‘Surviving R.Kelly Part II: The Reckoning’ premiered Thursday night.
Lifetime launched the five-episode second season after the successful six-hour docu-series that premiered in January 2019, which gained more than 26 million viewers.
The first two hours of the series focused mainly on the reactions to last year’s series, including backlash the accusers received.
Thursday’s episodes shared interviews with two of Kelly’s brother, alleged victims who were not in the first season as well as supporters of the singer.
DeRogatis was also featured in the docuseries, as one of the first journalists to report on the allegations against Kelly in the early 2000s. DeRogatis spoke about the importance of the series and the stories being told.
“I was reporting many of these stories for years,” DeRogatis said. “But the power of television to make people feel as if they met these women, so many of these people who I’d talked to, I’d had these experiences, but not all of America had.”
One of the new survivors featured in the series was Tiffany Hawkins, who described herself as “the first girl.”
Hawkins was a singer who filed a suit against Kelly in 1996 for personal injuries and emotional damage, stemming from a sexual relationship with Kelly. Hawkins claimed that her sexual relationship with Kelly began when she was 15 and ended when she was 18.
In addition to alleged victims, the series also highlighted the individuals who still support Kelly.
Perryman-Dunn, who worked for Kelly as a studio manager, assistant, and general manager, said that while working for the singer, she never witnessed any inappropriate behavior. But on the other hand, record executive Dame Dash was also interviewed to speak on the relationship Kelly had with the late singer, #Aaliyah.
“If people would’ve protected Aaliyah, so many other girls wouldn’t have got touched,” Dash said. “Aaliyah was, like, the sacrificial lamb for all that ‘cause she didn’t deserve none of that. Good soul. Good girl. And (she) wasn’t even so resentful, like ‘Let that man live but keep him the f— away from me.’ That’s all she wanted. She was just happy to be away.”
Throughout the series, Lifetime flashed a statement from R.Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, which denied all allegations against him, and after Greenberg released a new statement, calling the program “one-sided propaganda.”
“Mr. Kelly and his legal team are focused on his court cases and the hope that through those proceedings the truth will come out,” Greenberg said. “We cannot waste our time on a for-profit, one-sided propaganda piece that is without any factual credibility. I would note that since the first aired, no one who is not associated with the show has come forward to support the stories told, no photographs have been surfaced to confirm, there’s been no cooperation. Just a series of claims on an island of their own. As I said, we are going to concentrate our efforts on the things that matter.”
“Surviving R.Kelly, Part II: The Reckoning” will continue to air through Friday and Saturday night at 9 EST/PST.
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