Cheer
Genre	Docuseries
Created by	Greg Whiteley
Starring	Monica Aldama Gabi Butler Jerry Harris Morgan Simianer Lexi Brumback La'Darius Marshall Mackenzie Sherburn Shannon Woolsey
Composers	Yuri Tománek Joseph Minadeo
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	15
Production
Executive producer	Andrew Fried
Running time	57–62 minutes
Production companies	One Potato Productions Boardwalk Pictures Caviar
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	January 8, 2020 (2020-01-08) – January 12, 2022 (2022-01-12)

Cheer is an American sport televisiondocuseries airing onNetflix starting in January 2020.^[1] The six-part series follows the nationally ranked forty-memberNavarro College Bulldogs Cheer Team fromCorsicana, Texas, under the direction of coachMonica Aldama, as they prepare to compete in the National Cheerleading Championship held annually inDaytona Beach, Florida.^[2][3] The episodes focus especially on five individual Cheer Team members and include elements of the history ofcheerleading, including the formation of theNational Cheerleaders Association (NCA).^[4]

As the series begins, the Cheer Team has won fourteen NCA National Championships in the "advanced large coed"^[5]junior college division,^[a] as well as five "Grand Nationals" for the highest score of all teams in the competition.^[b][6][7] Their only rival in the division^[5] isTrinity Valley Community College inAthens, Texas, roughly forty miles away. The final episode of the first season discusses the outsized influence ofVarsity Brands—just acquired byBain Capital—that seems to control most aspects of the billion-dollar competitive cheerleading industry, including broadcast rights of the Daytona finals.^[8] The second season premiered on January 12, 2022.^[9] Some of its episodes address the charges of child sexual exploitation levied against first season starJerry Harris, who was later sentenced to 12 years in prison in July 2022.^[10]

Cheerleading developed from mere boosterism into a sport gradually; as one team would develop pyramids, baskets, jumps, stunts, and creative tumbling skills from cheerleading, circus arts (like balancing), and dancing^[8]—other teams would emulate and build on those tricks. Unlike most college sports, cheerleading has no professional league after college, so the National Cheerleading Championship held annually inDaytona Beach, Florida is the highest-level event where cheerleaders can compete.^[2][3] As of 2020, competitive cheerleading is a billion dollar industry.^[2]

DirectorGreg Whiteley came acrosscompetitive cheerleading while filming for his football television seriesLast Chance U.^[11] He was struck by the cheerleaders' athleticism and highly competitive drive.^[11]

Navarro College, a "9,000-studentcommunity college inCorsicana, Texas, about fifty miles south of Dallas," has a cheer team coached byMonica Aldama who graduated fromCorsicana High School, earned a degree in Finance at theUniversity of Texas at Austin, then aMaster of Business Administration at theUniversity of Texas at Tyler. She was a cheerleader in college.^[2][12] Because of her devotion to her extended Texan family, and her husband's desire to raise their children near their families, she accepted the position of cheerleading coach atNavarro College. Starting in 2000, she built the program from the ground up, making it into one of the best in the nation.^{[1][13][3][5]}

OnRotten Tomatoes the series holds an approval rating of 96% based on 23 reviews, with an average of 7.75/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "With an inspirational troupe of teens and willingness to engage in the tougher trials facing the sport today,Cheer perfectly captures the highs and lows of what it takes to be a cheerleader."^[15] OnMetacritic, it has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[16]

The Washington Post'sHank Stuever wrote, "Cheer quickly and effortlessly becomes all-consuming for the viewer. Whiteley superbly structures the story through six episodes to heighten the anxiety as the competition nears."^[1]Vulture's Jen Chaney stated, "while it depicts plenty of conflicts and disagreements between the cheerleaders at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, it's an ultimately more uplifting show that uses cheer as a prism through which to explore overcoming all kinds of obstacles."^[17]Rolling Stone wrote, "...it'sApocalypse Now withpompoms," and "It's not tough to see why America is obsessed withCheer: At a time when our democratic ideals are smashed to pieces, threatening all our illusions of leadership,Cheer offers a fantasy cheer-ocracy, with Monica as a scarily credible cheer-tator."^[18]

In January 2020, the Navarro cheer team and coach Monica appeared onThe Ellen DeGeneres Show, and performed a full routine;Ellen DeGeneres presented them with $20,000 toward their fundraising goal.^[19] The January 25, 2020, episode ofSaturday Night Live had a sketch spoofingCheer with guest hostAdam Driver as one of the coaches apparently unconcerned as team members want to make the mat—the twenty chosen for the finals—so bad they want to cheer despite near-catastrophic injuries.^[20] In late January 2020,The Late Show with Stephen Colbert featured a spoof commercial about mat talk, the boisterous positivity sideline cheers that teammates do for the performing members—for whichJerry Harris was singled-out during the series as excelling in—for their performance.^[21] The conceit was a new booster Mat Talk for Regular People program whereby the Navarro Cheer Team members would praise everyday people for mundane activities, and featuredLa'Darius Marshall, Harris, andGabi Butler cheering people on, with coachMonica Aldama available for a Booster Shot.^[21]

In December 2020, Harris was charged with multiple counts of production of child pornography and sexual exploitation, at least some of which involved children he mentored in cheerleading; he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in July 2022.^[10]

• Cheer atIMDb

• 2020s American documentary television series
• 2020 American television series debuts
• 2022 American television series endings
• American English-language television shows
• Cheerleading television series
• Documentary television series about sports
• Navarro College cheerleading
• Netflix original documentary television series
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program winners
• Television series by Boardwalk Pictures
• Television shows set in Texas

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from March 2022