Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders has captivated viewers — and created new Cowboys fans — but will there be a season 2?
“Our last two or three weeks of filming, we were just starting to hit our stride,” director Greg Whiteley told Variety on Friday, June 28, teasing that there is more story to tell.
Whiteley, who previously worked on Cheer and Last Chance U, noted that with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders the “stakes are higher” in part due to where they perform: The Star.
The Frisco, Texas training facility “is the most financially lucrative, valuable Sports franchise in all the world,” he explained.
The organization, which was founded in 1960, also has “plenty at stake” due to its legacy. That History “breeds a certain culture that’s very buttoned down and can sometimes bump up against a documentary film crew trying to pierce that,” Whiteley said.
However, once Whiteley and his crew were immersed in the DCC family, he realized the women in the iconic uniforms and white cowboy boots were much more complex. That has led Whiteley to want more — and he hopes Netflix feels the same.
“I felt like we were just starting to get there as we were wrapping up,” he confessed. “And I’d love to have more time to see if we can get deeper and deeper with more and more of the team.”
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders premiered on Netflix on June 20. The docuseries follows the 2023-2024 cheer squad as they audition, battle through training camp and perform throughout the NFL season.
The seven-episode season, which also gives viewers unprecedented access to the DCC universe, had 2.3 million viewers in its first four days on Netflix, according to Variety. The show has also remained in Netflix’s Top 10 TV Shows in the U.S. ranking for more than one week.
“I personally enjoyed that peak behind the curtain,” DCC director Kelli Finglass exclusively told Us Weekly last month about the project. “This show does show that talent, and the audition and the comPetition part in the first couple of episodes. But then it goes into their personal lives, follows them at home, follows them at work.”
Finglass, 59, was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader before joining the organization in a leadership capacity. She knows first-hand how hard the work can be, but not everyone else understands the hustle.
“You see some of their highlights and some of their low moments and so it humanizes them,” Finglass said of her squad members. “I hope people are inspired by that honest and rare insight.”
Reece Weaver — who was one of the rookies for the 2023-2024 season — told Us that even with the show, viewers will never know how grueling the process is to join the team.
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“I’ve danced all my life and have done very hard things, [I] have done fun things, and done rigorous [camps],” she revealed. “I knew that the standard was high and the expectations of excellence were there and I was very aware of that.”
Even with all the warnings, Weaver was surprised by what she experienced going into her rookie year. “It’s not until you’re in it where you’re tested,” she recalled. “The mental toughness is really going to be something that shines through and so it’s definitely a lot tougher than you think.”
While Netflix has yet to announce a second season, fans can watch America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders season 1 on the streamer now.
