Stream It Or Skip It?

The Netflix docuseries America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is back for a second season, basically giving the famous dance squad the Hard Knocks treatment. Director Greg Whiteley and his crews follow a number of hopefuls and returnees from the final audition, through training camp, and then through the entirety of the 2024-25 NFL season.

Opening Shot: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders (DCC) director Kelli Finglass and choreographer Judy Trammell quietly sit at a table, having feelings about a squad member that they need to cut. Finglass reaches for a tissue to dab her eyes.

The Gist: After an opening montage, we see Finglass and Trammell in a hotel room in Los Angeles. The two of them are on a press junket (likely for Season 1 of this show), but it’s one week until the final auditions for DCC’s 2024-25 squad, and they need to choose which women will join the squad’s returnees for the audition.

There’s been a lot of turnover this past offseason, so there’s 13 open spots on the squad, a larger number than there’s been in a long time. Still, each and every person, whether they’re a returnee or a “rookie”, has to audition for a spot in training camp. Even in training camp, there is a chance a returnee can get cut, along with rookies who won’t make the squad at that juncture.

The final auditions take place at the Cowboys’ Frisco, TX headquarters; the individual auditions are held in the main atrium and the group phase is held in the adjacent practice facility. One of the hopefuls is Kelly V., who was cut during 2023’s training camp. Chandi, a 6th year candidate, is being coached by former DCCers Jalyn and Kelcey; she feels she needs to assert her senior position more this season. Jada, a 5th-year hopeful, hates the solo audition phase.

Reece, a 2nd-year hopeful, got married in the offseason, and we see scenes from her wedding. One of her best friends on the squad, Charly, got cut the previous year; right before this year’s auditions, Charly was treated for a blood clot that had made her weak and could have killed her.

Dayton, a rookie candidate, is the daughter of Shelly Bramhall, DCC’s associate choreographer. Dayton is auditioning for a second time, having been cut in 2018 (as seen on CMT’s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team).

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As we mentioned above, America’s Sweethearts, directed by Greg Whiteley, is more or less a sequel series to Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team. This series, however, follows the squad for the entire season, not just through training camp. And speaking of Whiteley, his most acclaimed work to date has been Cheer, the Netflix docuseries about the highly competitive world of juco cheerleaders that ran for two seasons, winning three Primetime Emmys along the way (including Outstanding Reality Program).

Our Take: The first episode of America’s Sweethearts‘ second season tells us that Whiteley, a veteran of other sports docuseries like Last Chance U and 2025’s The Clubhouse: A Year With the Boston Red Sox, knows a good formula when he sees it. Last season started with the final audition, and so does this season. What he’s looking for are the storylines, whether it’s about returning squad members, ones who are coming back for another chance after being cut in previous years, or true rookies who are experiencing the DCC for the first time.

Let’s be honest: As long as this show is on Netflix, the first episodes are going to be about the final audition, leading into training camp. One season will visually look similar to the next in the early stages. So the stories have to carry the day. The ones that we felt were most compelling in this first episode were Charly and Kelly V., both of whom bonded tight with Reece during the previous camp.

We like Kelly V because her New Jersey forthrightness is refreshing in the sea of smiling Midwesterners and Southerners that try out for the squad. Charly, of course, has a compelling story because she’s auditioning shortly after having medical issues that came darn close to killing her, so her determination to make the squad this time around is admirable.

As we go through the season, we’ll see how much pressure these women put on themselves, in addition to the extraordinarily high standards the organization wants them to meet — as with last year, we see Finglass, Trammell, team owner/chief brand officer Charlotte Jones and the audition judges discuss factors they see in each hopeful that we can’t perceive. That’s where we hope a few more women’s stories become more interesting.

Sex and Skin: Nothing besides skimpy cheerleading outfits.

Parting Shot: As we see Dayton at the group phase of the audition, her mother says to the director that the powers that be shouldn’t take her to training camp if they think they might cut her, because “I don’t think her heart could take it.”

Sleeper Star: We want to see more of Finglass’ shih tzu.

Most Pilot-y Line: While the previous season briefly addressed the pay discrepancy between the cheerleaders and the players, showing that a number of the squad members had other jobs to make ends meet, the topic isn’t even broached in the first episode this time around.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The stories of the women on the DCC squad are what make America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders worth watching, even if the format sometimes feels repetitive.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.