Things Got Truly Dark For Virtually Every Child Star At Nickelodeon

Jennette McCurdy, one of the stars of iCarly and Sam & Cat, didn't feel supported by Nickelodeon when she got into a sensitive situation. When provocative photos of McCurdy leaked in 2014, rumor had it that Nick shamed her for the pictures.

McCurdy didn't attend that year's Kids' Choice Awards, explaining on Twitter, "I was put in an uncomfortable, compromising, unfair situation (many of you have guessed what it is) and I had to look out for me. I chose to not go because sticking up for what is right and what is fair is what my mom taught me is ALWAYS the most important thing."

The star later clarified that the situation had nothing to do with the pictures; rather, she was fed up with how the studio treated her in general. In her 2022 memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died, McCurdy revealed she suffered through an eating disorder while working at Nick, and that a man she refers to only as “The Creator” (most likely Dan Schneider, the showrunner of iCarly, Sam & Cat, and numerous other hit Nickelodeon shows) subjected her to abuse, coerced her into trying alcohol when she was underage, and constantly gave her back rubs, all of which she felt was inappropriate, but about which McCurdy felt she could not speak out against for fear of losing her job. 

McCurdy also claims the network offered her $300,000 to keep quiet about her time at Nick and her experiences with the Creator, which she turned down.

In the 2024 docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Drake Bell, star of Nickelodeon hits The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh, opens up about the “extensive” and “brutal” sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of Brian Peck, an actor and dialogue coach employed by the network. His father and manager Joe Bell raised concerns about Peck when the child actor was 14 years-old, but those concerns were ignored, Joe alleges. 

In 2004, Peck was convicted on two counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 16 months in prison. At the time Peck's victim was not revealed, but Drake confirms in the documentary that it was him. He states that no one from Nickelodeon reached out to him following the conviction, though he surmises this is because few people knew. 

Zoey 101 star Alexa Nikolas and her organization Eat Predators, an advocacy group for survivors of sexual abuse, protested outside Nickelodeon studios in August 2022. Nikolas stated that she did not feel protected at the network, particularly when it came to her involvement with producer Dan Schneider. 

Among the allegations she has brought up against the creator of numerous Nick shows, Nikolas claims Schneider insisted on being present during her costume fittings, that he was verbally abusive, and that he intentionally included sexually suggestive imagery in his shows, including a shot of her co-star Jamie Lynn Spears getting squirted in the face with green goo. 

One of many former child actors to appear in the documentary series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Bryan Hearne reflects negatively on his time spent on the sketch series All That. In particular, he claims series creator Dan Schneider “had a nicer relationship with some of the white kids” on the show. 

Hearne expanded on this statement in an interview with People magazine, in which he describes his relationship with Schneider as “non-existent.” He also alleges the characters he played on All That were racial stereotypes, such as a rapper named Lil' Fetus and a drug-dealer-like character who pushed Girl Scout cookies on the street. Hearne also states he was called a “little piece of charcoal” by an adult on set. 

Pop superstar Ariana Grande got her start on the Nickelodeon comedies Victorious and its spin-off Sam & Cat. But shedding her kid star image wasn't easy. Grande told People that while starring in the shows was "a blessing and one of my childhood dreams come true," the experience was also "a little frustrating."

"For a long time I was attached to a character that was nothing like myself," Grande said. Sam & Cat was canceled after one season – maybe a blessing in disguise.

You might remember Marc Summers as the host of the Nick game show Double Dare. But the face of one of Nickelodeon's biggest '90s hits apparently doesn't think much of the channel, as he explained in 2013:

"Their network is going in the dumper. Disney beats it. They have no idea what they’re doing. They put on a bunch of cartoons and stuffed animals instead of real human beings that other people can associate with... the creative people are gone.

It’s become a ‘how much money can we make from this merchandise’ and ‘how many tours can we put out and steal money from the parents.’"