‘Dare Me’ Canceled After One Season at USA Network

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Dare Me” won’t be cheering any longer.

USA Network has canceled the cheerleader drama after a single season, Variety has confirmed. However, the show’s producer UCP is looking to shop it around, hoping to resurrect the drama elsewhere, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

The series centers around the cutthroat world of competitive high school cheerleading. It follows the fraught relationship between two best friends (Herizen Guardiola and Marlo Kelly) after a new coach (Willa Fitzgerald) arrives to bring their team to prominence. While the girls’ friendship is put to the test, their young lives are changed forever when a shocking crime rocks their quiet suburban world.

Additional series regulars on the show include Rob Heaps, Zach Roerig, and Paul Fitzgerald. Joyful Drake, Tammy Blanchard, Antonio J. Bell, and Alison Thornton all played recurring parts.

“Dare Me” is based on the book of the same name by Megan Abbott, who serves as writer and executive producer on the series along with Gina Fattore. Peter Berg and Michael Lombardo of Film 44 executive produce with Sarah Condon and Karen Rosenfelt also attached as EPs. Netflix co-produced season 1 of the show, and has first-run rights to the series outside of the U.S. Steph Green directed and executive produced the pilot.

In a joint review of show and Netflix figure skating drama “Spinning Out,” Variety critic Caroline Framke deemed “Dare Me” to be a “lush and seductive” thriller.

“‘Dare Me’ is a wicked thriller that practically demands that its audience gorge upon it. It’s lush and seductive, a fact that it’s both aware of and uses to chilling effect. Even when its directing leans too hard on slow-mo, its use of shifting perspectives makes it consistently fascinating,” Framke wrote.

The Hollywood Reporter first reported the cancelation.