The Price of Glee, set to premiere Jan. 16 on Investigation Discovery and Discovery+, focuses on the legacy and controversies surrounding the Fox musical comedy, as well as the deaths of cast members Cory Monteith, Naya Rivera and Mark Salling. Key cast and crew members share on the docuseries first-hand stories of their time on Glee.
“Show me this ‘cast’ you speak of,” McHale, who played Artie Abrams on the show, tweeted Dec. 9. “This is [wastebasket emoji].”
The actor added, “This was the nice version, ftr. Don’t make me speak on this again.”
Jenna Ushkowitz, who played Artie’s love interest Tina Cohen-Chang on Glee, responded to McHale’s last tweet with a grimacing face emoji.
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The two co-host the Glee rewatch podcast And That’s What You Really Missed. In November, the actors briefly touched upon the new docuseries in an interview with BuzzFeed.
Fellow cast member Chord Overstreet also spoke about the new docuseries back in August.
McHale and Jenna starred on all six seasons of Glee, which ended in 2015. Overstreet joined in season two as Sam Evans. Monteith played their character’s friend Finn Hudson, and was also an original cast member. He died at age 31 of an accidental overdose in 2013.
In 2018, Salling, who played Noah “Puck” Puckerman on the show, died of suicide at 35 at while awaiting sentencing in a legal case to which he had pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor.
In 2020, on the seventh anniversary of Monteith’s death, Rivera, who played Santana Lopez on Glee, was confirmed dead of accidental drowning at 33 after a boating accident.
Her father, George Rivera, is featured in The Price of Glee docuseries. During his interview, he reflects on how the series impacted his late daughter’s life.