The ‘America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ Trailer Proves Those Jump-Splits Take a Toll

Are you optimistic about the Dallas Cowboys 2024 NFL season? Well, recent history suggests you probably shouldn’t be. (Giants fan over here.) But there is something exciting leading in to the summer’s training camp: a new cheerleading docuseries from director Greg Whiteley, the man behind Netflix’s “Cheer” and “Last Chance U.”

“America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” a collection of seven 45-minute episodes, will follow the 2023-24 squad (last season’s team) from start to finish — meaning from their auditions to the team’s inevitable late-regular-season or early-post-season collapse. The cheerleaders are led by their longtime director Kelli Finglass.

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The docuseries, which is definitely not “Cheer” Season 3 (except it definitely should be), premieres on June 20 on Netflix.

Whiteley executive produces alongside Adam Leibowitz for One Potato Productions; Andrew Fried and Dane Lillegard of Boardwalk Pictures and Ross M. Dinerstein and Rebecca Evans of Campfire Studios also executive produce for their respective companies.

Watch the “America’s Sweethearts” trailer here below — and definitely, definitely do not try the jump splits at home.

Whitely’s prior work at Netflix has been superb: five seasons (and two sports) of “Last Chance U,” two seasons of “Cheer,” and one of “Wrestlers” are quite the portfolio to live up to. Try as we might, IndieWire has not been able to get a status update on more of any of those three docuseries. Unfortunately, it makes (some) sense as to why “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” is not just “Cheer” Season 3.

Jerry Harris, a stunter from the first season of “Cheer” who found some crossover success in Hollywood, was arrested on child pornography charges in 2020, between Seasons 1 and 2. Harris was featured in much of Season 2; Whiteley explained the choice to IndieWire in January 2022.

“I spent some time puzzling over just what percentage of our audience will know the story. We shot for almost an entire season before those allegations even came out. And so he’s a member of that team. Of course, he shows up in the footage,” Whiteley said. “And I just kept thinking that the audience, if they know the story, it’s going to be so weird. And they’re going to be asking the filmmakers, ‘What happened? Are they going to acknowledge this? Are they just going to pretend it didn’t?’ And so, the solution ended up being, ‘Let’s address it right up front. We know that this happened. This is coming. We’re going to explain it later.’”

Harris pled guilty to federal charges related to soliciting child sexual abuse imagery and illegal sexual conduct with a minor. He is serving 12 years in a federal prison in Oklahoma City.

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