Netflix’s hit reality show “Love is Blind” returns this Friday with its eighth season. But behind the scenes, there is a legal battle brewing over the treatment of cast members looking for love. We spoke to a former participant and others in the industry about how this could change reality TV. Further Reading: -How ‘Love Is Blind’ Helped Netflix Crack the Reality-TV Code Further Listening: -James Bond Is Missing. He's Trapped in a Fight With Amazon. -Why 'Yellowstone' Is One of TV's Most Expensive Shows Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What issues are reality TV cast members facing off-screen?
When I think about reality TV, there's one thing that comes to mind, drama. But these days, that industry is also finding drama off-screen. Cast members across several shows have been speaking out about the way that they're treated on set. Sleep deprivation was honestly terrible.
There were just cameras in your face constantly.
You don't know what day it is. You don't know what the heck is going on ever. If they want you to talk about something that makes you super uncomfortable, which they most likely will, you're going to be talking about that.
If you don't drink, they interrogate you and ask you why you're not drinking.
They say that you're more fun when you are drunk. Some cast members have filed charges, and one of those cases is set to go to court later this year. That case is about one of the biggest reality shows on TV today.
I've met the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.
Netflix's Love is Blind.
I've never seen her before.
A former cast member from that show, which is about to drop its latest season on Friday, is one of the loudest voices calling for change in the industry.
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Chapter 2: Who is Nick Thompson and why is he speaking out?
My name is Nick Thompson. I'm 39 years old, and I was a cast member on Love is Blind season two.
Nick's experience motivated him to speak up, and his approach has been to take on the contracts on shows like Love is Blind. When they sent you the contract, what was your impression of what you saw?
Yeah, it's like around 30 pages. There were parts in there that kind of like struck me a little bit as odd. You don't really have any rights to talk about what your experience was. You're subject to being sued through arbitration. You can be defamed and misrepresented, and you basically have no recourse. And those are the parts that I thought, huh, that's weird.
Chapter 3: What are the legal challenges facing 'Love is Blind'?
But you're naive, and this is why people are like, oh, well, you signed up for it. It's like you kind of go into it blind and think to yourself, well, this isn't going to happen to me.
Netflix declined to comment, and the production companies behind the show, Kinetic Content and Delirium TV, did not respond to our requests for comment for this episode. But in court documents filed in December with a federal labor agency, they've denied all allegations about the way they've treated participants.
The fight over these contracts could now end up in court, and if it goes Nick's way, the effects would ripple across reality TV. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Wednesday, February 12th. Coming up on the show, love is blind and the reality TV reckoning.
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How would you describe yourself and your life before Love is Blind?
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Chapter 4: How does 'Love is Blind' function behind the scenes?
Oh, my life before Love is Blind was pretty good. I was at the time at a software company. I had bought my own condo here in Chicago. I had a cute dog. I had so many things going for me, but I really was missing someone to share it with.
Nick had never really thought that he'd find his way to love through a dating show. But then in the fall of 2020, he got a DM on LinkedIn of all places. Love is Blind is a dating show where each cast member tries to find the love of their life without actually setting eyes on them first. The series hit it big in season one during lockdown.
And I'm not a big reality show fan, but even I binged that with my roommates back then. When Nick first heard from the show, it was recruiting for its second season.
The premise of Love is Blind is actually very true to the title of the show. There's 15 men and 15 women, and you speed date with one another in these things called the pods, where you can talk to one another, but you cannot see each other.
And then over the course of a couple of weeks, you narrow that down, and if you agree to get engaged, then you get to see them the next day for the first time, making a decision on the last day if you want to get married at the altar.
It's kind of an incredible premise. Why did you agree to join in the end?
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Chapter 5: What is the experience of being on 'Love is Blind' like?
I was a believer in the concept. You know, there were some success stories that came out of it, and I was like, maybe this could work for me. Like, I felt, you know, this is a good way to get to know someone and not have the distractions of work and endless opportunities on dating apps. There's 15 people, and if one of them works out, great.
And I kind of got myself in the mindset of, if it's day one and I'm not connecting with anyone, I'm fine going home.
Nick ended up getting cast on that second season. According to his contract, he'd be paid $1,000 for every week he was on the show. The series would film for about eight weeks. So in April 2021, Nick took time off work and flew down to L.A., where they started taping.
So the first day you get there, you give up your phone, you give up your suitcase. They go through your suitcase, all that stuff. I had a smartwatch. They took my smartwatch.
Your IDs, passports?
Oh, yeah, IDs, passports, all of it. So you really don't have access to any of that.
Getting cut off like this is pretty standard for a reality show to keep cast members from being influenced by the outside world. They also typically sign nondisclosure agreements. Despite that, Nick was excited to be there.
Then when you get there to that set, I do remember being like, wow, this is Hollywood. It's a very big set, sound studio. There's basically two sides. On those two sides, there's a male side and a female side. There's some snacks in there most of the time, alcohol, of course. And then you sit there, and that's when you have your conversations or your dates, as we call them.
And all of that is being filmed?
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Chapter 6: How are reality shows produced for maximum drama?
Michael worked for nine seasons on ABC's The Bachelor, one of the OG reality dating shows. He says that a lot of what Nick described on Love is Blind is baked into the DNA of reality TV. And that's in part because the producers are trying to make the best TV as quickly as possible. That's what he said happened on The Bachelor.
This was a show about dating and finding the love of your life and potentially getting married. So everything is directed towards that direction. Not necessarily always pushing, but guiding.
Nudging.
Yeah, nudging to keep them within the guide rails and on the street of where we're going. And a lot of time it was asking them exactly... asking them the question that I wanted to hear back, because that made it very simple, direct, and expeditious for me to get what I wanted. Otherwise, we'd have been watching paint dry for 24 hours, and we'd have been like, we got nothing today, you know?
So the directive was like, make good TV.
Make good TV, absolutely. Yeah, don't waste your time.
We talked to Nick Thompson from Love is Blind, and he was saying, you know, he also felt like he wasn't getting enough sleep. They weren't, like, feeding them enough. There was alcohol on set. Does that sound familiar to you?
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we always said that alcohol was like true serum.
and it is you know people's inhibitions go away most of the time they're a little more apt to speak their mind and to say what they feel and they'll probably be a little more emotional when there's alcohol involved um and yes there were times they probably should have been fed more but that was not from us saying let's starve them it was from us staying on a schedule because we start shooting something specific we're gonna stop for cheeseburgers it's not gonna happen
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