According to breakout star Victoria Kalina, the two popular shows about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were not created equally.
“Honestly, I was really like, ‘Oh God, another show. … Oh no,’” the 24-year-old dancer told Us Weekly during an exclusive interview of her initial reaction to Netflix arriving to film America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. “I feel like my experience with CMT [brought up] PTSD [of] being called into the office so many times. I was like, ‘[deep breaths] … This is gonna be questionable.’ We didn’t really know exactly what route they were gonna take and what the story line was gonna be. If it was gonna be like CMT where it was very drama [focused].”
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team aired 16 seasons of CMT from 2006 to 2021, following the intense audition process for the squad. Victoria was featured on season 13 — where she didn’t make the cut — and seasons 14 and 15. She subsequently took a year off to work on her mental health in 2021 and returned as a cheerleader in 2022. Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts followed the 2023 football season with Cheer’s Greg Whiteley as the executive producer.
“The first day that they filmed with us, they were so lovely. It almost felt like a vlog where they were on the fly, very casual. And the producer Greg, he is amazing. The crew was amazing. All the cameramen, all the mic people, they just really made you feel comfortable,” Victoria told Us. “They weren’t with us throughout the whole football season, they came in like little spurts. And each visit that they came it just got so much better.”
Victoria credits Whiteley for helping her feel comfortable in front of the cameras.
Victoria Kalina Courtesy of Victoria Kalina/Instagram
“Greg told us his intentions about what his goals were. He told us to reference back to Cheer if we wanted to see anything or get, like, a good point of view of what he was going for. And after that I was like, ‘OK, my goal now is just to be the honest true Victoria,’” she said.
America’s Sweethearts followed several cheerleaders, but Victoria (and her mother, Tina) resonated with viewers.
“I knew that they had filmed quite a bit of us. I mean, they were there for the birthday. They were there for a lot of my life, especially this past year,” she told Us when asked if she knew she would be heavily featured on the show. “Just how I was saying I really wanted to just go in being authentically me, I think that really resonated and connected with Greg the producer. He really genuinely liked that and connected to that. Whereas — I can’t speak for them — but I feel like some girls might have had that same hesitation that I did at first, and it just took them a little bit longer to kind of ease up.”
Among Victoria’s story lines was her openness about her eating disorder and mental health, which led her to taking her aforementioned hiatus from DCC.
Just as the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders reality show is putting the spotlight on the 2023 season, the organization is in the height of the tryouts for the 2024 squad. Netflix dropped a seven-episode docuseries about the women behind DCC in June, following veteran cheerleaders and rookies trying to impress director Kelli Finglass, head choreographer Judy […]
“During the episode where I gave my testimony on the turf in my sweatpants, I think even in the show I word it saying, ‘I’m just gonna be open about it. I haven’t told anyone this.’ And that’s how I started talking about it,” she told Us. “It’s honestly so exhausting having to cover it up. Being open on such a huge platform that Netflix has been that therapeutic release set I’ve needed.”
Now, Victoria is in recovery and pursuing a career shift in New York City, training for the Rockettes and Broadway.
“I feel good. I’m in this new city. I’m on a new journey, new path. With DCC it was very much like they are gonna set [your future] for you whereas now I can decide what I wanna do, where I wanna do and what is planned for me. I feel not so like, ‘Ah, I’m stuck here,’” she concluded.
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders season 1 is streaming now on Netflix.
