You Won't Believe How Much Navarro College Got Paid for Hit Netflix Series Cheer

According to Sportico, who first reported the news on Wednesday, the community college only made $30,000 per season for their participation in the Netflix series.

Per a copy of the rights agreement obtained by the outlet, Navarro signed a deal with a production company in 2018 to be paid a $30,000 location fee to shoot a season of a then-untitled cheerleading documentary. Navarro earned the same amount for Season 2, which dropped earlier this month. The college's rival, Trinity Valley Community College, also received $30,000 for Season 2.

"Everybody thinks we made a million dollars off of the show, and as you can see from the contract, we did not," Stacie Sipes, Navarro's director of marketing and public information, explained to Sportico.

The contract also included an exclusive option for producers to renew for five additional academic years for the same $30,000 fee per year. As noted in the agreement, the production company "shall have the exclusive rights to film and exploit the Cheerleading Athletics as part of the Series."

"Cheer" premiered back in January 2020, just a couple of months before the coronavirus pandemic began. The docuseries -- which centers on the Navarro College cheer team led by head coach Monica Aldama -- quickly gained a huge following, turning Aldama as well as several of the Navarro cheerleaders into celebrities overnight. (Season 2 also follows Trinity Valley's cheer program. In addition, the second season details the sexual misconduct allegations against Navarro's Jerry Harris, who was arrested on child pornography charges in September 2020.)

However, although the show has been a success, Sipes said "Cheer" hasn't boosted Navarro's student enrollment.

"We have had declining enrollment," she told Sportico. "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," Sipes added. "We just wanted to have a really good show produced about her program; we never really thought about having people flocking to our school."

"Cheer" Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Netflix.