Kenan Thompson broke his silence on the toxic work environment allegations made in the bombshell documentary Quiet on Set.
“[Being on set is] supposed to be a safe space,” Thompson, 45, told Tamron Hall during a Wednesday, March 27, appearance on her eponymous talk show. “It’s supposed to be a safe place for kids, and to hear all about that is just like, ‘How dare you?’”
Although Thompson got his start on Nickelodeon in the ‘90s, he added that he never encountered any of the allegations made against TV show creator Dan Schneider during his tenure on the network.
“It’s tough for me. I can’t really speak on things that I never witnessed, you know what I’m saying?” he said to Hall, 53. “Cause all these things happened after I left basically and Dan [Schneider] wasn’t really on Kenan and Kel like that.”
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 […]
Thompson explained that Schneider, 58, who worked on various Nickelodeon programming from 1994 to 2018, got creative credit on the first season of the series Thompson starred on alongside Kel Mitchell. (The show was a spinoff of All That, which Schneider also created.) However, Kenan and Kel was primarily run by another showrunner, Kim Bass, instead of Schneider, who was focused on new seasons of All That, The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101 and more.
“Our worlds weren’t really, like, overly overlapping like that outside of All That necessarily. And all that negativity kind of started happening outside of our tenure there,” Thompson shared. “I wasn’t aware of a lot of it but my heart goes out to anybody that’s been victimized and their families.”
The actor noted that while it was emotional to watch the ID docuseries, he believes it’s a “good thing” it’s out there and telling “stories that need to be told” for the sake of “accountability.” Quiet on Set featured several former child stars and crew members opening up about their negative experiences about working for Nickelodeon. In the series, Drake Bell came forward about being sexually abused by dialogue coach Brian Peck, who was sentenced to 16 months in prison in 2004.
“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,” Thompson emotionally admitted. “So to hear that they’ve gone through terrible things like that, it’s just really tough.”
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 […]
While chatting with Thompson on her talk show on Wednesday, Hall shared that her team reached out to Schneider and the production company about the allegations who claimed that they do investigate all the allegations, which led Thompson to retort, “Well, investigate more!”
Thompson got his start on Nickelodeon in 1994 as he joined the cast of All That. In addition to being a main cast member on the children’s sketch series, he also starred in his own sitcom Kenan and Kel from 1996 to 2000. Thompson left Nickelodeon in 2000 and joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2003.
Nearly two decades later, Thompson returned to All That to guest star in season 10 in 2019. The following year, Thompson and Mitchell, 45, executive produced the series’ finale season.
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