future television plans.

Three performances that help you understand his ballroom journey

You do not need an exhaustive playlist to see how Olson's assignment changed. Start with the premiere, the personal dedication and the final competition routine. Together, they give you three different reference points: meeting the audience, telling a personal story and committing to a darker character. The dates below refer to the live programs rather than the day a streaming service added a replay.

Live program	Performance to find	Why start here?
September 15 premiere	Cha-cha to Wannabe by the Spice Girls	The opening introduction to Olson and Slater as a pair.
October 20 Dedication Night	Quickstep to L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole	A personal dedication to Olson's mother, Laura.
October 27 Horror Movie Night	A Joker-inspired contemporary routine	Their final competition dance and a contrasting performance character.

Hartford's account of the premiere records a score of 15 out of 30. That offers a useful starting point for understanding the journey, rather than evidence that his baseball entertainment had already made him a finished ballroom dancer. Watch the complete routine before comparing its most memorable few seconds with a later highlight.

For Dedication Night, the official announcement identified both the quickstep and the dedication to his mother. A completed-show recap and the action photograph used above confirm the performance followed. This is a good choice if you first encountered Olson through his family-centered videos: the theme gives the dance a personal context, while the partnership remains part of what you are watching.

The October 27 contemporary earned 35 out of 40, despite ending on the evening the pair left the competition. That is a reminder to separate the routine's score from the elimination result. The program combined judges' scores and viewer votes across two weeks that night; the last number shown on screen was not a complete explanation of the outcome.

Also compare the denominator before treating scores as directly equivalent. Fifteen out of thirty and thirty-five out of forty are different scales. For a more useful viewing session, watch the performance first, then the feedback, and finally the result. A short reaction edit can capture excitement while leaving out the very information needed to understand it.

What changes when ballpark dancing becomes ballroom dancing?

Audience connection carries across

There is an obvious reason a Bananas player can feel at home on entertainment television: he already performs in front of people. Recognizing a musical cue, committing to a character and making a distant spectator feel included are useful habits. For the viewer, that creates a familiar personality even when the yellow baseball outfit has been replaced by a ballroom costume.

Those are useful ways to interpret the crossover, rather than proof of formal dance training. The setting changes the task. A ballpark moment may be one brief part of a much longer game-day show; a television routine puts a particular couple under concentrated attention. The audience can enjoy both without pretending they are assessed by the same standard.

The scheduling overlap was real. Sports Illustrated described one trip in which Olson and Slater flew overnight from Los Angeles to Savannah, fitted in an evening Bananas game and returned for a morning rehearsal. That example gives the logistics a concrete shape. It should not be turned into a claim that every week followed the same itinerary or that travel alone explains a judge's score.

Technique and partnership create a different test

DWTS pairs a celebrity with a trained professional and asks ballroom experts to judge a choreographed routine. Watch the connection between the two performers, how they arrive at a movement and what happens afterward. A memorable expression or an ambitious lift can be one part of a dance while its transitions receive a different assessment.

Slater discussed that feedback process in a September interview, explaining how demanding criticism can feel after a week of preparation. Olson also spoke about balancing rehearsals with baseball travel without treating it as an excuse. Their public comments make the learning process easier to understand; they do not invite viewers to diagnose either performer's health or guess at private disagreements.

A rewarding comparison is to watch a complete early routine and then the October contemporary. Ask what the choreography asks of the pair and which details the judges address. You can appreciate Olson's willingness to perform while still recognizing that showmanship, technique and a competition result are separate things. That is a more informative comparison than counting social followers or assuming an entertaining baseball player should automatically win.

How to watch Jackson Olson's DWTS performances now

Choose a full episode or an official clip

Start with ABC's Dancing with the Stars page and select Season 35. Its episode catalog separates full programs from short promotional clips. The September premiere, Dedication Night and Horror Movie Night are useful entry points for this guide; the date on a replay listing may reflect its release to the catalog rather than the original live night.

The television distribution announced for the season includes ABC and Disney+ for the live program and Hulu the following day. That tells you where to start, not that every episode is permanently free or available under every subscription in every country. Open the actual service's show page in your region and check the account or provider requirements before signing up for anything.

Choose the format according to what you want to understand:

• A full episode includes the introduction, performance, judging and wider competition context.
• An original show clip is the efficient choice when you want one particular routine.
• A rehearsal or interview can explain preparation, but it is not the competition performance or a complete result.

For a single dance, combine “Jackson Olson Emma Slater” with the dance style and date. Then inspect who uploaded it. A reaction video, an edited compilation and a clip from the show's own account can all use similar titles while presenting different amounts of the performance. Prefer the original version when you want to share the choreography rather than someone's commentary about it.

There is also a practical distinction for Banana Ball viewers: the Banana Ball watch guide helps you find baseball coverage. It does not turn a team YouTube stream into a DWTS episode. Keep the two viewing routes separate, even when the same streaming brand carries some of both.

Finally, remember that Olson's competition run is complete. Old live-vote instructions and “tonight” captions belong to their original dates. For catching up, the useful task is finding the correct routine and its context, rather than looking for an expired opportunity to influence that week's result.

Jackson Olson is not Kyle 'KJ' Jackson

Three names make this search unusually easy to muddle: Jackson Olson, Kyle “KJ” Jackson and Ty Jackson. The Bananas' official player listings distinguish them. In Olson's case, Jackson is his first name. For the other two players, Jackson is the surname. A caption shortened to “Jackson dancing” can therefore lose the very detail you need to identify the performer.

For the television competition, use Jackson Olson and Emma Slater. That pairing is named by ABC. For the much-shared Ordinary clip discussed in our Ordinary and Thunderstruck guide, the performer is Kyle “KJ” Jackson. Finding a Bananas player dancing to a recognizable song does not make the video an excerpt from Dancing with the Stars.

It helps to separate three questions when someone sends you a clip:

1. Who is visible? Look for the complete player name in the original caption or an official profile.
2. What is the setting? A ballpark presentation, rehearsal room and televised competition are different contexts.
3. Who published it? The original team or show account may supply identification that a reaction or repost has removed.

Then search with the missing context added. “Jackson Olson Emma Slater quickstep” is a more precise route to the ballroom performance than a general Bananas-dancing query. A song-specific search with KJ's complete name is more helpful for the Ordinary moment. You do not need to settle every question about the team's entertainment to identify the two examples correctly.

A shared surname should not be used to invent a family relationship, either. These distinctions establish which named player appears in a source; they do not establish who is related to whom or who created a particular routine. If a cropped clip remains unidentified, leave the identity open until a reliable original description resolves it. That is better than attaching a familiar name and giving the next viewer the wrong starting point.

Following the Bananas after discovering Olson on television

Choose the right team and matchup

If DWTS introduced you to Olson, a complete Banana Ball replay is a useful next step. The official-video collection lets you see how competitive baseball and entertainment sit together over a game, rather than assuming every minute looks like a viral dance. You can discover whether you enjoy the format before deciding to travel or buy tickets.

When you do look for a game, read both team names. Banana Ball includes six BBCL clubs; a tour stop carrying the league's branding is not automatically a Savannah Bananas appearance. Start with the Bananas' own schedule if that particular team is your priority, then verify the venue and date on the event's current listing.

Keep player appearances separate from ticket promises

Decide what matters most to your party: watching Banana Ball, following the Bananas or seeing one specific person. Those are different expectations. A team roster helps you identify a player, but it does not by itself establish that individual's lineup, a meeting opportunity or a scheduled dance at your chosen event.

Read the actual ticket description and ask the organizer about any essential appearance or interaction before making plans around it. A familiar television personality in an advertisement is not enough information to establish a player-specific package. Likewise, a ballroom routine you enjoyed is not a promise that the same song and choreography will appear in a baseball show.

The official ticket page is the place to check the current access process. Keep its instructions separate from older articles about the autumn lottery, and keep the event reservation separate from your DWTS replay plan. One documents a future outing; the other lets you enjoy performances that have already happened. Both can be worthwhile parts of following Olson, without needing either to guarantee the experience of the other.