A former «Love is Blind» star claims being on the popular series «ruined» his life and left him on the brink of homelessness.
Nick Thompson, who appeared on the popular Netflix dating show in 2021, claims he hasn’t been able to find a job since his reality TV stint because employers have a hard time taking him «seriously.» In addition, the show paid him a paltry sum of $10,000 for 10 weeks of filming, he claims, adding that it works out to just over $7 an hour.
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«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 told DailyMail.com. «I lost my job last November. I’m having an incredibly hard time finding [a new] one. I burned through my savings [and] 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 a track record of experience or success.»
The blame, Nick says, falls on the show and the reality TV industry.
«You are filming 18 to 20 hours a day, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re always going to be on TV,» he said. «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,» he argued.
The reality TV star says Netflix exploited him and his castmates, noting that reality TV is relatively inexpensive to make. Rewards for the networks, however, can be huge.
«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.»
He later told DailyMail.com that the reality show «ruined [my] 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. It’s a brutal, brutal, brutal industry,» he said.
