Early this year, the first part of the Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly resurrected the longstanding accusations against the 52-year-old singer that have alleged a history of sexual abuse over the last 25 years. A whirlwind of media coverage and controversy followed, eventually leading to his arrest and official charges brought against him in his native Illinois, New York, and Minnesota. Now, Lifetime will cover the fallout from the first docuseries in a follow-up titled Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning in 2020, airing one year after the first explosive exposé. Lifetime released the trailer today, which you can watch above.
The trailer details not only the legal charges and social consequences against Kelly, but also the ramifications for the participants in the first documentary, who say they were threatened with menacing calls and digital messages and found themselves caught up in the firestorm of controversies surrounding the singer’s downfall. In one particularly chilling interview excerpt, one of Kelly’s former victims admits to being in a suicide pact agreeing that if Kelly went to prison, she and others were to kill themselves. Another clip catches lawyer Michael Avenatti forcefully asserting that while some may blame the women’s parents or the women themselves, those folks should be placing it all squarely on R. Kelly himself, “where the blame f*cking belongs.”
Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning airs over three nights beginning January 2 at 9PM on Lifetime.
