America's Sweethearts Director Responds to Criticism of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders' Beauty Standards

glamour.com:

. The latest , which premiered on June 20, follows the Cowboys' cheer squad—known colloquially as “the DCC”—from tryouts to training camp, all the way through to the end of the football season.The seven-episode series comes on the heels of CMT's Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team, a reality show starring many of the same characters, including DCC director Kelli Finglass, which ended in 2021 after 16 seasons.

By comparison, America's Sweethearts has a more professional sheen, which comes courtesy of director and executive producer Greg Whiteley, the man behind Netflix docuseries hits like and Last Chance U.“There's a certain prestige in [the Dallas Cowboys] community that comes from being in that orbit, but it also demands everything of you,” explains Whiteley of what drew him to the project. "I find all of that fascinating, and I thought it was an interesting world for us to explore; it was a great privilege to be given the access we were given to do it.”Whereas CMT's show was more surface-level, Whiteley and his team delve into all aspects of life as a member of one of the NFL's most elite cheer squads.

For many members of the team, and even aspiring members of them team, great sacrifices are required. Some women give up their lives—including jobs and relationships—to move to Texas to train; others grin and bear it as their bodies literally crumble under the strain of demanding dance moves, like the jump split (which is exactly what it sounds like).The salary for an NFL cheerleader may surprise you.By and All the while, most dancers hold down full-time jobs in order to make ends meet, arriving at practice after their 9 to 5's, where they'll dance until well after midnight.