Kenan Thomson is sharing his thoughts on the shocking new docuseries titled Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV.
Released by Investigation Discovery, the multi-part docu-series featured invterviews from former child stars of Nickelodeon, as well as their parents. Former Nickelodeon employees also weighted in.
One of the most startling revelations was from Drake Bell, who spoke about how he was molestd by a dialogue coach when he was a teen actor.
Some other revelations were about former Nickelodeon head Dan Schneider, who allegedly created a toxic workplace with the network. Nickelodeon let go of Dan back in 2018.
Kenan broke out into the spotlight with Nickelodeon, with beloved shows like All That, Kenan & Kel, and Good Burger. Now, the actor is speaking out on his own experience, and candidly sharing why the docu-series was “definitely tough” to watch.
In a recent appearance on the Tampon Hall Show, Kenan talked about how his experience when he was in Nickelodeon was different from what others went through. He stated:
“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. Because all these things happened after I left, basically, and Dan wasn’t really on Kenan & Kel like that.”
He went on to explain further about the lack of Dan’s involvement on the projects he was on:
“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.”
Kenan however was very clear that his hear goes out to all those who were victimized:
“I wasn’t really aware of a lot of it, but my heart goes out to anybody that’s been victimized or their families. 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 ned to be told for this, accountability’s 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 emphasized that there should be further investigations to delve deeper into what was happening behind the scenes on Nickelodeon, saying, “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?”
