Season 1

**Season 1** of *Cruel Summer* premiered Tuesday, April 20th, 2021 on *Freeform*. It aired with special double-episode premiere.

## Synopsis

*Cruel Summer* is a psychological thriller that follows two young women: Kate Wallis, the popular girl with a charmed life who one day goes missing, and Jeanette Turner, the nerdy wannabe who is accused of being connected to Kate’s disappearance. All signs point to Jeanette’s guilt, but is Kate really who she seems to be? Set over three summers and told through shifting points of view, the series challenges perception and follows how one girl can go from being a sweet outlier to the most despised person in America.

## Cast

### Starring

* Olivia Holt as Kate Wallis (9/10)
* Chiara Aurelia as Jeanette Turner (9/10)
* Froy Gutierrez as Jamie Henson (9/10)
* Harley Quinn Smith as Mallory Higgins (10/10)
* Allius Barnes as Vince Fuller (8/10)
* Blake Lee as Martin Harris (9/10)
* Michael Landes as Greg Turner (8/10)
* Brooklyn Sudano as Angela Prescott (4/10)

### Guest Starring

* Sarah Drew as Cindy Turner (6/10)
* Barrett Carnahan as Derek Turner (7/10)
* Andrea Anders as Joy Wallis (7/10)
* Benjamin J. Cain Jr as Rod Wallis (7/10)
* Nicole Bilderback as Denise Harper (7/10)
* Nathaniel Ashton as Ben Hallowell (7/10)
* Damon Carney as Hank Stevenson (2/10)
* Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut as Ashley Wallis (2/10)
* Jason Douglas as Nick Marshall (4/10)

### Co-Starring

* Shelby Surdam as Tennille Peterson (6/10)
* Aaliyah Muhammad as Renee Talbot (6/10)
* Neyla Cantu as Molly Green (6/10)
* Joshua Colson as Scott Jones (2/10)
* Lisa Lloyd as Candace Johnson (1/10)
* Aaron Valentine as Tucker Stevenson (2/10)
* Rey Robison as Babs Stevenson (2/10)
* Tonya Holloway as Detective Karin Anderson (3/10)
* Ricco Faiardo as Officer William Kingsley (2/10)
* Lee Eddy as Dr. Sylvia Parks (4/10)
* Kim Jackson Davis as Tanya Peterson (1/10)
* Sandy Avila as Paola Henson (1/10)

## Viewership

*Cruel Summer* initially debuted with 274,000 viewers and a demographic of 0.11 when classified in its live plus same day viewers. However, in its live plus seven day category, it became the most watched series debut in *Freeform* history. It was preceded by ***Shadowhunters*** whose series debut was in 2016. *Cruel Summer* averaged 3.81 million multi platform viewers in the first week available. The Jessica Biel produced drama is likewise the network’s best-ever series debut among Adults 18-49 (2.65 million) and Adults 18-34 (1.33 million). Additionally, the series from studio Entertainment One (eOne) is the No. 1 most social scripted series premiere across cable year-to-date.

Only a sliver of Cruel Summer's premiere viewership comes from the series’ live linear debut (246,000 total viewers, demo of 0.10 in adults 18-49 rating in Live plus Same Day for the two-hour opener on April 20). The multi-platform totals include delayed viewing for the premiere linear telecast (Live+7 ratings) and viewership on the Freeform app/site, Hulu and set-top box VOD in the first 7 days available.

“Cruel Summer” is the network’s most-watched series ever, ranking as the No. 1 new cable drama of the year among Women 18-34, with the most recent episode delivering the drama’s biggest linear TV audience yet—surging by 31% over its premiere. In MP35, the series averages 6.8 million viewers per episode.

## Notes and Trivia

* Amazon Prime Video secured the worldwide rights to *Cruel Summer*, and premiered the series outside of the US, Canada, and China after is launch on Freeform.
* For marketing, Freeform re-released Steve Madden free Slinky Shoes at 20 select locations, a $20 voucher for the first 500 people to to appear at Amoeba's Hollywood store location, a special Dippin' Dots *Cruel Summer* ice cream with a color-changing cup, and free roller skating at the Central City Mall in Los Angeles.
	+ They also partnered with SXSW for an exclusive panel when viewers watch the first episode.
* A screening of the show was held in the Hilton Hotel where each guest was given individual rooms where they could view the premiere from a terrace overlooking an inflatable jumbo screen. Producer Michelle Purple said, “This is special, I’ve seen friends have drive-in premieres, but Freeform got creative.” Each room was decked out with ’90s nostalgia – including “Friends” posters, concert fliers for *Garbage* and *The Cranberries*, vintage Seventeen magazines, scrunchies, inflatable furniture and candy – to match the show’s mid-90s setting.
* Olivia Holt purposefully altered Kate's accent throughout the years.
	+ "*it’s very distinct for Kate because her mother is so Southern and her mother really is controlling, in the way that she wants Kate to be just like her. Kate feels that and feels some sort of connection with her mom, where she has to follow in that path, so the Southern accent and the little bit of twang that I had in ‘93 was very prominent. And then’ after the traumatic experience in ‘94, where she hasn’t seen or been around any people, that accent loses its twang. And then, in ‘95, she is molded into her own self, where she doesn’t feel any control from anybody. That’s when she’s actually solidified who she is, in this rebellious stage of her life. That was something that I had really tied onto, with the way that she spoke and the way that she carried herself. There was the physical representation, but also the way that she would speak was something that I made the choice very firmly on, in what I did with Kate.*"
* Olivia's more difficult scenes to film where the 1994 ones between Kate and Martin.
* Olivia was shocked at the season finale as her theories were wrong. She also thinks the audience will be very satisfied with the ending.
* The heads of the hair and makeup departments, Dugg Kirkpatrick and Sheila Trujillo respectively, spoke with *PopSugar* about the process of changing the characters looks for three separate time periods.
	+ "When she's the hot girl, Jeanette's color palette was lots of browns — these were the colors that were popular back then," Trujillo said. She used brown lipstick and brown eyeshadow to establish Jeanette's look, and contoured her face to fake the progression of age.
	+ For the 1995 wig, Kirkpatrick put it on himself and chopped it in the mirror citing, "I actually put the wig on myself and chopped it myself in the mirror to create that look of 'I've done this myself,'" he said. "I don't know about you, but there've been times in my life where I feel like, 'I really hate what's happening to me right now. I think I'll cut my hair off.' I've done that before, so I put myself in her shoes to create that look."
	+ For Kate, 1993 was intentionally curated to be fake and seeming perfect. She used all MAC Cosmetics products in Kate's look because that's what "everybody chic used at the time."
	+ "In '93, I wanted her to be the stereotypical American blond girl," Kirkpatrick said. He wanted to make her highlights look intentionally unnatural, that way you knew she frequented a hair salon. "It showed she paid attention to how she looked and tried to improve herself."
	+ In '94, "In that time, she wouldn't go to a salon — her highlights and her bleaching would grow out — so, that's where we showed the passage of time with darker, new growth in her hair," Kirkpatrick said.
	+ Kate's makeup look changes, too, from light and bright pink tones to grunge, another popular makeup trend in the '90s. "That's when she was going through her rebellious phase," Trujillo said. "It was so great to be able to use makeup to convey to the audience where she was in her mind. Pencil eyeliner was something I had to get used to again, because I haven't done a pencil eyeliner in 10 years — now we use powders, gel liner — but pencil liners were everything in the 90s."
	+ "In '95, Mallory breaks out, cuts her hair into some bangs. She uses a flat iron. I had a hair piece of Courtney Love's in my kit that I used on her years ago, a toupee, and put it on Mallory and turned it into her grunge look."
	+ Vince, the other best friend of Jeanette and Mallory, got to try three looks over the course of the show as well. In the first year, he has his natural afro, the second year he wears his hair in twists, and the third year he has locs. "Those were masterfully created by Mia Atkins, who is one of my hairstylists," Kirkpatrick said. "I asked her to make hair locs for him and it took her about a week and a half to do." Those hair pieces allowed them to transition Vince between the three hairstyles for filming in less than an hour. "He also felt like he looked older with the locs, which was exactly what we wanted."
* It was very important for Blake Lee and Olivia Holt that the relationship between Martin and Kate was not glamorized, nor should people root for them.
* Olivia Holt was given documentaries to watch before the scenes with Martin were filmed, so she understood the extent of what Kate went through. In the same regard, if she or Blake Lee had a question on what happened in the basement, the writers would tell them since they were only allowed to allude to it in the scripts.
* Buzzfeed created a "*Which Cruel Summer Character Are You?*" quiz, which can be taken on their website. Click here to take it and share your results!

## Gallery

### Videos

Cruel Summer - Official Trailer - FreeformCruel Summer - Teaser- She Took My Place - FreeformCruel Summer - Teaser- What Are They Hiding? - FreeformCruel Summer - Teaser- Better Get Your Story Straight - FreeformCruel Summer - Premieres Tuesday, April 20th - FreeformCruel Summer - Trailer- The Most Hated Girl in America - FreeformCruel Summer - Trailer- She's No Angel - FreeformCruel Summer - Promo- 3 Years, 2 Sides, 1 Truth - FreeformCruel Summer - The Truth Will Be Revealed - FreeformCruel Summer Rewind - Series PremiereFreeform's Cruel Summer Q&A - SXSW 2021

## References

1. ↑ https://deadline.com/2021/04/cruel-summer-premiere-ratings-freeform-multi-platform-record-1234747822/
2. ↑ Official Press Release
3. ↑ https://deadline.com/2021/01/cruel-summer-amazon-jessica-biel-freeform-1234672650/
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 https://collider.com/cruel-summer-olivia-holt-interview-cloak-and-dagger/
5. ↑ https://www.popsugar.com/beauty/cruel-summer-beauty-interview-48318833?stream\_view=1#photo-48320256
6. ↑ Blake Lee interview with Pop Culture Planet
7. ↑ Olivia Holt interview with In Creative Company