Prepare to be Thunderstruck once again! The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are back for a second season of the Netflix docuseries “America’s Sweethearts.”
Directed by Emmy winner Greg Whiteley (“Cheer,” “Last Chance U”), “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” captures the unfiltered lives of the team (and those who aspire to be on it) on and off the field. The series was an instant hit when it debuted last spring, launching onto Netflix’s Top 10 worldwide chart with 2.3 million views in its first four days on the platform, causing thousands of viewers to attempt those high-flying jump splits. The streamer renewed the show last fall, and Variety exclusively revealed that seven new 60-minute episodes would debut on June 18.
Season 2 will follow the 2024-2025 squad, led by program director Kelli Finglass and choreographer Judy Trammell, from start to finish — kicking off at auditions and training camp and continuing through the ongoing NFL season — and the new trailer previews all the blood, sweat and tears to come.
Among the returning favorites is Reece Weaver, a winsome rookie candidate who became a main character in Season 1. Now she’s a veteran, and the series captures her wedding to boyfriend Will, who was also featured the first time around.
“We’re really excited that there’s a lot of new girls. Every year, the talent just gets better and better and better,” Weaver says as the clip intercuts dancers performing during the ultra-competitive audition process. “We’ve always been told there’s 100 other girls who want to do this job,” another voice says.
Reece and Will during Season 2 of “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.”
Courtesy of Netflix
With the show, the verité filmmaker aims to uncover the human element of this high-gloss profession. In an interview with Variety shortly after Season 1 debuted, Whiteley shared what he’d learned from witnessing the cheerleaders’ performances up close. “The problem is, they spend so much time concealing how hard it is,” he said. “They take something that is extremely difficult and make it look graceful and effortless, so you dismiss it.”
He continued: “I remember thinking, ‘If you knew how hard it was to do what these girls are doing! They’re running several hundred yards, in boots, in two-and-a-half minutes, with a smile, and they’re somehow not sweating!’ It’s beautiful and edgy and cool. And people think they just wake up and roll out of bed and do it.”
Where one woman is trying her luck again after getting cut during last year’s tryouts or another who auditions in the shadow of her mother’s DCC legacy, the trailer makes no bones about it: making the team is tough. And being on the team is perhaps even tougher. “We all do crazy things in order to be here,” one woman says. “I have three jobs,” another chimes in. “Four, if you count DCC.” (The cheerleaders’ paltry pay was a topic that caused controversy during Season 1.)
A particularly powerful moment occurs when DCC veteran Armani Latimer takes off her wig before performing, revealing her bald head. Last December, Latimer danced without a wig for the first time since revealing her alopecia diagnosis in an effort to drive awareness for the cause. (She was diagnosed with alopecia areata at age 12, per Women’s Health). Latimer’s vulnerable decision made national headlines at the time — and, of course, Whiteley’s cameras captured it all.
”America’s Sweethearts” is produced by One Potato Productions and Boardwalk Pictures in association with Campfire Studios. Whiteley executive produces alongside Adam Leibowitz for One Potato Productions; as well as Andrew Fried and Dane Lillegard (of Boardwalk Pictures); and Ross M. Dinerstein and Rebecca Evans (of Campfire Studios).
Watch the full trailer in the video above:
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
Courtesy of Netflix