Lifetime announces a Surviving R. Kelly follow-up and a Surviving Jeffrey Epstein show
Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly documentary series was huge for the network—not to mention his many alleged victims’ pursuit of justice—and now Lifetime has announced that it’s putting a sequel of sorts that will explore the developments in the case against Kelly that have come to light since the series aired in January. Specifically, that most likely means his extremely ill-conceived interview with Gayle King, the new sexual assault charges he’s been hit with, and his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges from earlier this month. The Hollywood Reporter says the four-hour update will be called Surviving R. Kelly: The Aftermath, and it will feature interviews with “new survivors, psychologists, and experts.”
THR also says Lifetime is developing a similar doc called Surviving Jeffrey Epstein that will detail how the eponymous billionaire used his money and famous friends (Bill Clinton! Donald Trump!) to “allegedly shield predatory behavior with girls, ever after registering as a sex offender in 2008 for a conviction of procuring prostitution from a minor.” Language sure is fun. Anyway, Epstein was arrested earlier this month on various charges related to sex trafficking, with prosecutors saying he “brought as many as 40" underage girls to his home “for the purposes of sex.” A+E Networks programming president Rob Sharenow says Surviving Jeffrey Epstein will “bring to light predator behavior that had been ‘hiding in plain sight.’”
Now, just try to suppress any concerns that this trend of exposing infamous predators is rapidly turning into soulless, exploitative content, because that’s probably not what’s happening here.