Navarro College, the setting for the popular Netflix docuseries Cheer, which just dropped season two, reportedly earned just $30K a year from the streaming giant, Sportico reported on Wednesday – despite the company boasting a $25million profit in 2020. 

Along with Navarro, nearby Texas rival school, Trinity Valley Community College, was also paid just the relatively small location fee in order to serve as the other backdrop for the show. 

Additionally, the meteoric popularity of the show hasn’t translated to on-campus interest with Navarro’s director of marketing and public information, Stacie Sipes, telling the outlet that enrollment has actually declined since season one.

When Netflix first tapped Navarro to be the subject of their then-untitled cheerleading reality series in 2018, the school agreed to be paid $30K from the production company to film, it has been reported. 

The deal, signed between the school and Boardwalk Pictures also ‘provided Cheer’s producers with an exclusive option to renew for five additional academic years, at the same fee.’ 

‘Everybody thinks we made a million dollars off of the show, and as you can see from the contract, we did not,’ Sipes told Sportico. 

In 2020, Netflix also got the school to sign away 50% of merchandising revenue. That was the same year the company reported a $25million profit. 

Setting the stage: The deal, signed between the school and Boardwalk Pictures also ‘provided Cheer’s producers with an exclusive option to renew for five additional academic years, at the same fee’

Season one of Cheer also debuted in 2020 and became an instant hit for Netflix, with many of the stars, including coach Monica Aldama turning into over-night celebrities.  

The success of the show – which has since been marred by scandal after break-out star Jerry Harris was indicted for child pornography – failed to translate to interest from prospective students. 

‘We have had declining enrollment,’ Sipes said in an interview. ‘I could probably name four or five students that we heard came here because they heard about our college [through Cheer].

‘As Monica and I have both said previously: We were hoping not to get fired. We just wanted to have a really good show produced about her program; we never really thought about having people flocking to our school.’ 

‘Everybody thinks we made a million dollars off of the show, and as you can see from the contract, we did not,’ Sipes told Sportico, adding: ‘We have had declining enrollment.’

Cheer landed back on Netflix last week as season two hit the streaming service.

Cheer follows the champion cheerleaders of Texas junior college Navarro as they train for their only competition of the year – the National Cheerleaders Association’s Collegiate National Championship, a.k.a. Daytona.

Season one followed the team and coach Monica as they trained for and then won the April 2019 championship.

Season two picks up in early 2020 in the weeks leading up to the 2020 competition, before the first major upheaval of the series arrives – the global pandemic.

The story: Cheer follows the champion cheerleaders of Texas junior college Navarro as they train for their only competition of the year – the National Cheerleaders Association’s Collegiate National Championship, a.k.a. Daytona

What follows is a season split into two. The first four episodes are full of gleeful pep as the squad and Monica giddily navigate their new fame with appearances on Ellen, red carpets, photoshoots alongside their daily practices in Navarro.

But just weeks before Daytona Covid hits, the competition is cancelled and the team is unceremoniously sent home.

The pandemic means an abrupt end to many of the season one fan favorites’ cheer careers as the likes of Morgan Simianer and Lexi Brumback leave the college and the mat behind. Season two then fast forwards a year as a new round of recruits practice for Daytona 2021. 

Covid decimated the season one team beloved by fans, but the major shock over the past year has been the events surrounding the first series’ breakout star Jerry Harris who was indicted on child pornography charges in September 2020.

Scandal: Covid decimated the season one team beloved by fans, but the major shock over the past year has been the events surrounding the first series’ breakout star Jerry Harris who was indicted on child pornography charges in September 2020

Season two dedicates an episode to the charges, interviewing the family whose accusations sparked the FBI’s initial investigation into Harris’ alleged behavior. It also features interviews with Monica and his former teammates as they unpack their feelings about their friend.

‘Jerry would’ve been impossible to ignore because it impacted the team so severely,’ said director Greg Whiteley last year.

In the midst of shooting season two, Harris was accused of convincing several minors to send him sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves.

Prosecutors alleged that Harris admitted to FBI agents to asking a teenage boy to send him lewd photographs of himself but that he also requested on Snapchat child pornography from at least 10 to 15 others he knew to be minors.

At the time of Jerry’s arrest, Netflix released a short statement which read: ‘Like everyone we are shocked by this news. Any abuse of minors is a terrible crime and we respect the legal process.’

Two months after his initial arrest, Harris was then was indicted on seven new charges that alleged he solicited sex from minors at cheerleading competitions and convinced teenage boys to send him obscene photographs and videos.

The 22-year-old also allegedly crossed states with the purpose of having sex with one victim.

Additionally, 14-year-old cheerleading twin brothers filed a lawsuit in Texas alleging he solicited sexually explicit photos from them for a year and asked one of them for oral sex.

Through his attorney the former Cheer star denied the accusations in the lawsuit: ‘(We) categorically dispute the claims made against Jerry Harris, which are alleged to have occurred when he was a teenager. We are confident that when the investigation is completed, the true facts will be revealed.’

At the time, Netflix released a short statement which read: ‘Like everyone we are shocked by this news. Any abuse of minors is a terrible crime and we respect the legal process.’  

With familiar faces leaving the show, season two chooses to split fans allegiances and introduce Navarro’s rivals Trinity Valley (the only other junior college who competes in Navarro’s division at Daytona), and a whole new cast of tumblers, to the show. 

Season two: With familiar faces leaving the show, season two chooses to split fans allegiances and introduce Navarro’s rivals Trinity Valley (the only other junior college who competes in Navarro’s division at Daytona), and a whole new cast of tumblers, to the show