Surviving Jeffrey Epstein is an American documentary television miniseries about convicted

sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crime ...

Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, des ...

, directed by Anne Sundberg and

Ricki Stern ''Ricki Stern'' is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, most known for her documentarian work, and author. She works alongside Anne Sundberg. She is most known for ''The Trials of Darryl Hunt'' (2006), '' The Devil Came on Horsebac ...

. It consists of 4-episodes and premiered on August 9, 2020, on Lifetime.

Plot

The documentary series follows convicted sex offender

who used his power and finances to shield his predatory behavior. Eight survivors share their stories in the documentary. Courtney Wild, Rachel Kay Benavides, and

Virginia Roberts Giuffre Virginia Louise Giuffre (''née'' Roberts; born August 9, 1983) is an American-Australian campaigner who offers support to victims of sex trafficking. She is an alleged victim of the sex trafficking ring of Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre created Vic ...

appear in the series, along with new victims who chose to come forward for the first time. The series continued filming close to the release date in order to include the FBI arrest of British socialite and alleged Epstein co-conspirator

Ghislaine Maxwell Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell ( ; born 25 December 1961) is a British convicted sex offender and former socialite. In 2021, she was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with the financier and convicted sex o ...

on July 2, 2020.

Episodes

Production

In July 2019, it was announced Anne Sundberg and

would direct the documentary, with Robert Friedman set to produce the series under his Bungalow Media + Entertainment banner, to premiere on Lifetime. In January 2020, Lifetime greenlit the series.

Broadcast

In the United States, the series premiered on August 9, 2020, with back-to-back episodes before concluding on August 10 on Lifetime. In the United Kingdom, the series premiered on August 25, 2020, with back-to-back episodes before concluding on August 26, on

Crime & Investigation Crime & Investigation (stylized as Crime + Investigation) is an American pay television channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between the Hearst Communications and the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The cha ...

Reception

Critical response

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the series has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Impact

The National Sexual Assault Hotline in the United States, operated by the

Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) is an American nonprofit anti-sexual assault organization, the largest in the United States. RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline, as well as the Department of Defense Safe Helpline ...

(RAINN), experienced a 34% increase in calls during the airing of the documentary.

References

External links

* {{Jeffrey Epstein Sex Trafficking Scandal 2020 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American documentary television series 2020s American television miniseries Lifetime (TV network) original programming Jeffrey Epstein Films about child sexual abuse