Surviving R. Kelly

  • Nigel Bellis
  • Astral Finnie

United States

English

3

15

  • Tamra Simmons
  • Dream Hampton
  • Jesse Daniels
  • Joel Karsberg
  • Jessica Everleth
  • Maria Pepin

  • Laura Hoeppner
  • Charlotte Glover
  • Allison Brandin
  • Clarissa Kern
  • Lisa Nicole Jackson

44-60 minutes

January 3, 2019 (2019-01-03) –
January 3, 2023 (2023-01-03)

Production[edit]

A documentary series focused on R. Kelly's history of alleged sexual abuse was green-lit by Lifetime in May 2018.[21]


"We've been working for over a year to bring forth the stories of these women," executive producer Joel Karsberg told The Hollywood Reporter. "We are proud to team with Lifetime to shed light on these stories as well as an industry that has looked the other way for so many years."[21]


Hampton was invited onto the project by an executive at Bunim/Murray Productions.[22] "[...] That executive, Jesse Daniels, and Tamra Simmons, another co-EP on this project, have been holding these relationships with some of his survivors for months before I came on board," Hampton said in an interview with NPR.[22] "I remember talking to them early on, kind of figuring out if we were going to work together...Having been adjacent in some ways to the music industry, when there was one, I knew that it took dozens, if not hundreds of people, for R. Kelly to operate as long as he has in the way that he has."[22]


Hampton said that Simmons would call prospective interviewees late into the night. "She was handling and had the relationships with, not just the women and girls who survived R. Kelly, but also the families," Hampton said. "We had three families who were trying to get their daughters back. So she in particular, she and Jesse, had been caring for those relationships. And then I came on as showrunner and made it a show."[23]


Many musicians who worked with R. Kelly refused to participate in the series. "When it comes to celebrities, it was incredibly difficult to get people who had collaborated (artistically) with Kelly to come forward," Hampton said. "We asked Lady Gaga. We asked Erykah Badu. We asked Celine Dion. We asked Jay-Z. We asked Dave Chappelle. (They're) people who have been critical of him."[24] Hampton specifically praised John Legend for appearing in the documentary.[24]

Reception[edit]

Critical response[edit]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 95% approval rating for the first season with an average rating of 8.19/10, based on 21 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "By unearthing previously suppressed histories, Surviving R. Kelly exposes the dangers of enabling predatory behavior and gives necessary voice to its survivors."[25] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 86 out of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[26]

at IMDb

Surviving R. Kelly

at Rotten Tomatoes

Surviving R. Kelly

at Metacritic

Surviving R. Kelly