This past March, HBO confirmed to Awful Announcing that its documentary focused on the Ohio State sex abuse scandal involving Dr. Richard Strauss would release later this year.
We now know exactly when it will be released and have our first look at the documentary, which has been more than four years in the making.
According to HBO, Surviving Ohio State will premiere on Tuesday, June 17, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and the HBO Max streaming service. In addition to the release date, HBO released its first trailer for the Tribeca Film Festival selection, which was produced by George Clooney, his longtime collaborator Grant Heslov, and sports journalist Jon Wertheim, while directed by Emmy-winning actor Eva Orner.
An official synopsis for the documentary reads:
SURVIVING OHIO STATE tells the story of the male victims of Dr. Richard Strauss, a sports medicine physician and serial sex abuser employed by The Ohio State University (OSU) from 1978 to 1998. Bravely told by the student-athletes and others who concealed their trauma for years, the film builds on the efforts of whistleblowers and journalists who exposed the scandal in 2018. It also examines the culture that allowed the abuse to continue unchecked for nearly two decades at OSU, as well as the survivors’ present-day fight to hold the school accountable.
Based on Jon Wertheim’s Sports Illustrated cover story “Why Aren’t More People Talking About the Ohio State Sex Abuse Scandal,” SURVIVING OHIO STATE features numerous male athletes, including several former All-American wrestlers, who have come forward to share their experiences of abuse during their time at The Ohio State University. The film includes revealing interviews with OSU student-athlete alumni Mark Coleman, Adam DiSabato, Michael DiSabato, Will Knight, Al Novakowski, Rockey Ratliff, Dan Ritchie, and Mike Schyck; OSU alumnus Stephen Snyder-Hill, wrestling referee Frederick Feeney, and others.
If the trailer is any indication, the highly anticipated project promises to be a hard-hitting look at the sex abuse scandal that rocked one of the country’s biggest universities and most famous athletic departments. While Ohio State entered into a settlement and agreed to pay $40.9 million to 162 sexual abuse survivors in 2020, multiple lawsuits remain ongoing, with the university’s own independent investigation determining that at least 177 male students were sexually abused by Strauss, who died in 2005.
As for the project itself, it was first announced via Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures in 2021. Production first began in 2022 and continued well into 2023 with the documentary set to have its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival next week.