Several participants in Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV claim they were not informed the docuseries would air on the Investigation Discovery network, a.k.a. ID.
“I’m not too familiar with ID, but for the interview I sat down for, it was not an appropriate network for the show,” Raquel Lee Bolleau, a former star of Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show, told IndieWire in an interview published on Saturday, April 20. “I had no clue it was on [ID] until one or two weeks before it aired.”
Quiet on Set aired on ID on March 17 and 18 and examined the toxic work environment for child actors at Nickelodeon. The documentary features allegations of abuse against Dan Schneider, who created popular Nickelodeon shows like Zoey 101, Drake & Josh, iCarly, Victorious and Sam & Cat. It also includes an interview with Drake Bell, who detailed the abuse he suffered at the hands of dialogue coach Brian Peck.
“I see people [online] asking, ‘How could you be a part of something that you didn’t know what it was?’ But when people have an agenda, they’re going to be very, very meticulous and strategic on how they get that agenda to where they want it to be,” Lee Bolleau said.
The conversation around the alleged toxic work environment at Nickelodeon may just be getting started. Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which aired in March on Investigation Discovery, covered producer Dan Schneider’s time at the network, with former child stars and crew members recalling their experiences on the sets of various shows […]
Another interviewee, former Zoey 101 cast member Alexa Nikolas, told IndieWire, “When I looked it up, my first thought was our stories and the conversation that deserves to be had around them are way bigger than ID and deserve a more credible platform. A more serious one.”
She added, “I feel that the sensationalism was revved up because of it being on ID. It would have been curated differently and would have been more impactful on [another network].”
Us Weekly has reached out to ID for comment.
Both Nikolas and Lee Bolleau believe that interview subjects were intentionally kept in the dark about certain aspects of the project and its affiliations. Both women filmed their interviews in 2023 and say they had no idea Quiet on Set would air on ID until February and March 2024.
Additionally, at one point, the women thought the doc was being made specifically for Max, though most ID titles stream on Max anyway thanks to the Warner Bros. Discovery merger in 2022. “I’m upset about them keeping it secret from me,” Lee Bolleau said. “I feel like they did that because they knew if we were aware of the magnitude of how big this was going to be they would’ve had to treat us better.”
Over the years, former Nickelodeon stars have opened up about their journey as child actors at the network — and not everyone had the same experience. Jennette McCurdy shocked her fans when she revealed that she wasn’t thrilled about her time on iCarly. “I did the shows that I was on from like 13 to […]
Created by Emma Schwartz and Mary Robertson, Quiet on Set was produced by Business Insider and Maxine Productions with Sony Pictures Television. “I don’t personally hold anything against anyone at ID or Max right now, but I do hold something against Maxine, because they knew what they were doing,” Lee Bolleau said of the production company. “About it streaming on Max, it just feels like, ‘How can we make the most money and keep this story circulating?’”
According to Nikolas, Quiet on Set is the producers’ “version” of her experience at Nickelodeon, not hers. “We have to live with our stories and how they were treated by ID and Maxine forever while they see it as leverage for future projects,” she said. “There’s nothing bingeable about trauma.”
Despite these claims from Nikolas and Lee Bolleau, directors Schwartz and Robertson believe that even more former child stars from Nickelodeon will start to come forward following the release of the doc.
“One of the goals of the series is to help spark a broader conversation around these issues. And I certainly know that there’s a lot more people with a lot more stories out there,” Schwartz exclusively told Us Weekly in March before the docuseries was released. “And we would love to be able to keep telling those stories if more people want to speak and share.”
Quiet on Set also included interviews with Nickelodeon cast members Katrina Johnson, Giovonnie Samuels, Kyle Sullivan and Bryan Hearne.
