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“Sean Combs: The Reckoning” was the second-most watched Netflix title of its debut week with 21.8 million views, coming in behind the new season of “Stranger Things.”
Netflix’s Diddy documentary, “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” clocked an impressive 21.8 million views within its first six days on the streaming service—the second-most watched title that week behind only the new season of “Stranger Things.”
That’s made all the more impressive by the fact that it premiered only a week after its release date was even announced. The conversation generated around the docuseries’ release certainly elevated its mystique too, with Combs issuing a cease-and-desist letter alleging that Netflix and the series’ executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson used stolen footage. That claim has been refuted by both Netflix and the filmmakers, and 50 Cent himself.
So how did filmmakers secure the footage? Well, 50 Cent has maintained that the footage was legally acquired. “I’m going to keep my sources secure,” he told E! News.
However, Jackson has confirmed that although he has had no contact with Combs since his federal court case, he has had some interaction with his family and children. The rapper didn’t specify which one, but noted that he communicated with one of Combs’ grown sons in particular.
“I had communications with his son,” he told Us Weekly. “There was a point when they were interested in being a part of the doc because they wanted to show their perspective. They were concerned about how [things] would be portrayed.”
The rapper has also confirmed that he spoke to Diddy’s ex, Cassie Ventura—whose testimony was central to the recent federal trial against Combs—to prepare for producing the docuseries. “It was important [that I] spoke to her to understand how things transpired,” he said. “I think she’s going to understand it.”
But Combs and his attorneys have spoken out against the docuseries and his longtime rival’s involvement in the project, while his representatives called it an attempt “to capitalize on a never-ending media frenzy.”
“Netflix’s so-called ‘documentary’ is a shameful hit piece,” Combs’ attorneys wrote. “Netflix relied on stolen footage that was never authorized for release. […] Combs has been amassing footage since he was 19 to tell his own story, in his own way. It is fundamentally unfair, and illegal, for Netflix to misappropriate that work.”
Netflix maintains that these statements are false, and that the footage of Combs was legally obtained. The company also contends that the docuseries is “not a hit piece or an act of retribution.”
