Former Love Is Blind star Nick Thompson has revealed he is at risk of losing his home after struggling to find a job in the wake of his 2021 appearance on the Netflix reality show – for which is says he was paid just ‘$7.14 an hour’ while being ‘treated like a prisoner’.
The television personality-turned-mental health advocate, who appeared in the show’s second season, has claimed that his life has been ruined by the series, while hitting out at Netflix for ‘exploiting’ him and his fellow cast members.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Nick, 38, said he was only paid $10,000 for 10 weeks of filming and that there has been zero discussion about residual pay, despite the ongoing success of Love Is Blind, which has run for four seasons since its 2020 and is due to debut a fifth instalment in September of this year.
‘When you think about the amount of money that’s being made, and the way that it’s the path for future seasons, and the fact that anyone can go on and watch me… and I’m going to be homeless,’ he said.
‘I lost my job last November. I’m having an incredibly hard time finding [a new] one.
Former Love Is Blind star Nick Thompson, 38, has revealed he is on the brink of homelessness after struggling to find a job in the wake of his 2021 appearance in the Netflix reality show
Romance: The former VP of product marketing found love with Danielle Ruhl on the program, although the pair have since split
‘I burned through my savings that cashed out my 401(k). I’ve got two months left in the bank to pay my mortgage. I can’t get a job because people don’t take me seriously.
‘I was a VP in software for five years, so it’s not like I don’t have track record of experience or success.’
Nick also described feeling like he was being kept ‘prisoner’ during his time in the social experiment and believes that he and others by manipulated by producers and psychologists.
Shedding light on the brutal reality of filming Love Is Blind, Nick alleged that producers were ‘in control of you 24 hours a day’.
‘You are filming 18 to 20 hours a day,’ he claimed. ‘And that doesn’t that necessarily mean that you’re always going to be on TV, but you’re miked up from the moment you get there in the morning, and you’re miked up all the way until you leave.
‘Then when you go home at the end of the day, you’re locked in your hotel room without a key without your wallet without money without identification.
‘You literally are held captive like a prisoner and there is absolutely no reason that you shouldn’t be considered an employee when you’re technically under the control of your employer for 24 hours a day.’
Since appearing on Love Is Blind, Nick has gone on to co-launch the Unscripted Cast Advocacy Network (UCAN), which helps provide mental health and legal support to past, present, and future reality television stars.
His comments come just weeks after Real Housewives of New York City alum Bethenny Frankel called for a ‘reality TV reckoning’ amid the ongoing SAG and WGA strikes and argued that stars should receive residuals for the shows they appear in.
Season 2 cast: Nick was among the contestants to make it all the way to the altar
Taking a stand: He is now fighting for reality show cast members to be treated with dignity and to have basic human rights
He is also in full support of Bethenny’s mission to have reality stars unionize, so that they can negotiate fair workers’ rights and fair pay.
Nick says he made just $10,000 from appearing on the show, explaining that he received $7,000 for seven weeks of filming and a further $3,000 for After The Altar, the episodes that followed the weddings.
He equates this figure to just $7.14 an hour, which is more than a dollar less than the $8.50 minimum wage of Illinois, where the show was primarily filmed.
To further highlight the measly sum, his earnings were also less than the national minimum wage, which was $7.25 in 2021.
While outsiders might argue that Nick could have walked away from the process at any moment, he alleged that he was contractually obligated to continue with the experiment or risk having to pay $50,000 in damages.
Nick believes that he and many other television personalities who appeared on reality shows have been exploited by the streaming platforms, who have churned out inexpensive content at the expense of cast members.
‘We were manipulated, our triggers were utilized against us,’ he claimed. ‘Anything that we shared with a producer or with a psych exam was weaponized against us.’
DailyMail.com has approached Netflix for comment.
While Nick did find love with Danielle Ruhl in the pods, the pair ended divorcing in August 2022 after one year of marriage.
When asked if he would have ever signed up for the show knowing what he knows now, Nick replied: ‘That’s a tough question. I go back and forth. I never thought I’d be on a reality TV show.
‘Even when I took the call, I was like, I’m not for this; I am not very dramatic, I’ve got my s**t together and I’ve got a good professional job, I’ve done a lot of therapy. Next thing I know, I was there.
‘When I think about everything that’s happened and I think about my relationship, it’s hard to say I wish I never did it.’
Exploited: Nick believes that reality stars have been taken advantage of and is in full support of the industry unionizing
That said, Nick, who hosts his own podcast Eyes Wide Open, expressed that going on Love Is Blind ‘ruined his life completely’.
‘I wish I could just go back to having a nice life that I had built for myself, instead of wondering whether my mortgage is gonna get paid,’ he admitted. ‘It’s a brutal, brutal, brutal industry.’
Fellow reality stars are said to be feeling the same way about wanting to go on strike and unionizing, but Nick claimed they are too fearful to speak out about their experiences because of contracts.
‘We’ve probably talked to 100 150 people from various shows combined,’ he said, referring to his work at UCAN.
‘And the consensus among most is that they are scared to speak up because of the contracts and the NDAs. They are quietly supporting, but they’re afraid.’
Turning his attention to streamers such as Netflix, Nick, who is fighting for reality show cast members to be treated with dignity and to have basic human rights, said point blank that they do not care.
‘They’re just making that money because reality TV is extremely cheap to produce, and they can continue to do so through the strike,’ he said.
Nick implored Netflix to act and do right by reality stars. ‘They have a great opportunity to lead in the industry and get on the right side of the issue right now,’ he told us.
‘And I don’t hold grudges. If they come to me, or our foundation or to the coalition of people that we’re building, and they say, ‘let’s talk’, that door is always open to them. But they need to get on the right side of the issue.
‘They are going to write themselves out of business if they don’t start treating writers, actors, and all reality cast members properly. I invite them to the right side of the fight.’
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