Following his bombshell revelation about the abuse he endured at Nickelodeon, Drake Bell is shedding more light on their “evil, corrupt” practices.
The Drake & Josh alum recently opened up about the “flawed” system used to protect child actors’ earnings, dispelling misconceptions that his time at the kids’ network was as profitable as it seemed.
“That’s the perception of the world, it’s always been this way,” he explained on The Unplanned Podcast. “It’s like, you know, ‘Oh, you made a Folgers Coffee commercial. You must live in a mansion in Hollywood. Like, I saw you on TV. You’re rich.’”
Bell added, “That’s far from the case. And especially, which is the bummer for most of us on Nickelodeon, we don’t get residuals for our shows.”
After starring alongside Josh Peck in the sitcom for its four-season run from 2004 to ’07, Bell noted that the goal for most TV actors is getting to 100 episodes so they can get to syndication, which pays residuals. “That’s where you make your money,” he said.
“It’s a lot of evil, corrupt people,” said Bell of the studio execs who take advantage of child actors. “That’s the only thing, that is the answer. There’s no other answer.”
Despite Drake & Josh now streaming on Netflix and running marathons on multiple networks with major sponsors, Bell said he doesn’t receive any residuals.
“Do everything that they do to us mentally and emotionally, and then throw us to the wolves. And we’re like, okay, cool. I got rent this month,” he mused. “There are three channels doing Drake & Josh marathons. Netflix just bought it, it’s top 10 on Netflix, and I gotta figure out how to pay my rent this month.”
Bell added, “And some fat cat with a cigar is just sitting up at the top of Viacom just … getting high on child labor.”
In ID’s docuseries Quiet on Set, which debuted last March, Bell spoke for the first time about the abuse he suffered from his Nickelodeon dialogue coach/manager Brian Peck, which began during his time on The Amanda Show and continued into Drake & Josh‘s run.
Brian Peck was arrested in 2003 on 11 charges, including sodomy, lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 by a person 10 years older and oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance, receiving 16 months and prison and being required to register as a sex offender. Bell was never publicly identified as the minor until the docuseries.
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