Former Love Is Blind star Nick Thompson has revealed he was at risk of losing his home after struggling to find a job following his 2021 appearance on the Netflix reality show – for which he would have been paid only “$7.14 an hour” while being “treated like a prisoner”.
The TV personality turned mental health advocate, who appeared in the show’s second season, claimed his life was ruined by the series, while hitting 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 there was no discussion of residual salary, despite the continued success of Love Is Blind, which has run for four seasons since its release. 2020 and is set to launch a fifth installment in September this year.
“When you think about the amount of money that’s been made, and how that’s the path for future seasons, and the fact that anybody can go on and watch me…and I’m going to be homeless,” did he declare.
“I lost my job last November. I’m having a lot of trouble finding (a new one).
Former Love Is Blind star Nick Thompson, 38, has revealed he was on the verge of homelessness after struggling to find a job following his 2021 appearance on the reality show netflix
Romance: The former VP of Product Marketing found love with Danielle Ruhl on the show, though the pair have since split
“I burned through my savings that cashed out my 401(k). I have two months left in the bank to pay my mortgage. I can’t find a job because people don’t take me seriously.
“I was VP of Software for five years, so it’s not like I don’t have experience or success.”
Nick also described feeling like he was kept “prisoner” during his time in the social experiment and believes he and others are being manipulated by producers and psychologists.
Shedding light on the brutal reality of filming Love Is Blind, Nick claimed the producers were “monitoring you 24 hours a day”.
“You film 18 to 20 hours a day,” he claimed. “And that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll always be on TV, but you’re picked up from the time you come in in the morning, and you’re picked up until you leave.
“Then when you get home at the end of the day, you’re locked in your hotel room without a key without your wallet without money without ID.
“You are literally being held captive like a prisoner and there is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be considered an employee when you are technically under the control of your employer 24 hours a day.”
Since appearing on Love Is Blind, Nick has co-launched the Unscripted Cast Advocacy Network (YOU CAN), which helps provide mental health and legal support to past, present and future reality TV stars.
His comments come just weeks after Real Housewives of New York City alum Bethenny Frankel called for a ‘reality TV reckoning’ amid ongoing SAG and WGA strikes and argued that stars should receive residuals for the shows in which they appear.
Cast of season 2: Nick was among the candidates to walk down the aisle
Take a stand: He is now fighting for reality cast members to be treated with dignity and enjoy basic human rights
He also fully supports Bethenny’s mission to get reality TV stars to unionize, so they can negotiate fair workers’ rights and fair pay.
Nick says he only made $10,000 from appearing on the show, explaining he received $7,000 for seven weeks of filming and an additional $3,000 for After The Altar, the episodes that followed the weddings .
He equates that figure to just $7.14 an hour, more than a dollar less than the $8.50 minimum wage in Illinois, where the show was mostly filmed.
To further emphasize the miserable sum, his earnings were also below the national minimum wage, which was $7.25 in 2021.
While strangers might argue that Nick could have abandoned the process at any time, he alleged that he was contractually obligated to continue the experiment or risk having to pay $50,000 in damages.
Nick believes he and many other TV personalities who have appeared on reality shows have been taken advantage of by streaming platforms, which have produced cheap content at the expense of actors.
“We were manipulated, our triggers were used against us,” he claimed. “Anything we shared with a producer or with a psychiatric exam was weaponized against us.”
DailyMail.com has approached Netflix for comment.
While Nick found love with Danielle Ruhl in the pods, the couple ended their divorce in August 2022 after a year of marriage.
When asked if he would have ever signed on to the show knowing what he knows now, Nick replied: “That’s a tough question. I go back and forth. I never thought I would be on a reality show.
“Even when I took the call, I was like, I’m not for this; I’m not very dramatic, I have my stuff together and I have 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 think about my relationship, it’s hard to say I wish I had never done it.”
Exploited: Nick believes reality TV stars have been exploited and fully supports unionizing the industry
That said, Nick, who hosts his own Eyes Wide Open podcast, said continuing Love Is Blind “completely ruined his life”.
“I wish I could go back to having the great life I had built for myself, instead of worrying about whether my mortgage is going to be paid,” he admitted. “It’s a brutal, brutal, brutal industry.”
Other reality TV stars are said to feel the same way about wanting to strike and unionize, but Nick claimed they were too scared to talk about their experiences because of the contracts.
“We spoke to probably 100,150 people from various shows combined,” he said, referring to his work at UCAN.
“And the consensus among most is that they’re afraid to speak up because of contracts and NDAs. They support quietly, but they are afraid.
Turning his attention to streamers such as Netflix, Nick, who fights for reality TV actors to be treated with dignity and enjoy basic human rights, said bluntly that they don’t care.
“They’re just making that money because reality TV is extremely cheap to produce, and they can keep doing it during the strike,” he said.
Nick implored Netflix to act and do good by reality stars. “They have a great opportunity to lead the industry and get on the right side of the issue right now,” he told us.
“And I don’t hold a grudge. If they come to me, or our foundation, or the coalition of people that we form, and they say, “let’s talk about it,” that door is always open to them. But they have to get on the right side of the issue.
“They’re going to go out of business if they don’t start treating writers, actors, and all of the reality guys right. I invite them to the right side of the fight.
