The Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter and his younger brother Aaron, an early-2000s teen pop sensation of his own, will be the subjects of the next big Investigation Discovery docuseries. Fallen Idols: Nick and Aaron Carter is set to premiere over two nights, May 27 and 28 at 9 p.m. ET.
The four-part series will look at the sexual assault and rape allegations leveled against Nick, and the backlash against his accusers. It will also examine Aaron’s struggles with mental health and substance abuse issues, which ultimately led to his death in 2022 (a coroner report said Aaron drowned after huffing and taking a generic form of Xanax).
Three women who have leveled allegations against Nick — Melissa Schuman, Ashley Repp, and Shannon “Shay” Ruth — spoke for the film, as did his ex-girlfriend, Kaya Jones, of the Pussycat Dolls. The trailer for Fallen Idols opens with Jones saying, “There’s things that I know about Nick that could burn his house down.” She adds later, “Nick looks like a perfect pretty Ken doll, but I know how evil he can be.”
As the trailer shows, Fallen Idols will also delve into the troubled Carter family, how Nick and Aaron’s superstardom exacerbated deep-seated issues, and the tensions that emerged between the brothers when Aaron started speaking out in support of Nick’s accusers. Further interviews were conducted with a member of the Carter family and close family friends, as well as Aaron’s former fiancé Melanie Martin.
All three of Nick’s accusers — Melissa Schuman, Ashley Repp, and Shannon “Shay” Ruth — were interviewed for Fallen Angels. An anonymous member of the Carter family also spoke for the doc, as well as Nick’s ex-girlfriend Kaya Jones, and Aaron’s former fiancée Melanie Martin.
Schuman, a former member of the girl group Dream, was the first to accuse Nick of assault in 2017, an allegation he denied. Over the next few years, no further claims emerged, and Nick continued to perform with the Backstreet Boys. But then, in 2022, Ruth filed a lawsuit, claiming Nick assaulted and raped her after a Backstreet Boys concert in 2001; in early 2023, Nick filed a countersuit, denying the allegations and said Ruth had been “manipulated into making false allegations” by various people, including Schuman.
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Schuman subsequently filed a lawsuit of her own last spring, while a third lawsuit, filed by a Jane Doe identified as A.R., was brought in Aug. 2023. Nick has denied all of the allegations against him and brought defamation suits against his accusers.
The docuseries follows ID’s blockbuster Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which premiered in March. That series examined the complicated legacy of Nickelodeon, with many former child stars and employees detailing the trauma and alleged abuse they endured while working on some of the network’s most popular kids series.
