Surviving R. Kelly was widely praised by television viewers. It broke ratings records for Lifetime, led radio stations to remove R. Kelly’s music from their rotations, and prompted a federal agent to investigate claims against the embattled singer — leading to new charges.
Yet on Tuesday morning when the 2019 Emmy nominations were announced, the Lifetime docuseries picked up just one nomination — in the Outstanding Informational Series or Special category.
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In contrast, Leaving Neverland, HBO’s abuse documentary that detailed claims against Michael Jackson received five nominations — for outstanding documentary, sound editing, sound mixing, directing, and picture editing.
Lifetime’s six-part docuseries centered on allegations that R. Kelly had sex with numerous underage girls, held young women as sex slaves and picked up teenagers at a Chicago high school. It featured interviews with some of the singer-songwriter’s accusers, their parents, his ex-wife, journalists, teachers and the R&B singer’s relatives.
The film was executive produced by Dream Hampton, Tamra Simmons, Jesse Daniels, Joel Karsberg, Maria Akl andJessica Everleth.
Since Surviving R. Kelly premiered on Jan. 3, Kelly has been hit with state charges by prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois. And on July 11, he was arrested in Chicago on federal sex trafficking charges. The following day federal prosecutors announced the Grammy-winning performer had also been indicted in New York on kidnapping, racketeering, forced labor and child sex charges.
Kelly has denied the claims against him. He was previously found not guilty of multiple counts of possession of child pornography following the release of his infamous sex tape with a girl said to be 14-years-old.
