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There Are Two Sides To Every Secret
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in: Seasons, Cruel Summer

Season 1

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“ The Truth Is How You See It. ”
— Season slogan


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[]

Guest Starring[]

Co-Starring[]

Episodes[]

# Image Title Air Date Writer Director
1
154261 3052
 Happy Birthday, Jeanette Turner April 20, 2021 Bert V. Royal Max Winkler
Taking place over 3 summers in the 90s when a popular teen goes missing, and a seemingly unrelated girl transforms from a sweet and awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town, eventually becoming the most despised person in America.
2
156702 0336 R
 A Smashing Good Time April 20, 2021 Bert V. Royal Bill Purple
It’s time for the annual Skylin Garden Club Party! Year after year after year, the residents of Skylin struggle with the truth around what happened to Kate, keeping their secrets buried and maintaining appearances.
3
158027 0012
 Off With A Bang April 27, 2021 Bert V. Royal Kellie Cyrus
Victim or villain? Jeanette continues to add fuel to the fire as her reckless behavior causes her friends and family to question her even more.
4
158215 0140
 You Don't Hunt, You Don't Eat May 4, 2021 Imogen Binnie Laura Nisbet-Peters
Kate, reeling from the lawsuit, prepares her defense and finds friendship in an unlikely source. The annual Wallis hunting trip becomes the setting for an important first meeting.
5
158339 0285
 As The Carny Gods Intended May 11, 2021 Tia Napolitano Daniel Willis
Jeannette and Kate cross paths at the Skylin High takeover of the County Fair, where one is desperate to prove herself and the other to lose herself.
6
158249 0022
 An Ocean Inside Me May 18, 2021 Brian Otano Kellie Cyrus
A new deposition threatens Jeanette’s case. A discovery causes Cindy’s suspicions about her own daughter to reach new heights as her relationship with Greg becomes further strained.
7
158542 0438
 Happy Birthday, Kate Wallis May 25, 2021 Savannah Ward Alexis Ostrander
Kate struggles with a family secret she’s been holding on to. Joy tries to convince Kate to go on “The Marsha Bailey Show.” Mallory has a birthday surprise.
8
158795 0025
 Proof June 1, 2021 Addison McQuigg Daniel Willis
On the first day of school, everyone learns that the drama of the summer is anything but over and that some people will pay more for the consequences of Jeanette and Kate’s deception than others.
9 159757 0001 A Secret of My Own June 8, 2021 Matt Antonelli Alexis Ostrander
Kate's closely held secrets and fragmented memories of her time in Martin's captivity are brought to the surface.
10 156965 0257 Hostile Witness June 15, 2021 Bert V. Royal Bill Purple
Kate and Jeanette's worlds collide as the court date arrives, finally forcing the two young women to answer the question on everyone's mind, but the answer comes with a price that not everyone can pay.

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.[1]

“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.[2]

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.[3]
  • 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."[4]
  • Olivia's more difficult scenes to film where the 1994 ones between Kate and Martin.[4]
  • Olivia was shocked at the season finale as her theories were wrong. She also thinks the audience will be very satisfied with the ending.[4]
  • 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.[5]
    • "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.[6]
  • 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.[7]
  • 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[]

Posters[]

Character Posters[]

Promotional[]

Videos[]

Behind the Scenes[]

Events[]

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
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