Showtime continues to make strides with its sports documentaries. The premium cable network’s catalog includes profiles on athletes like Julian Edelman, Sonny Liston, DeMarcus Cousins, and Ron Artest, cultural commentaries such as Shut Up and Dribble, and in-depth reports like Disgraced, which explored the murder of a basketball player at Baylor.
(The overall selection of documentaries at Showtime is becoming increasingly impressive. Did anybody watch the Duran Duran or Motown films over the holidays?)
Showtime is moving into legal drama and true crime for an upcoming project. Outcry , premiering April 3, is a five-part series that will delve into the case of Greg Kelley, a Texas high school football star who was arrested and convicted for sexual assault of a four-year-old boy in 2013. Kelley, then 18, was sentenced to 25 years in prison with no possibility for parole.
But public outcry over the case focused increased scrutiny on the investigation and prosecution, and new evidence was discovered, resulting in the conviction being questioned. The conviction was eventually overturned and Kelley was released from prison in 2017.
Outcry covers the three years of the Kelley case, interviewing several family members and people in the community, those who supported the conviction and the others who felt that a young man had been wrongly prosecuted.
The documentary also explores the appeals process as Kelley’s new lawyers discovered and introduced new evidence that showed someone else had committed the crime, leading to intense criticism of the criminal justice system that convicted and imprisoned Kelley.
Happy to announce that our 5-part doc Outcry will premiere at #SXSW before an April 3rd premiere on @Showtime I'm so proud of the work done by the talented team at BatBridge that made this with me, and so proud to be a part of #sxsw2020 @SHO_Docs @SHOsports pic.twitter.com/uHoho7LFop
— Pat Kondelis (@Roundmp) January 15, 2020
The documentary series is produced and directed by Pat Kondelis, who also made Disgraced for Showtime, and his Bat Bridge Entertainment production company.
Outcry will premiere on Showtime Friday, April 3 at 8 p.m. ET. The film is scheduled to premiere at the South by Southwest festival in Austin shortly before that.
About Ian Casselberry
Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.