The 3-part docuseries premieres on ID Jan. 16.
Investigation Discovery has released the chilling trailer for The Price of Glee. The 3-part docuseries will examine the dark side of the series on and off-screen, with a look at the sudden deaths of three of the series' leads -- Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez), Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson) and Mark Salling (Noah "Puck" Puckerman).
The trailer begins with a montage of light moments featuring the cast, before it cuts into an interview with a subject revealing the moment he found out about Monteith’s death.
Before going deeper into the trailer, a graphic reads, "In May 2009, 10 actors made their TV debut on Glee. By 2020, all of them would be famous. And three of them would be dead."
The remainder of the trailer highlights the moments surrounding the deaths of Monteith, who died in 2013 after a drug overdose; Salling, who died by suicide in 2018 after he was convicted of child pornography charges; and Rivera, who died in 2020 as a result of accidental drowning.
Rivera’s father, George Rivera, is interviewed and speaks about his daughter’s rise to fame from a child actress to her iconic character on the series.
"I knew that was the top of the mountain for Naya," he says. "For your kid, it was just surreal."
A release for the docuseries says, "Glee was a once-in-a-generation cultural phenomenon that bravely pushed up against social norms and generated groundbreaking discussions around sexuality, race, disability and family. Each music-filled week brought joy to so many people, but sadly, even one of the happiest shows on television couldn’t escape the dark underbelly of Hollywood and the frenzy of burgeoning social media," Jason Sarlanis, President of Crime and Investigative Content, Linear and Streaming, notes.
“While celebrating the show’s indelible mark on pop culture and its unprecedented success, The Price of Glee takes a hard look at the intense pressure that results from being catapulted into superstardom and sheds new light on the terrible tragedies that befell the cast and crew of Glee."
Glee, created by Ryan Murphy, aired for six seasons from 2009 to 2015. The Price of Glee does not appear to have any interviews from leading cast members of the series such as Lea Michele, Amber Riley, Kevin McHale, Matthew Morrison and Heather Morris.
The Price of Glee premieres Jan. 16 at 9 p.m. EST on ID. The series will stream on Discovery+ the same day.
RELATED CONTENT:
