Nick and Aaron Carter are ‘Fallen Idols’ in New Doc Trailer
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 fiancee, 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.
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 August 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.