Nickelodeon alum Kenan Thompson weighed in on the startling new docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
The multi-part docuseries was released by Investigation Discovery and featured interviews from former child stars, parents and other Nickelodeon employees. One of the most notable participants was Drake Bell, who revealed that he had been molested by a dialogue coach while working as a teen actor.
Other revelations focused on former Nickelodeon head Dan Schneider, who was accused of creating a toxic workplace while with the network. He was let go by the network in 2018.
Kenan, who came up on Nickelodeon with projects such as All That, Kenan & Kel and Good Burger, responded to the docuseries in a recent interview. He reflected on his own experience and why Quiet on Set was “definitely tough” to watch.
Keep reading to find out more…
While on the Tamron Hall Show, Kenan reflected on how his experience at Nickelodeon differed.
“It’s a tough subject, you know? Because, it’s tough for me because I can’t really speak on things I’ve never witnessed,” he said. “You know what I’m saying? Because all these things happened after I left, basically, and Dan wasn’t really on Kenan & Kel like that.”
He continued, explaining, “I mean, he got a ‘created by’ credit, but it was a different showrunner. So our worlds weren’t overly overlapping like that, outside of All That, necessarily. And then all that negativity kind of started happening outside of our tenure there.”
“I wasn’t really aware of a lot of it, but my heart goes out to anybody that’s been victimized or their families,” Kenan said. “I mean I think it’s a good thing that the doc is out and it’s putting things on display that need to be, you know, stories that need to be told for this, accountability sake. But it’s definitely tough to watch because I have fond memories of that place, and I have fond memories of my costars and stuff like that. So to hear that they’ve gone through terrible things like that, it’s just, it’s really tough.”
He urged that there be more investigations to continue exposing anything else that happened behind the scenes.
“It’s supposed to be a safe space, you know? It’s supposed to be a safe space for kids and to hear all about that is just like… How dare you?”
See the biggest revelations to come from Quiet on Set.
If you missed it, Drake recently weighed in on Nickelodeon’s response to his revelations in the docuseries.
We also learned exactly why Amanda Bynes was not featured in the project.
Press play on the interview below…
