Major Update on Future of CMT Show ‘Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team’

The long-running TV series Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team just got some big news. On Wednesday, CMT announced that that hit series about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is returning for a 16th season on Friday, Sept. 17 at 9 p.m. ET. Production is currently underway in Dallas as 52 prospects have started training to earn a spot on the most famous cheerleading squad in the country.

“The much-anticipated series will return to its original time slot this Fall, fresh off a monumental 15th season which saw an unprecedented virtual audition process, the first-ever DCC Summer Training Camp inside a ‘bubble,’ and the most veteran cuts in show history,” the press release states. “With more auditions and contestants than ever before, the competition is stiff and the pressure remains at an all-time high as the candidates work to perfect new technically challenging routines to impress longtime coaches Kelli Finglass (Director of Cheerleading) and Judy Trammell (DCC Head Choreographer) to earn an esteemed spot on the field.”

Finglass and Trammell have been running things with the Cowboys cheerleaders for nearly three decades. They were both Cowboys cheerleaders in the 1980s and have a strong relationship. But as much fun as they have, they are very serious about getting the best cheerleaders every year.

“We do have a great, unique relationship,” Trammell says of her friendship with Finglass in an interview with CMT in 2018. “We can finish each other’s sentences, I know what she’s thinking!” Trammel went on to say that they have their moments when they don’t agree with each other when it comes to which person to cut or advance in tryouts.

“We can laugh, but we’re very, very serious about picking the right team,” Trammell added. “Sometimes we argue about who that last person might be that we need to cut to be able to get our numbers down to 36. “We really respect each other’s opinions. “We’re close on and off the field, our families are close. It’s just been a really great relationship. We’re together more than we are with our families, so we have to get along!”