With ID’s becoming an overnight ratings hit for Investigation Discovery and , attention has now turned to of the docuseries that promises to dig deeper into the toxic allegations swirling around ’s years at . On Thursday, Turner Networks, ID & HLN, linear and streaming president Jason Sarlanis told the original four-part series, which released March 17 and 18, far exceeded expectations and prompted the network to mobilize and greenlight the bonus episode to air only weeks later. “We first started talking to [co-directors] Mary [Robertson] and Emma [Schwartz] about [extending the series] right after the
trailer dropped,” Sarlanis recalled of , which featured clips of child stars coming forward with claims of abuse and sexism surrounding iconic kids TV shows of the late 1990s and early 2000s on Nickelodeon. The bonus episode, titled , which will launch on ID and stream on Max April 7, will feature more former Nickelodeon stars including , who publicly described the
Sexual Abuse he suffered at the hands of , his former dialogue coach, . Some of the stars will be reuniting for the first time when Soledad O’Brien leads a conversation in the new episode to discuss where the industry can go from here. The original docuseries has been watched by around 20 million viewers and became the largest audience for an unscripted series on Max. The ratings are a triumph for directors and executive producers , whose series about childhood stardom has proved to be hugely consequential in the pop culture conversation, as dialogue and more first-hand accounts and accusations have since When speaking on Thursday, Robertson recounted to her experience of viewing the first two episodes live — in a room full of colleagues, including crew members, editors and producers who had worked on — while simultaneously witnessing
Social Media platforms explode with passionate audience reaction. “Certainly, chills went down my spine. I couldn’t believe the number of people who were engaging with the premiere in real time,” she said, “and who were mimicking reactions we had in the editing rooms. There was this sense people are watching and, holy cow, they really get it.” For Schwartz, the blanket pre-premiere media coverage of signaled to her that the #MeToo reckoning of 2017, sparked by the
Harvey Weinstein scandal that exposed a toxic culture of abuse that had long gone unchecked in Hollywood, was about to engulf the questions around safeguarding vulnerable child actors in kids television. “There were people talking like, ‘this is a #MeToo movement for kids.’ And I thought, ‘the series isn’t even out yet and you’re already going much broader than the story we even told,'” she tells . “This was a moment where they got that there’s a whole system that’s even bigger than our story, and we really are seeing a movement form about what should happen next in our industry.” ID’s original four-part docuseries spotlighted allegations of abuse, sexism,
racism and inappropriate behavior involving underage stars and crewmembers on Nickelodeon TV shows created by Schneider, which include hit programs like and . His critics have claimed online and in the series that Schneider was inappropriate to young females who worked for him, and that he wrote inappropriate scripts for uncomfortable child actors to perform. The prolific Nickelodeon producer responded to the ID and Max docuseries and its claims with “Watching over the past two nights was very difficult — me facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret. I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology,” Schneider said during the 19-minute video. The fifth and bonus episode will feature interviews with returning stars Giovonnie Samuels and Bryan Christopher Hearne, while cast member Shane Lyons will be interviewed for the first time. Following on Bell publicly identifying himself as the person who was sexually assaulted on a set at age 15 for years by Peck, a network dialogue coach who was put on trial and convicted for sexually molesting a previously unnamed minor, the alum will return to talk more about the dark side of the time period at Nickelodeon as of triumph over adversity continues. Schwartz told that Bell hearing from fellow survivors of sexual abuse after fed his strength to continue sharing his story. “That’s given him a certain sort of strength and feeling that there is a power in telling your truth, and shedding light and helping other people not feel so alone in that experience. Because for many years that was how he felt: very, very alone,” she explained. And it seems safe to assume more episodes of are on the way, as Robertson and Schwartz are keeping their cameras rolling. “We’re devoted to telling this story. We’re passionate about telling the story. We don’t think we’re done telling this story,” said Robertson. Quiet on Set:
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