By Mallory Mattingly
DRAKE & JOSH star Drake Bell revealed that he and co-star Josh Peck receive no residual money from their time on the Nickelodeon show, highlighting more misconduct the duo experienced at the network.
“The perception of the world has always been this way. 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,” Bell said on “The Unplanned Podcast.” “And especially, which is the bummer for most of us on Nickelodeon, we don’t get residuals for our shows.”
Bell explained that most TV stars make their living from residuals, and TV shows want to make at least 100 episodes so that they are “syndication-friendly,” TV Insider reported.
“Each cast member of FRIENDS, just in syndication alone, is making over $20 million a year,” Bell revealed.
But for DRAKE & JOSH, the actor said that some guest stars “who said two lines on one episode [who] still get checks in the mail. Josh and I? Not a dime.”
And it’s not because the show isn’t running anymore.
“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,” Bell revealed. “And some fat cat with a cigar is just sitting up at the top of Viacom [the former Nickelodeon parent now part of Paramount Global] just going, ‘Isn’t it great?’…It’s just like getting high on child labor.”
“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,” he continued. “And forever, in perpetuity, it literally says in the contract, across universes and galaxies and planets. If Elon [Musk] gets us to Mars and they show DRAKE & JOSH, it’s impossible for me to get paid for it.”
Bell blames “a lot of evil, corrupt people.”
“There’s no other answer. Do everything that they do to us mentally and emotionally, and then throw us to the wolves. And we’re like, ‘Okay, cool. I got rent this month,'” he added.
Related: Drake Bell Exposed Sexual Abuse on Set; Now His Life Is Changed for The Better
Bell disclosed sexual abuse he experienced at the hands of Nickelodeon-hired dialogue coach Brian Peck in last year’s documentary QUIET ON SET.
“I was sleeping on the couch where I would usually sleep, and I woke up to him…I opened my eyes, I woke up and he was sexually assaulting me. And I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react,” Bell described. “And I had no idea how to get out of the situation… What do I do, call my mom, ‘Hey, can you come pick me up? This just happened, I’ll sit here and wait.’ I had no car, I didn’t drive. I was 15 at this time.”
Though a difficult watch, Movieguide® nominated QUIET ON SET for its Faith & Freedom Award® For Television and Streaming award, Best Television for Mature Audiences award and Best Documentary award at the 2025 Movieguide® Awards gala. Part of the review reads:
QUIET ON SET makes clear that children between 8 and 15 are extremely vulnerable and need to be protected from exploitation. Every aspect of this series is important for exposing the underside of Hollywood. QUIET ON SET has a very clear, strong moral worldview, with a few brief mentions of prayer. Although there’s very little visual sex or violence and practically no foul language in QUIET ON SET, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution because of the subject matter.
“The abuse was extensive,” Bell said. “And it got pretty brutal, pretty brutal. I don’t know, I really don’t know how to elaborate on that on camera really. Why don’t you do this, why don’t you think of the worst stuff that someone can do to somebody as a sexual assault and that’ll answer your question. I don’t know how else to put it. It was not a one-time thing.”
Bell’s latest bombshell about the lack of residuals is yet another example of Hollywood’s exploitation of child stars.
Read Next: Drake Bell Says Son Influenced Decision to Share Abuse Story in QUIET ON SET
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
- Content: +2Share:
- Content: +4