Cheers for new VH1 scripted series ‘Hit The Floor,’ which examines the glamorous and treacherous world of big-time sports

Charlotte Ross, Dean Cain and Taylour Paige star in series about cheerleading squad for pro basketball team
New York Daily News
May 27, 2013

“Hit The Floor,” VH1’s new scripted series about the cheerleaders for a fictional pro basketball team, reconfirms one of the great truths of our time: We never really escape high school.

Except for the age of the actors, “Hit The Floor” could be a Disney or Nickelodeon movie about the obstacles that face every kid who just wants to get through high school alive.

Only now it’s those same kids a few years later, trying to survive in the glamorous and treacherous world of big-time pro sports.

The show plays its position well, establishing the lineup quickly and efficiently.

Taylour Paige plays Ahsha Hayes, who has just quit her job at a bank to try out as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Devils.

Turns out her mother was one of the original “Devils Girls,” some 25 years earlier, and Ahsha apparently got the gene.

But “Devils” is not just a random nickname for the team or the people involved with it.

Ahsha has entered a world of guy complications, girl dramas and agendas she can’t imagine.

High school, anyone?

Jelena Howard (Logan Bryant) is the head “Devil Girl,” also known as the mean girl.

Kyle Hart (Katherine Bailess) is the girl who lives on the edge and plays by her own rules.

Olivia Vincent (Charlotte Ross) is the Devils Girls coach, hardline but fair. Dean Cain plays Pete Davenport, who coaches the basketball team and has secrets that also involve Ahsha’s mother Sloane (Kimberly Elise).

This world has been the subject of reality shows, and “Hit The Floor” shows why scripted shows are almost always more interesting. But the high school connection never recedes in a place with so much déjà vu they even have lockers.