PRESIDENT’S AWARD 2019 for Impact on Media The SUCCESS of SURVIVING R. KELLY CREATORS OF LIFETIME DOCUMENTARY SERIES RECEIVE PRESIDENT’S AWARD FOR IMPACT ON MEDIA BY LISA RICHWINE

llegations that musician R. Kelly was Daniels, Dream Hampton and Joel Karsberg. abusing teenage girls and young women “The Surviving R. Kelly team has done what Awere well known for years. Yet the singer every journalist aspires to do: tell a compelling continued releasing records, staging live shows story that prompts change and that also speaks and living a rock-star life. to a broader issue which needs to be addressed,” That abruptly changed after the Lifetime LA Press Club President Chris Palmeri said. channel in January 2019 aired the documen- Karsberg and Daniels, producers at Kreativ tary series Surviving R. Kelly, in which multiple Inc., began exploring a documentary about women detailed harrowing stories of sexual Kelly in 2017 after Buzzfeed and misconduct and abuse at the hands of the enter- wrote about new allegations of abuse by Kelly. tainer. Within weeks, the Grammy-winning art- Those followed the proceedings of 2008, when ist known for the hit song “I Believe I Can Fly” the singer was tried and acquitted on child por- was dropped by his and indicted nography charges in his hometown of . for aggravated sexual assault of four people, He continued selling music and drawing crowds including three teenage girls. to his concerts. told in a documentary format. sought to use television to bring the matter to Survivors, clockwise from Tonight, the Press Club is honor- Karsberg and Daniels wondered why the The pair joined up with Simmons and began a wide audience and demonstrate a pattern of top left: The Clary family is trying to convince ing the creative team behind Surviving R. Kelly stories kept emerging and yet Kelly’s career by reaching out to an Atlanta couple who had behavior, Daniels said. their daughter to return, with the President’s Award for Impact on Media. kept going. They looked into various cases gone public with accusations that Kelly was “We realized that, while there has been some Sparkle, AK, Jovante, It is being accepted by series executive produc- and started to hear similar stories that they felt holding their daughter captive in Chicago. Oth- incredible journalism here, maybe through the Lizzette, and Lisa. ers Tamra Simmons, Brie Miranda Bryant, Jesse established a pattern of behavior that could be ers began sharing similar stories, and the team power of a documentary, the power of TV, in a bigger way, we may be able to make a difference,” he said. From far left, executive Meanwhile, Bryant had just producers: Jesse Daniels, taken a job as senior vice presi- Tamra Simmons, Joel Karsberg, Brie Miranda dent of unscripted development Bryant, and Dream and programming at Lifetime, Hampton. and the channel was looking to join the conversation around the burgeoning #MeToo movement against sexual harassment. The project was pitched to Bry- ant, who believed it would play well on Lifetime even though the network had done few documen- taries in the past. Over two years, the team inter-

Los Angeles 22 Press CLub Southern California 23 Journalism Awards PRESIDENT’S AWARD SURVIVING R. KELLY CREATIVE TEAM

We salute the

Above: The Savages LOS ANGELES viewed more than 50 people, includ- were among the parents ing parents who say Kelly abused their who came out to warn against R. Kelly, believing daughters, former managers and produc- their daughter has been ers, an ex-wife, and others once close to brainwashed into staying the singer. Seven women said on camera with him. that they were victims of sexual or emo- Clockwise, above, right: tional abuse by Kelly, some when they Survivors Michelle, Kitti, Faith and Jerhonda. were underage. In some cases, accord- ing to the accounts, Kelly kept women from contacting family members and controlled when they could eat or use PRESS CLUB the bathroom. The documentary also explored issues of race and criminal justice, highlighting a history where accounts from black girls or Records dropped the singer. and all of this year’s Southern California women were often dismissed, and where Kelly’s In Chicago, a prosecutor called for anyone fans argued he was a victim of a system biased who felt they had been abused by the singer to against black men. come forward. In February, he was charged with Journalism Awards honorees. Surviving R. Kelly aired in six hours over three 10 counts of sexual abuse. Kelly has pleaded not nights. It broke viewership records for Lifetime guilty and is free on bond. and ignited conversations on social media and “I feel like the world heard them,” Simmons at in-person screenings. Calls to sexual abuse said of the women who told their stories. hotlines increased. Hampton noted that not everyone reacted the The documentary generated coverage from way the team had hoped. Before Kelly’s music news outlets around the world. Bryant said she was pulled, streaming services saw a spike in received articles about it in Mandarin, and also interest in his songs. The day after the documen- heard men discussing the series and how they tary fnished airing, his songs were streamed 4.3 Jim Hill Nima Elbagir Henry Winkler Surviving R. Kelly had been sexually abused as children. million times, according to Billboard. CBS2 / KCAL9 CNN Civic Life LIFETIME “They said it without shame, and they were There were other, more serious develop- heard without judgment,” Bryant said. “I have ments. never seen anybody talk about such a topic so “I was early on seeing a lot of the victims publicly like that. For me, that moment was were being trolled and blamed, seeing that the extremely impactful and I realized what we were parents were being blamed. I saw that a lot of able to do by giving survivors this platform.” people were looking to blame anyone but R. The series also added fuel to the social media Kelly,” Hampton said. “I didn’t expect it to be movement #MuteRKelly, which was launched easy, and it wasn’t.” in late 2017 to pressure record companies, con- Still, she said she was gratifed by discussions cert promoters and others to cut ties with the she saw on social media, particularly among artist. In the wake of the documentary, radio sta- black women who were speaking up about sex- tions stopped playing Kelly’s music, streaming ual violence and fghting any suggestions that services removed his songs and the label RCA victims could be at fault. ©2019 A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 1560. Los Angeles 24 Press CLub