Kenan Thompson has spoken out for the first time about the shocking documentary Quiet on Set, and admitted it’s a “tough watch”.
The former Nickelodeon star, 45, was asked about the docuseries during his appearance on The Tamron Hall Show.
He shared: “It’s tough for me because I can’t really speak on things that I’ve never witnessed.”
Kenan starred in many shows on Nickelodeon, such as ‘All That’ and ‘Kenan and Kel’, from 1994 to 2000.
He admitted that many of the allegations put forward were after his time on the children’s network, and said he had limited experience with producer Dan Schneider.
The comedian said: “Because all these things happened after I left, basically, and Dan wasn’t really on ‘Kenan and Kel’ like that. 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.”
“So I wasn’t really aware of a lot of it, but my heart goes out to anybody that’s been victimised or their families.”
The Saturday Night Live star reflected on the importance of the series for the survivors and said: “I think it’s a good thing that the doc is out and is putting things on display that need to be — stories that need to be told for accountability 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.”
Host Tamron Hall mentioned during the episode: “We did reach out to Dan Schneider’s team and they directed us to a response that he posted on YouTube. We also reached out, of course, to the production company, and they said that they investigate all of these things, investigate all of the allegations.”
Kenan then interrupted: “Well, investigate more! I mean because it’s like, it’s supposed to be a safe place you know? It’s supposed to be a safe place for kids and to hear all about that it’s just like, ‘How dare you?”
The shocking Investigation Discovery documentary series ‘Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV’ uncovered the toxic culture behind some of the most iconic children’s shows of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The docuseries revealed allegations of emotional abuse and sexualisation of child actors against Dan Schneider, a Nickelodeon executive and show creator.
In the third episode, Drake Bell also alleged that he was sexually abused by former Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck (no relation to Bell’s Drake & Josh co-star Josh Peck) when he was 15.
