Dust off your pom-poms because Cheer season 2 is officially in the works! Netflix confirmed the return date for its hit docuseries — and the stakes have never been higher.
In the new trailer, released on Tuesday, December 28, the group returns to compete after becoming famous following the success of season 1. Now, they must figure out how to move forward when COVID-19 changes the entire 2020 season and one of their star athletes Jerry Harris faces a serious accusation.
Additionally, the new video reveals Navarro’s fiercest rival. Trinity Valley Community College is also determined to be the best, as both teams push for the 2021 championship in Daytona.
Shortly after the anticipated premiere of the show’s first season in January 2020, coach Monica Aldama exclusively told Us Weekly that there weren’t any details about a prospective series renewal at the time.
“We don’t really know anything about [season 2] right now,” the Dancing With the Stars season 29 alum, 49, told Us at the time. “So we’re just excited to be here right now and have season 1 and just the love and support of season 1. So, we’ll see.”
Cheer’s first season followed Navarro College’s accomplished cheerleading squad’s quest to the NCA College Nationals in Daytona, Florida in 2019. Alongside tough coach Aldama, the first season featured a slate of standout personalities, including Lexi Brumback, Gabi Butler, La’Darius Marshall, Morgan Simianer, Mackenzie Sherburn, and Harris, who was arrested in September 2020.
The athlete, 22, was later charged by the FBI with production of child pornography. He pleaded not guilty to all charges in December 2020.
“I mean, we knew that the cheer community would watch it, but we had no idea that the whole world would watch it,” the University of Texas at Austin alum told Us of the show’s unexpected popularity on the streaming platform. “We had to really put ourselves out there. So you have to be vulnerable and open up, and so that’s always a scary thing. But we really trusted the team, so that was comforting.”
By the conclusion of season 1, the Bulldogs placed first in their division at nationals, which was the team’s 14th first-place victory since the Full Out author took over the Corsicana, Texas, team.
The streaming platform previously remained mum on the status of a second season despite much fan excitement.
“One year ago today CHEER was released on Netflix,” Aldama captioned an Instagram snap of her team in January. “Thank you to all of the crew that spent so many hours living with us in 2019 and producing such a beautiful docuseries. We are forever grateful!”
Since then, the student-athletes have been hard at work training with future competitions, with Aldama writing in a separate post in January, “DAYTONA SZN.”
Their current season kicked off in July, as the head coach wrote via her social media page, “The new season has begun! Welcome to the DAWG HOUSE,” alongside practice footage of the team.
“I think that’s what people don’t realize, that’s how it usually always is,” Aldama previously gushed over her team in January 2020. “I mean, there’s not one group of people that are cheerleaders. In the world of cheerleading, everyone is accepted, which is, I think, maybe why people loved it so much. They saw that part of it and they didn’t realize that, because there’s a little bit of a stereotype there. It’s really a wonderful world inside cheerleading, where everyone is loved, everyone is accepted for who they are. They’re a special group, we’re just a really tight family.”
The nine-episode second season of Cheer will debut on Netflix Wednesday, January 12.
