Hellcats – Is it the similarity to real life that’s building the ratings?

According to the latest ratings, Hellcats soared 30% in its targeted demos over last week, including women 18-34 and 18-49.  I think the timeliness of the argument of cheerleaders as athletes is really hitting home for The CW.  On top of all the interpersonal drama we see on Hellcats, there is one underlying issue that is straight out of our local news: the desire for competitive teams to be considered athletes at their colleges. This article, published in September of 2010, shows just how real the fight is on campuses today.

Hellcats focuses on all aspects of cheering, from the college executive level down to the infighting between the kids on the squad. All together it poses a rather dramatic and exciting look into what was once an activity as simple as girls in short skirts tossing around pom poms shouting “hold that line!” The type of squad featured on Hellcats is a completely different animal.

So how does it play off on the show? The Lancer athletic director, Bill Marsh (well played by Aaron Douglas, formerly the much more lovable Galen Tyrol on Battlestar Galactica) is just horrid. I say he plays it well, because I absolutely hate the character, and since I’ve not been one to despise his roles in the past, he’s doing a bang up job! His sole purpose seems to be to suck the life out of The Hellcats. I’m sure we will soon find out why this is his stance, but for now he just comes off as a complete jackass.

Every sport is in competition for funding at Lancer, and the easiest prey are the cheerleaders. Even the word “cheerleader” evokes dancing girls and females urging on male athletes in “real” sports. Football and basketball take the top spots, and it seems women’s volleyball is even considered more athletic than cheerleading. There was an episode devoted to the two as they battled to prove themselves. Despite how much jumping, tumbling, lifting and running they do, the Hellcats were not a match to the larger girls during a game of flag football, but they held their own. In any event, Marsh wants the Hellcats on their knees, groveling. That they were considered more interesting for an article in a great sports magazine (as shown in the picture above) just about sealed their fate with Marsh.

However, in an unexpected turn, it seems Marsh may have lured back the much lauded football coach Red Raymond just because of his former attachment to the Hellcats coach, Vanessa. Raymond left Lancer because he didn’t like the “pay for play” tactics the team used to lure players. The same reason Lewis quit the football team to become a cheerleader. Marsh is still at it, and by taking everything, including training space, away from the Hellcats, he used Raymond’s feelings for Vanessa to get him to play along.

It was a really dirty trick and it didn’t end with a solid ending.  It seems to me that Marsh is pissed that the squad is so good, so popular and that their feisty attitude keeps them in the game, no matter how hard he tries to get rid of them. But what if he does get rid of them? What other group would be such an easy target?

So far, it’s the teens who are  holding their own and dealing with issues like grown-ups, and the grown-ups who are acting like children. Things are going to get uglier as the weeks go by, and I look forward to the adult drama as much as I do that on the squad.

Clacked by Carissa Pavlica
on Nov 11, 2010 @ 16:34 EST5EDT