‘Love Is Blind’ Is Back. Not All the Drama Is On-Screen.

0:05When I think about reality TV, there's one thing that comes to mind. Drama. But these days, that industry is also finding drama offscreen. Cast members across several shows have been speaking out about the way that they're treated on set. The 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.

0:40They 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. My name is Nick Thompson. I'm 39 years old, and I was a cast member on Love is Blind Season 2. Nick's experience motivated him to speak up, and his approach has been to take on the contracts on shows like Love is Blind.

1:27When 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. 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.

2:05Netflix 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.

2:46Coming up on the show, love is blind and the reality TV reckoning.

3:04How would you describe yourself and your life before Love is Blind? 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.

3:48And 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.

4:24It's kind of an incredible premise. Why did you agree to join in the end? 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 App. 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.

5:01The 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 or your suitcase, all that stuff. Oh, wow, okay. And 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.

5:35Despite 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. All that is being filmed. You are being filmed for 16, 18, I would say sometimes 20 hours a day. As those long hours turned into longer days, Nick started to feel a little uncomfortable.

6:15I remember being in the hotel rooms and I was like, this is weird. Because one, I drink a ton of water and I had like two bottles of water. I was parched a lot. I also noticed somewhere around probably day three that I was like really hungry most of the time. And I didn't feel like I was getting adequate food or water despite asking. And then you also don't get a hotel room key. and if you do have to leave your room without permission, you get locked out. Like, I get that they want all interactions to happen on camera, but, like, I feel like I was going a little crazy. I think we all did. Then I also noticed by the time I went to put my suit on, which was two weeks in, I put on my suit, which I had tailored the week before going, and it was really loose.

6:57And then when I finally got home, I realized I'd lost, like, 15 pounds over the course of a couple weeks. The production companies behind the show didn't respond to our requests for comment. But in an earlier interview with The Wall Street Journal, the show's creator addressed some of the legal controversies around Love is Blind. He said it has increased its communication and adjusts to feedback from participants every season. To get a better understanding of what happens behind the scenes, we spoke to someone who spent 20 years in the reality TV industry. My name is Michael Carroll. I'm 54. Oh, I can't believe it.

7:34And I'm a former reality television producer. Now I work in meetings. 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.

8:15And 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?

8:51Absolutely. 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. 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 if we start shooting something specific, we're going to stop for cheeseburgers. It's not going to happen.

9:24Were there ever concerns about how cast members were feeling on set or dealing with their environment? Yes, because you're a compassionate human being and we all weren't like evil people. But after doing it season after seasons, I started to go, okay, this is, you know, there's times that I'm really messing with these girls and I'm really kind of like manipulating and tricking them. So there were times that I really started to feel it for them. Representatives for The Bachelor did not respond to our requests for comment. Back to Nick Thompson. On Love is Blind, he was finding the relationship he'd hoped for.

10:00He had connected with one of the other cast members, Danielle Ruhle. I was like, what if he doesn't think I'm cute? Of course I think you're cute. And at the end of the show, Nick and Danielle decided to get married. My fiance. I can't believe it. I love you. I do. After their wedding, filming ended, and they went home. But the show wouldn't air for another eight months. And as part of the contract they'd signed, the couple had to keep their marriage quiet. NDAs like this are common because production companies want to contain leaks. During those eight months, the relationship between Nick and Danielle didn't go so well.

10:39And just a little over a year after their wedding, the two filed for divorce. It's kind of crazy when you look back on it and be like, I married someone after seven weeks in a highly controlled environment for most of the time. It was around the time of the divorce that Nick also lost his job. His employer said it was part of a planned round of layoffs. But Nick felt that Love is Blind had played a role. And finding a new job was a struggle.

11:08I had a pretty good resume. I had a lot of experience. And I started having job interviews. And the topic of discussion became the show. It was no longer about my experience. It always came down to, you were on this show. And there was always some sort of reason as to why that wasn't going to work for them. What did life look like for you at that time? This is the darkest time of my entire life. The divorce obviously was hard. And I think people think because they watched it on TV and then they see the headlines or whatever, they think it's not real. It was very real. I don't want to speak for her, but I believe we fell in love.

11:47And then I, at the same, within a few weeks, I had been let go from my job. and that was when I kind of just hit rock bottom. During this dark period, Nick started reflecting on his time on Love is Blind and he decided to take a closer look at what he'd signed. And that's where I kind of started having these thoughts that, you know, they have a lot of control, a lot of autonomy. And I was like, wow, this actually doesn't really make sense the way that this is framed. Nick realized it was the contract itself that had set him up to be exploited, at least in his view. And it was this contract that he took to the National Labor Relations Board.

12:28That's next.

12:42At the end of 2022, Nick Thompson was divorced, out of work, and struggling to put his life back together. And he felt like so many of his problems went back to love is blind. When he took a closer look at that agreement he'd signed, he zoomed in on how he was classified. And it very clearly stated that the production companies had not hired him as an employee. Why would being classified as an employee change the experience that you might have had? Because then the production companies would have to follow basic labor laws, which is pay minimum wages over time, and the fact that in the contract it says you cannot form a union or be a part of a union.

13:23And so if we were ever going to have those rights and that collective bargaining, this was step one to do that. We spoke to lawyers who deal with reality show contracts, and they said that most reality show cast members are not entitled to the kind of labor protections that an employee would have. They typically have no right to join a union or get minimum wage or overtime pay. Essentially, they're treated as independent contractors. As Nick started digging, he found that some former Love is Blind cast members had already sued the show, including someone who was on season two with him. I filed a lawsuit against Kinetic and Netflix on behalf of Love is Blind cast members and Ultimatum cast members.

14:05That's Jeremy Hartwell speaking in a documentary. Alleging that they violated California labor law. Hartwell had sued the show, claiming it underpaid cast members and deprived them of food, water, and sleep. And he said part of the problem was that participants should have been considered employees, but they weren't. Hartwell's lawsuit, which was eventually settled, laid the groundwork for Nick and another former cast member to take this idea one step further. They brought a complaint to the federal agency set up to protect workers' rights. the National Labor Relations Board. The lack of autonomy and the length of the contracts and the NDAs, there was a possibility that the NLRB could deem that those are illegal and that we should be classified as employees.

14:52The NLRB agreed, saying that reality TV cast members should be classified as employees. The production companies, on the other hand, denied the premise of the complaint. In their response, they said that reality show participants are not employees, and that the NLRB is overstepping its authority. The case was set to be heard in court this April, but the production companies filed a motion to postpone. And Love is Blind is not the only show mired in legal battles. Former participants on some of the most popular reality shows, like American Idol, Real Housewives, and Vanderpump Rules, have also brought lawsuits alleging they were mistreated in one way or another.

15:31Some of these lawsuits have been settled, while others are still ongoing. We spoke to industry experts about the case Nick took to the NLRB. They said that if a judge rules in his favor, it could totally transform the way reality TV gets made. We asked Michael Carroll, the former Bachelor producer, about that. It would have made my job more difficult because I wouldn't have been able to have them under my thumb or in my world or my web the entire time. So I think it would be a great thing for the cast. I think it would be an awful thing for the producers and the production company and the networks.

16:11One media and entertainment lawyer pointed out that reality TV relies on capturing cast members' vulnerability. It's partly what makes these shows so compelling. The lawyer said that without being able to film people 24 hours a day, among other things, the entire genre would change. And that's because you're not using real actors, using people that have signed up to be filmed 24-7. Right. So if you only had them for 12 to 14 hours, you'd have a two-day schedule when you could have had one. So that just, the budgets are going to go crazy. And it's going to make for the networks and the production companies to make a lot less television because they couldn't afford it.

16:49So think about this. In 2019, there were seven dating shows on TV, according to Nielsen, the ratings firm. Last year, there were 59. Experts told us that this kind of growth would be unrealistic if the business model changed. The reality television business would slow down immensely if it was required to have our cast members classified as employees. Not necessarily because of the pay, but because of restricting their time on camera and the amount of time that we can shoot with them. If they're an employee, there are time limits to how long you can make someone work. And the way reality television works is that it's a slimmed down, really tight version of regular television with a way smaller budget.

17:42But there's still a long road to getting reality cast members classified as employees. There's that hearing that might be postponed. And the NLRB has seen a change in leadership under the new Trump administration. And that might impact the case. So there's still a huge question mark over what happens next. Regardless, lawyers we spoke to said that this complaint will continue to haunt reality TV. As for Nick Thompson? In 2023, he started a foundation with Jeremy Hartwell, dedicated to supporting reality cast members, many of whom are worried about speaking up because they don't want to risk legal action by breaching their contracts.

18:21If I speak now and I do some of this work now, I can step away and never have to worry about it again because it's scary. Like, the NDAs are scary. I got a cease and desist type letter. Like, it's terrifying. And, you know, when I got that letter, all I could think about is I was like, well, what have I got to lose? What are they going to sue me for? How would you view Love is Blind now based on your experience in it? Um, it's different in the sense of I don't I don't think of reality TV as real. I think of it as a show. And I, you know, hindsight's always 2020. But I definitely think I would have probably approached it a little bit differently had I known what I know now.

19:03But I just think it's something that I did. It's not who I am. And I wish everyone who chooses to participate in this show or any other show, like, I just wish them well. And I hope that they come out of it better than they went into it. I don't watch it. I can't watch it. For the record. People ask that, like, did you watch the latest season? I'm like, no, I did not.

19:30That's all for today, Wednesday, February 12th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Jeevika Verma.

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