INDIANAPOLIS — Competitive cheerleading gets the mockumentary treatment in NBC’s “Stumble.”
It follows elite cheerleading coach Courteney Potter (Jenn Lyon), whose life is flipped upside down when she has to start over at a new junior college and put together a squad of misfits to become the winningest cheer champion in history.
“I’ve actually never been a part of a show where we just all mesh so well together. From the jump, we were kind of like a chosen family,” said Georgie Murphy (“Gen V,” “56 Days”), who plays Sally, a cheerleader at Headltston State Junior College. “Jenn Lyon, our fearless leader, does such a great job at keeping us all grounded, keeping us all working hard and on our game, and it’s just a lot of laughs and maybe a few tears at the end of Season 1. The family dynamic was there from the start.”
Arianna Davis, who plays Madonna, a cheerleader at Headltston State Junior College, is an Indianapolis native and is making her network television debut.
“Being from Indianapolis, I think going back now as an adult, I really appreciate the wide-open fields and just simplicity. It’s kind of bustling a little bit now that I’m older, but when I was younger, I feel like I was like, ‘Man, I gotta go to the big city.’ I was running away,” Davis said. “It’s so good to have had my start dancing. I danced for years in Greenwood, Indiana. I got all of my talents and my training in Indiana, so coming back and returning after having been on a show, I have this appreciation for the city that I’m indebted to Indianapolis.”
The first season is all leading up to the 13th episode, appropriately titled, “Daytona,” which is where the college championships are held.
“Our final few episodes, we have, I think some of the best material of the season. Everything sort of comes to a really suspenseful head,” Murphy said. “In the last two episodes, we find out who’s making mat, who will be competing at Daytona and then, we have a spectacular final routine in the final episode, choreographed by Dahlston Delgado and Monica Aldama. We are at our 10 out of 10 effort, performance level, so it’s suspense, it’s heartfelt, it’s messy and funny, and it’s the best of ‘Stumble.'”
Aldama, who is an executive producer of “Stumble,” gained notoriety through her grittiness as Navarro College head cheerleading coach that was showcased in the two-season Netflix docuseries “Cheer.”
“Working with Monica and Dahlston is honestly a dream come true because they are cheer royalty. The choreography that is given to us, the, the stunts, the things, they’re really making us into cheerleaders,” Davis said. “We all have dance, maybe gymnastics background a little bit, but they’re really making us competitive, and they’re doing the Lord’s work, honestly. We feel like we’re a real true team.”
Also in a recurring role is Tony- and Emmy-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth (“Wicked,” “Pushing Daisies”) as Tammy Istiny, who was Potter’s assistant coach but has taken over the head coaching job at Sammy Davis Sr. Junior College.
“People say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes,’ but I met Kristin Chenoweth, and she is kinder and more warmhearted than I even thought, and she comes across as a very nice lady, but from the first time I met her, she was just so welcoming and so nurturing,” Murphy said. “She’s always down to have a joke or give you advice, and she’s honestly like the exact opposite of her character. She’s just so kind, down to earth and totally part of the team.”
While NBC has already ordered additional seasons of comedies “Happy’s Place” and “St. Denis Medical,” it’s still to be determined if “Stumble” will get a second season.
“I really want Madonna to do more stunts. I want her to be a base, so that means I would be doing the co-ed stunts that the guys are doing, lifting girls in the air, throwing them, all those things,” Davis said of where she hopes her character goes for a second season. “I really want to keep training and get strong enough so I can be the one throwing people and being a tumbler, so then I’m a real stumbler.”
“I want to find out where Sally came from. She has such an interesting backstory, and I think it’d be so cool to dive in, maybe who her birth parents are or if she has any biological siblings,” Murphy said of where she hopes her character goes for a second season. “Along with becoming a better cheerleader because she is not the best on the team — although she does have the spirit — I think it’d be really interesting to see where she came from.”