Drake Bell is calling out Nickelodeon’s response to the exposé documentary that he appeared in, ‘Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.’ He says the kids TV network’s reaction is “pretty empty.”
Drake Bell, who previously starred on Nickelodeon’s ‘The Amanda Show‘ and ‘Drake & Josh,’ recently appeared in the aforementioned Investigation Discovery docuseries that exposed the toxic and abusive work environment that former show creator and screenwriter Dan Schneider curated on the sets of his shows, like ‘All That,’ ‘Kenan & Kel,’ ‘The Amanda Show,’ ‘Zoey 101,’ ‘iCarly,’ ‘Victorious,’ ‘Sam & Cat,’ and ‘Drake & Josh.’
Also during the bombshell docuseries, Drake Bell revealed that although he didn’t particularly experience abuse from Schneider, he dealt with it at the hands of a former dialogue coach Brian Peck, who was arrested for child sexual abuse in 2003. In 2004, Peck was convicted and sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.
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Since revealing how he survived sexual abuse as a teen, Drake Bell has received tons of support from his fans and coworkers, like his ‘Drake & Josh‘ counterpart Josh Peck, and their on-screen mom Nancy Sullivan.
Taking to Instagram, Josh Peck said, “I finished the Quiet On Set documentary and took a few days to process it. I reached out to Drake privately, but wanted to give my support for the survivors who were brave enough to share their stories of emotional and physical abuse on Nickelodeon sets with the world. Children should be protected. Reliving this publicly is incredibly difficult, but I hope it can bring healing for the victims and their families as well as necessary change to our industry.”
Meanwhile, Sullivan shared her own Instagram post and said, “I was both devastated and proud seeing the man he’s grown into sit down on camera and bravely tell his truth. Past abuse doesn’t define us, and it has no right to rule our lives, I know that putting this burden down will free him in so many ways. I hope memories of the joy he had on our shows will someday greatly overshadow the pain. Sending love to Drake for a deep healing and for a rich and beautiful life ahead.”
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While he received support from his Nickelodeon colleagues, Drake Bell says he didn’t feel the same from Nickelodeon’s executives. On March 13, the kids TV network told Deadline, “Now that Drake Bell has disclosed his identity as the plaintiff in the 2004 case, we are dismayed and saddened to learn of the trauma he has endured, and we commend and support the strength required to come forward.”
While joining ‘The Sarah Fraser Show,’ marking his first interview since appearing in ‘Quiet on Set,’ Drake Bell reacted to Nickelodeon’s response and also shared why he decided to finally share his story and what’s happened since.
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Bell first explained that he was asked to be a part of a prior documentary documentary about abuse, but when he declined, he received a response blaming him as a victim. Bell said, “In the email, they said that people like me were the problem, and this is why things aren’t gonna change in the industry because people like you won’t speak out and won’t come forward. It was just all this shaming of me not wanting to be a part of their documentary. So I’ve always been cautious and on-edge whenever approached to talk about such a sensitive topic.”
Drake Bell noted that working with ‘Quiet On Set‘ co-director Emma Schwartz things were different and that she was “sensitive” to his experience, which he’s since gone to rehab and received “a lot of trauma therapy” for. Bell explained, “And so through that process, once I got out, I thought to myself, ‘Maybe this is a good time to reach back out to them and say, ‘Hey, I’m not one hundred percent yet, let’s talk some more, but I’m getting closer to feeling comfortable with finally sharing my story.’”
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Bell further noted that he hasn’t received any apologies or letters in support of him at all, aside from Josh Peck and Nancy Sullivan. He said, “I haven’t gotten an apology, or a sorry, from anybody that had written letters or was involved in supporting him at all.”
Later in the podcast, he said, “I find it pretty empty, their responses, because, I mean, they still show our shows, they still put our shows on. And I have to pay for my own therapy; I have to figure out what — I mean if there was any truth behind them actually caring, there would be something more than quotes on a page by obviously a legal representative telling them exactly how to tailor a response.
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