Overview
- The hour-long special premieres May 12 on ABC, with next-day streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
- The trailer features Teresa Reveles describing finding Simmons on his bedroom floor, marking her first public account after 35 years working with him.
- The report traces his rise to fame, his 2014 retreat from public life, and a quiet plan to return after he sent Diane Sawyer flowers with a note that read “I trust you.”
- The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner ruled his 2024 death accidental from complications of recent falls, with heart disease contributing, and detailed a fall on July 11 and that he was found unresponsive the morning of July 13.
- Interviews with his brother Lenny Simmons, sister-in-law Cathy, manager Michael Catalano, and friend Rosie O’Donnell aim to add new insight into his private world and cultural legacy.