Throughout the first season of Glee, Sue makes numerous attempts at sabotaging the William McKinley High School glee club, New Directions. She enlists members of her cheerleading squad, the Cheerios, to bring the club down from the inside, and conspires to lure away its star member, Rachel Berry (Lea Michele). Sue is appointed co-director of the club by Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), but soon scales back her involvement when her attempts to turn the club members against director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) fail. Hoping to ruin the club's chances of winning at the show choir Sectionals competition, Sue gives New Directions' setlist to the directors of their rival glee clubs. Despite having to devise a new setlist at the last moment, New Directions win by unanimous decision and Sue is suspended by Figgins. She blackmails him into allowing her back, and is selected as a judge for the show choir Regionals competition. Sue is ridiculed by the other judges for her lack of fame and underdog status, allowing her to empathize with the glee club members. She votes for New Directions to win, and although they place last, she blackmails Figgins into allowing them another year to compete.
