This Controversial Show Dropped a New Season Yesterday and It's Already #3 on Netflix

When America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders first hit Netflix in 2024, it was quickly caught in a maelstrom of controversy. On the one hand, it was praised for its presentation of the team through a feminist lens and deep, thoughtful depictions of the cheerleaders; on the other, detractors decried some of the practices the documentary revealed, including major surgery, and the grueling lifestyle required of the athletes. The questions surrounding the organization's treatment of the women and subservience to a beauty ideal notwithstanding, the series has continued to captivate audiences, with a second season in 2025. The third season, which hit Netflix yesterday, is already ranking at number three on the platform.

This season of America's Sweethearts will see 30 veterans returning for auditions, with just six open spots for a new crop of rookies to claim as their own. The sneak peaks posted to YouTube featured snippet interviews with hopeful newcomers Emily, Parker and Jenna. Head Coach Kelli Finglass noted that this was the first season the team would be reviewing applications sent in because of the show's success—with some coming from as far as New Zealand to audition. Veterans discuss the pressures of the spotlight, battling their own insecurities and the stakes of putting up a united front with millions of eyes on them.

PureWow Executive Managing Editor Catrina Yohay, herself a former D1 athlete, was skeptical when the first season appeared in her group chat.

"In its first week on air, America’s Sweethearts was met with backlash over, well, a multitude of things: how little the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders (and all NFL cheerleaders, for that matter) are paid, the body image issues and eating disorders that continue to plague the sport, as well as the brazen misogyny that still permeates the 62-year-old organization," she wrote.

"Maddening, yes, but as I watched the storyline unfold, episode after episode, I found it to be strangely therapeutic."

As a former athlete, Yohay found she was surprisingly empathetic and understanding of the cheerleaders' journeys. At one point in her athletic career, she was asking herself the same questions—"Am I good enough? Can I do this? Will they like me?"—something women everywhere can relate to, athlete or not.

"Watching these women work to achieve what they believe to be the pinnacle of their careers sent me right back to the many years I spent striving for the same thing, and boy was it cathartic," she added. "We could condemn them for trying or applaud them for persevering. I choose to do the latter, to see them as more than box-dye blondes and bendy brunettes, but as talented human beings with hopes, dreams and a damn good high kick."

America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders season three is now on Netflix.