Former child star Drake Bell claims ‘no one' on Nickelodeon gets paid residuals: ‘Child labour'

News.com.au

21-07-2025

Former child star Drake Bell feels cheated, and he's not thrilled about it.
The Drake & Josh star, 39, recently claimed that 'no one' on Nickelodeon receives residuals for their time on the popular children's network. He also slammed the belief that everyone on TV is rich.
'That's the perception of the world, it's always been this way,' Bell said during an episode of The Unplanned Podcast earlier this month. 'It's like, you know, 'Oh, you made a Folgers Coffee commercial. You must live in a mansion in Hollywood. Like, I saw you on TV. You're rich.''
'That's far from the case,' he explained. 'And especially, which is the bummer for most of us on Nickelodeon, we don't get residuals for our shows.'
Bell, who made his Nickelodeon debut on The Amanda Show with Amanda Bynes in 1999 before co-starring on Drake & Josh with Josh Peck from 2004 to 2007, revealed that almost everyone on the network only receives a one-time payment for their work.
He then compared Nickelodeon's 'flawed' system to shows like Seinfeld and Friends, and noted how the casts of those sitcoms still earn millions of dollars from syndication residuals.
'You want to get into syndication,' Bell told podcast hosts Abby and Matt Howard. 'You want to get to 100 episodes so that you can get to syndication, and then you want to get into syndication because then you get your residual money, that's where you make your money.'
'For example, the Friends cast at the peak was making a million dollars an episode,' he continued. 'You make 13 episodes that year, you make $13 million. You make 20 episodes that year, you make $20 million, right?
'But right now, each cast member of Friends, just in syndication alone, is making over $US20 million a year, and they're not filming a show every week,' Bell added.
'They're not going to work, but they're playing their show and they're using their likeness and they're doing all this, so they get paid for it.'
When Matt asked whether Nickelodeon stars didn't receive residuals because they were child actors, Bell claimed it was because the network was run by 'a lot of evil, corrupt people.'
'That's the only thing, that is the answer,' he said. 'There's no other answer.'
Meanwhile, Bell lamented how he still doesn't receive residuals despite seeing Drake & Josh replays and marathons on TV and popular streaming services.
'Do everything that they do to us mentally and emotionally, and then throw us to the wolves,' he said. 'And we're like, 'OK, cool. I got rent this month.''
'There are three channels doing Drake & Josh marathons. Netflix just bought it, it's top 10 on Netflix, and I gotta figure out how to pay my rent this month,' the actor continued. 'And some fat cat with a cigar is just sitting up at the top of Viacom, just going, 'Hehehe.' What do you call it? It's just like getting high on child labour.'
Bell, who filed for bankruptcy back in 2014, ended the podcast segment by saying that people outside of the entertainment industry 'don't understand how the business works.'
'They just see what the perception is on Instagram and social media and all the glitz and the glamour of Hollywood,' he said. 'We're putting in all of this work. This corporation is making billions with a 'B' off of us, and we're being compensated for the week of work, cool, but that's it.'
The Post has reached out to Bell's rep and Nickelodeon for comment.
This wouldn't be the first time the Drake & Josh star slammed Nickelodeon and the 'flawed' system the network had in place to protect child stars.
'And forever, in perpetuity,' Bell concluded. 'It literally says in the contract, across universes and galaxies and planets.'
Last year, Bell slammed Nickelodeon's 'pretty empty' apology after the Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV docuseries exposed the toxic behind-the-scenes world of children's TV shows.
Bell also revealed in the bombshell docuseries that he had been sexually assaulted by acting coach Brian Peck, and alleged that the shocking abuse is what started him down his self-destructive road.