To love Glee is to know that the hit Fox TV series is haunted by several startling tragedies. Most notably, the high-profile deaths of stars Cory Monteith, who passed away from an accidental drug overdose in 2013, Mark Salling, who died by suicide in 2018 after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography, and Naya Rivera, who suffered a drowning accident in 2020.
This phenomenon is the basis for Investigation Discovery’s new docuseries, The Price Of Glee. Airing roughly eight years after Glee wrapped in 2015, the project chronicles the untimely deaths of both cast and crew members and details behind-the-scenes moments of alleged tension and drama, beginning with a fitting quote about the show from creator Ryan Murphy: “What started off as being such a great celebration of love and acceptance ultimately became about darkness and death.”
It’s important to note that neither Murphy nor any of the main cast are involved in the three-part documentary, which premiered Monday (Jan. 16) on ID and is available for streaming on Discovery+ that same day. In fact, some of the former New Directioners have denounced the docuseries altogether.
Kevin McHale, who played Artie Abrams, likened it to trash, and in December told In Touch that he and his castmates had “nothing to do with it.” Chord Overstreet, who played Sam Evans, called it “bulls–t” on the Elvis Duran radio show.
The stories that are included in The Price of Glee come from various crew members and some actors who served as stand-ins for the main cast. Rivera’s father, George Rivera, is also featured in the doc, as are a couple of Cory Monteith’s former friends — one of whom is Stephen Kramer Glickman, a supporting actor on Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush, who claimed to have befriended Monteith while their respective shows were filming near each other.
Keep reading to see nine of the biggest revelations from The Price of Glee.
