The CW's new show Hellcats is part Bring It On, part Glee, and all kinds of terrible. A kind of terrible that has to be seen to be believed.

The Pitch: Hellcats is Bring It On meets some sort of reverse-negative Glee with a dash of Felicity.

The Setup: Marti is a pre-law major at a big university in Memphis and she loses her scholarship because of some murky bureaucratic issue that is hastily glossed over. With no other options, she tries out for the school's cheerleading squad because its members get free rides. You'll never guess this, but she makes the team and begins to learn valuable lessons about priorities and hard work. And also friendship. In this scene, she monologues a bunch of her backstory to her rival-turned-bestie, played by Ashley Tisdale.


Cringe Factor (out of 10): A solid 9.5. Ok, so there's a bit of a show here and the writers have done the best the can to make the stakes as high as possible; they've crammed money, competition and cheerleading outfits into an incredibly earnest, nearly humor-free hour. Yet, the result is entirely laughable. Especially the final glory-of-cheerleading moments, with amazingly on-the-nose music.

Over/Under for Cancellation: 12 episodes. This show is bad, it's not The Beautiful Life bad, but it's pretty bad. And even though there are cute girls in short skirts, this can't go on for too long. It's just too obvious, too annoying. Then again, Vampire Diaries is still going strong, so who knows.