NFL Cheerleader Playoffs is a television show that debuted in 2006 on the NFL Network. The official channel of the National Football League premiered each episode on Saturdays at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. The competition was produced by IMG's television production division. Matt Gallant was the host, and Ian Eagle, Chad Johnson, and Carrie Milbank are reporters. The playoffs were taped between July 17 and July 21, 2006 at Six Flags New England in Agawam, Massachusetts. Two-person teams of cheerleaders from 25 of the NFL's 32 teams participated in a four-event series of competitions. The first two events test the cheerleaders' athletic abilities in events like the 100-yard dash, kayaking, tandem cycling, and the obstacle course. The third event is a trivia challenge called "Know Your NFL". The final competition is a one-minute dance routine, similar to what they normally perform on NFL sidelines. There were six first-round episodes, five with four teams and one with five. The top two teams from each show advanced to the second round. Three winners moved to the third round, with the top two teams going head-to-head in the final. Each member of the winning team of cheerleaders received $5,000 cash and a Nautilus exercise machine, made by Bowflex.
Point system
Place
1st half of show
2nd half of show
First place
67
1
Second place
82
2
Third place
35
3
Fourth place
41
4
Fifth place*
100
5
The total combined points will determine the standings. * Episode 6 was the only show to have five competing teams.
Episodes
The following are the final standings for each episode.
First round
In this round, the top two teams advanced to the second round.
In this round, the top team advanced to the semi-finals.
Episode 7
St. Louis Rams, Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs
Episode 8
San Diego Chargers, Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints
Episode 9
Atlanta Falcons, Washington Redskins, Tennessee Titans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers NOTE: A Buccaneers cheerleader, identified only as Catherine, suffered a knee injury during the roller skating race and had to withdraw from competition, along with her teammate, Monica, prior to the dance event.
Semi-finals Round
In this round, the top two teams advanced to the finals.
Episode 10
San Diego Chargers, Atlanta Falcons, St. Louis Rams NOTE: Originally only two teams were to advance to the finals. The Falcons and the Rams both tied for second with 195 points. Both teams had identical judges' scores in the dance competition which was the tiebreaker, so all three teams advanced.
Final Round
Episode 11
In a rematch of episode 10, the San Diego Chargers team defeated the Atlanta Falcons and St. Louis Rams squads to win the overall championship. This time, all the teams finished in a three-way tie, with 210 points. The Chargers were declared the winners based on winning the dance competition. This show aired at 6 p.m. ET, one hour before the start of pregame coverage of NFL Network's first Thursday Night Football game.
The premiere of episode 6, scheduled for October 19, was postponed as NFL Network added a fifth NFL Replay of the previous weekend, the Bears' victory over the Cardinals. It aired the following Saturday. It was assumed that the regular schedule would resume the next week; however, NFLN soon announced that the move to Saturday would be permanent. NFLN aired a fifth run of NFL Replay on Thursday nights, either a fifth game or a rebroadcast of one of the previous four telecasts from Tuesday or Wednesday, until November 23, when live games took over the time slot.
Current status
The playoffs were not repeated in 2007, as NFL Network chose not to renew the contract with IMG. The series also repeated on July 14, 2008 on the NFL Network.
Other notes
This program resembled other IMG multi-event shows like Superstars and Battle of the Gridiron Stars. One significant difference is that the cheerleaders sometimes make comments in a confession room, similar to the one found on many reality TV shows.
In the second round, the "Know Your NFL" round resembled the Pyramid series of game shows. The dances in the same round followed a 20-20-20 format; one member of the team danced alone for 20 seconds, then the other member danced alone for the next 20 seconds, then both danced together for the final segment.
In the final round, "Know Your NFL" was based on another classic game show, Concentration. The final dance to which all the teams competed was to the tune of "19-2000" by Gorillaz. That song was also the theme song of the entire series.
