Behind-the-Scenes

Round 1: 2008 Cheerleader Auditions

By Kristi Scales

May 10, 2008

Today is the start of the 2008 auditions for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and this is a special year because the group of young ladies chosen to represent the team as “America’s Sweethearts” will be the final group to perform at venerable Texas Stadium as the Cowboys will move to their new stadium in Arlington beginning with the 2009 season.  There have been some great memories for Cowboys fans over the years at Texas Stadium, and it’s fitting that the auditions are being held at The Stadium Club which provides a perfect backdrop as the girls audition; from our judge’s chairs, we (and the television cameras) can see the Texas Stadium playing field as the background behind the dance floor.

The auditions are once again being filmed by a production crew for CMT (Country Music Television).  This year’s episodes of the television show (“The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders:  Making the Squad”) won’t air until September, but the producers have been at work for several weeks in preparations for today’s auditions.  They have already chosen several girls to “follow” throughout the audition process.  As a judge, I don’t know which of the contestants has been interviewed by CMT.  Some of the girls interviewed by CMT will make it to the second round, many won’t.  In fact, my bet is that most won’t.  I don’t know how many contestants we’ll have in the first round today (it was almost 500 last year), but the number continues to grow each year because of the television show’s popularity.  But usually only 100 or 120 girls are invited back to the second round (semi-finals), so it’s a pretty sure bet that between 80 to 90% of girls will be “cut” in today’s round.

Before getting into today’s specifics of the preliminary round, let me give you a briefing on the auditions themselves and the criteria used by judges in the first round.  more >>