Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, circa 1970s ; ‘America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’.
Documentaries, including Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team and Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders explore the team's history, evolution and cultural impact
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ iconic uniform debuted in 1972 and is now featured in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders season 3 premiered on June 16 and offers a peek into the team’s hopefuls, veterans and coaches experiences
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ fandom continues to grow.
Cheer enthusiasts have been following along with the team’s evolution since June 2024, when Netflix debuted its hit series America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. The show recently returned for season 3 with a whole new slew of DCC hopefuls vying for one of the team’s open spots.
While the current series, which documents the lives of the team’s veterans, rookies and coaches, including longtime senior director Kelli Finglass and head choreographer Judy Trammell, is gripping on its own, there’s more to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader legacy.
The squad, which was established in 1961 as a high school team, has a rich history that extends beyond the Netflix show. As show creator Greg Whiteley told Tudum in June 2026, “The world of DCC is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to stories to be told.”
Here are five documentaries about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders to watch now.
Dallas Cowboys CheerleadersDallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
‘America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’.
Netflix's Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team took the success of CMT’s long-running series Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team and built upon it with a more in-depth, personal glimpse into the lives of the women trying out for the team.
“You learn things about the cheerleaders that even we didn't know as their coaches," Finglass, who cheered for the team from 1984 to 1989 before becoming its senior director in 1991, told PEOPLE in June 2024 of the Netflix show. “It's beautiful and it's vulnerable and I think it'll be very insightful for fans.”
While the real-life series shows different elements of the women’s audition process, from brutal critiques to heartbreaking cuts, it also highlights their home life and interpersonal relationships, which range from romantic partners to DCC family alumni.
“There are certain people that you feel compelled to focus on. You have to trust that instinct and be open to wherever their story is going to go,” Whiteley told Tudum in June 2024.
Watch America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders onNetflix
Judy Trammell (L), Kelli Finglass (R) and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders attend the 2019 CMT Music Awards at Bridgestone Arena on June 05, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Judy Trammell (L), Kelli Finglass (R) and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders attend the 2019 CMT Music Awards at Bridgestone Arena on June 05, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Before there was America’s Sweethearts, there was Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team.
The CMT series, which ran for 15 years from 2006 to 2021, focused heavily on the team’s audition process and training camp.
The show featured a competitive reality format, with contestants undergoing intense preparation alongside Finglass and Trammell. The group was also joined by DCC alum and technical coach Kitty Carter.
“It’s not scripted,” Finglass, who also starred in the CMT hit, said in a 2016 interview. “It’s high stakes. There’s some dreams coming true for young women across the country and then there’s … some dreams being broken.”
Watch Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team onParamount+
Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders look on during the Cowboys 20-3 pre-season victory over the San Diego Chargers at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, California
Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders look on during the Cowboys 20-3 pre-season victory over the San Diego Chargers at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, California
This documentary examines the team from the perspective of Suzanne Mitchell — who was the first official DCC director after high school director Dee Brock — guiding the cheerleaders’ careers from 1976 to 1989.
According to squad members, Mitchell acted as a mother figure during the country's sexual movement, setting strict guidelines and rules for the team about their appearance and behavior.
“When Suzanne was in charge, she made sure that we were protected, that we weren’t put in any kind of strange place with strange people,” former DCC Shannon Baker Werthmann said in the documentary via the Dallas Observer.
It also explores the end of Mitchell’s reign in 1989, which concluded with a 14-cheerleader resignation when Jerry Jones purchased the DC franchise and reportedly proposed changes to the women’s famous uniforms and its practices, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Watch Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders onApple TV
The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders perform high-kicking routine at an NFL game in Miami, Fla., in Sept. 5, 1978
The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders perform high-kicking routine at an NFL game in Miami, Fla., in Sept. 5, 1978
In 2018, the NFL team’s own The Legends Show, a documentary series highlighting the franchises’s most memorable players and history-making moments, shone a spotlight on one of the cheer squad’s most famous members — its star-spangled uniform.
Designed in the 1970s by Paula Van Wagoner, the blue-and-white two-piece has become synonymous with the team over the years, with several clothing articles inducted into the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
The 22-minute long episode highlights the uniform’s evolution from pleated skirts and sweaters to the sexy Western getup that first debuted in 1972.
Watch The Legends Show: History of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Uniform onYouTube
Hank Williams Jr and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders for Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Sports.Hank Williams Jr and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders for Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Sports.
The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders with Hank Williams Jr., circa 1992.
In 1992, a near hour-long special about the squad hosted by 1983 Miss America winner Debra Maffett aired.
The documentary is a trip down memory lane, exploring the team’s 1970s dance roots and rise to fame through programs, such as The Love Boat and Harry and the Hendersons.
Finglass is interviewed mid-way through the special, telling Maffett of her team, “They’re an American woman with more than just pom-poms. … They have careers. We’ve had everything from doctors to lawyers.”
The special is rounded out with a visualization of a DCC cheerleader’s journey, from the auditions of its starry-eyed hopefuls to the travels of its veteran squad members as they tour the world with the USO and perform charity work.
Trammel is also interviewed in the series about her transition from a cheerleader to assistant choreographer. “I understood the problems,” she said. “The hard work, when they got tired, when they needed water on the field.”
Watch The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Special onYouTube