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MeIt’s been 30 years since Dallas Cowboys – who styled themselves as America’s Team – won the Super Bowl. But now, thanks to Greg Whiteley’s Netflix docu-series America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, the most reliable and world-famous arm of the Cowboys brand will no longer be men playing football, but women dancing on the sidelines.
“The football players are breaking hearts,” one fan said at the end of Season 3. “But the cheerleaders are still smiling.”
When its first season premiered in 2024, America’s Sweethearts became a hit, breaking into Netflix’s Top 10 worldwide and turning what was once an American hit into a global hit. As the long-running CMT series Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making a Team, which ended in 2022, follows the annual schedule that DCC director, Kelly in Finglasand his friends are shooting a large pool of talented dancers until the end of 36 years. But unlike anything before, the Netflix series has fans throughout the football season, following the demands of the roles on their bodies, relationships, money and self-love.
The third series of America’s Sweethearts, which follows the 2025-26 football season and became one of the most watched shows on Netflix after June 16, is the first to meet the concerns of the show and the organization that wrote it. “Since these people have become famous because of the movie we’ve been making, we have to respond,” Whiteley said during the first week of the season. “It wouldn’t be possible to write Season 3 honestly without admitting that he’s going to be even more popular than he was before we arrived.”
In DCC, the American girl dream comes to life: beautiful, carefree and disciplined. “It’s like a beauty pageant, but in athletics,” she says Little Powellone of the stars of the series. When she calls me on Zoom from the Netflix office, her hair falls in golden waves, not a single braid, and a DCC jacket wrapped around her shoulders. He smiles between questions, and his happiness carries over into my day.
This series deconstructs the image of cheerleaders by revealing the work that goes on behind the scenes. These women experience stress and little sleep, often juggling their DCC work with many other routine tasks. Whiteley, whose previous sports records include Be careful, Last Chance U and Fightersit is repeatedly drawn to bodies that are pushed to their limits. He said: “Why do I enjoy this?
Whiteley’s series presents the most vivid and layered portrait of an organization that has long boasted of its brilliance. “People want more now,” says Finglass, who trains and mentors women while maintaining the DCC brand image. When we speak, they are exactly as they appear on screen; naturally reliable and effortlessly stable. Dressed in a well-tailored blue blazer, he is always presidential as one of his icons, Kamala Harris. (“I just love his power suits,” he said in Episode 2.)
Finglass was DCC himself from 1984 to 1989, known as the first celebrant to be called back without a repeat, and became director in 1991.
“The space that Netflix has provided is huge. People all over the world know our names and know our stories,” he says. “What we’re dealing with here is the popularity of individuals. People recognize the entertainment leaders in the store, at the airport. They know their names. Privacy is not a precious thing any of us have anymore.”
But the new look has also raised new concerns. In the latest season, Finglass voice complains about “who is here for the right reasons”.
DCC prospects are now looking at not only one of the most famous organizations in the game, but also a famous engine with a clear pipeline. The show is now big enough to attract celebrities like Kacey Musgraveswho appears to be a foreign judge. Many DCCs currently have a large following, from hundreds of thousands to millions, and regularly post about dancing to their favorite music, as well as providing glimpses into their lives through Instagram and TikTok.
No one in this group reflects the changing nature of society and the popularity of the individual more clearly than Powell. The Goldie Hawn of the group – bright, sprightly and a little cheeky – he is one of DCC’s loosest personality and the most burning, and his instinct to test the limits annoys Finglass almost as much as he loves him. “Are you attached to your friends,” Finglass asks at a critical moment, “or are you putting yourself out there on social media?”
Powell stays online regularly, posting YouTube videos of her skincare routine and daily vlogs every Thursday. “I think I was the beginning of this big story,” he says. “I had a big say in how it was used in the DCC.” But Powell insists that his use of social media is just self-promotion. “I wanted to take care of my friends, and the only way I know is to stand up and do what I think is right.”
In 2025, before Season 3 began, Powell was one of the five Dallas Cowboys Happy people who contributed to the group’s 400% profit. Prior to this, members reportedly only earned $15 an hour, including overtime pay. Negotiating against a multi-billion dollar corporation was, understandably, difficult. “Without millions of eyes from the Netflix documentary series, I don’t think we would have been attracted to these meetings.”
Social media also helped him speak out. Although she received pushback from Finglass, Powell says she “had to explain herself more and continue to stand up for girls, because at the end of the day, it’s an economic opportunity, and I know what it feels like to be economically disadvantaged”.
Powell is now acting as an All-Star, contracted to fill in for other DCCs. She remains involved with the organization, but is focusing on her continued life, which includes her art, her husband and two cats. Hanging up the uniform – and leaving the safe world of girlhood – however, is difficult for anyone in the group to consider.
Powell said: “Putting on the uniform is always fun. To think about it forever is a big thing. It represents the loss of a part, this season of your life, but I feel like I’ve put myself on fire for the rest of my life.”
Finglass, too, thinks about the ending from time to time. After 35 years with the Cowboys, she will finally retire and spend more time with her husband, children and “crazy shih-tzu”. As much as it hurts to leave, I have this part of my life that I’m not happy with.
DCC wants to do something pretty self-deprecating, in service of something bordering on cult: a line-up of super-fast women smiling under the lights of the stadium, living the American Dream. Now, millions of people from home know more about the sacrifices and challenges that go into that smile.
