Lifetime has released a trailer for Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning and announced that the sequel documentary series will air in early 2020.
The followup to the Surviving R. Kelly series will debut on Jan. 2 and will air on three consecutive nights in Canada and the United States.
Part II: The Reckoning details everything that has happened in the aftermath of the release of the first documentary.
The trailer shows many people talking about the gun threat at the premiere for Surviving R. Kelly, the multiple threats the participants received, and even Kelly’s emotional interview with Gayle King where he said he was “fighting for my f***ing life.”
Kelly accuser Asante McGee, who was in the first part of the docu-series, said people started direct messaging her and saying, “Count your days.”
Part II: The Reckoning will feature interviews with new alleged survivors, and with Damon Dash, Matthew Knowles, #MeToo initiator Tarana Burke, state’s attorney for Illinois Cook County Kimberly M. Foxx and lawyers Gloria Allred and Michael Avenatti.
The second part of the documentary series will also feature one of Kelly’s “ex-girlfriends” Dominique Gardner reuniting with her family for the first time in nine years.
Lifetime’s senior vice president for unscripted development and programming Brie Bryant said a followup was necessary.
“Unfortunately, the story is not done,” Bryant said while speaking at The Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100 Women in Entertainment.
“Following the premiere, there was a surge in sex abuse hotlines, Twitter ignited, Saturday Night Live made a seven-minute opening skit, there were demands for actions, a few federal agencies became involved … and later, multiple federal indictments. And just like that, the conversation became inclusive.”
Bryant praised those who took part in the first documentary and shared their allegations against Kelly.
“Without the guts to become uncomfortable, to live in a state of unease and unrest, but to continue to provide raw honesty, we might not have ignited this global conversation,” she said. “Without the belief that despite all the consequences, every girl and woman deserves to be heard and seen — and, most importantly, believed.”
The Ignition Remix singer is currently being held without bond and is scheduled to stand trial in federal court in Chicago in April 2020 on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges before facing trial in Brooklyn in May.
Last week, Kelly was accused by federal prosecutors of scheming with others to pay for a fake ID for an unnamed female one day before he married the late R&B singer Aaliyah, who was 15 years old at the time, in a secret ceremony in 1994.
Kelly was already charged by Brooklyn prosecutors with racketeering, kidnapping, forced labour and sexual exploitation. They alleged he and his employees and assistants picked out women and girls at concerts and groomed them for sexual abuse.
The revised indictment, filed Thursday in New York, accuses Kelly of paying a bribe in exchange for a “fraudulent identification document” for someone identified only as “Jane Doe” on Aug. 30, 1994.
Kelly was acquitted in 2008 on charges of videotaping himself having sex with a girl who prosecutors allege was as young as 13.
Kelly was arrested in February on 10 counts in Illinois of sexually abusing three girls and a woman. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
On May 30, Cook County prosecutors in Illinois added 11 more sex-related counts involving one of the women who accused him of sexually abusing her when she was underage.
In July, in federal court in Chicago, the Bump N’ Grind singer was indicted on charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice, with prosecutors accusing him of paying off potential witnesses in his 2008 trial to get them to change their story.
Kelly was also indicted in New York at that time with exploiting five victims, identified only as “Jane Does.” According to court papers, they include one he met while she was a radio station intern around 2004 and another at one of his concerts in 2015. Kelly pleaded not guilty to the original New York charges.
The three-night event for Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning begins Jan. 2 on Lifetime at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Watch the trailer for Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning in the video above.
If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or is involved in an abusive situation, please visit the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for help. They are also reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.
—With files from The Associated Press