Lights, Camera, Contracts: The harsh legal reality of reality television
The season two cast of the reality TV show "Love Is Blind." The Emmy-nominated series has been one of Netflix’s most popular shows since it premiered in 2020. (Photo by Adam Rose/Netflix)
Nick Thompson has hit rock bottom. His downfall began when he agreed to be on the second season of Love Is Blind, a Netflix reality television show produced by Kinetic Content and cast by Delirium TV, which aims to help couples meet and get engaged without ever laying eyes on each other.
To do this, participants are placed in small isolated rooms, called pods, to get to know each other. They are miked up for 18 to 20 hours per day and were required to ask for permission for almost everything, including using the bathroom and drinking a glass of water.
The Emmy-nominated series has been one of Netflix’s most popular shows since it premiered in 2020, and in March 2024, it was the most-watched show on any streaming platform, according to Nielsen data.
Thompson is not doing as well, however. He did get married during the show to a fellow contestant but endured a public divorce, lost his job and was on the brink of homelessness because, he says, no one will hire him after watching the show.
“In a nutshell, it took me a long time after the fact to realize all the things I thought were wrong or exploited or illegal,” Thompson alleges, speaking by phone to the ABA Journal.
So in 2023, Thompson became a founding board member of the UCAN Foundation, a nonprofit organization advocating for the mental health and legal needs of reality TV cast members.
For Thompson, the main legal need surrounding reality show participants concerns their employment status—or lack thereof. Reality show participants are treated as independent contractors, which technically lets networks and productions evade many of the labor laws that protect employees, including those prohibiting long hours and guaranteeing overtime pay. Thompson—along with the National Labor Relations Board—argue that they should be classified as employees, rather than contractors.
The designation, Thompson explains, would make several provisions in the contracts, such as long hours without overtime pay, illegal. It would also give reality cast members the opportunity to unionize. The case is pending, and President Donald Trump—who is able to name his NLRB picks—could potentially choose those favoring employers versus employees.
On the other hand, would reality shows serve up the same drama if its cast members were not sleep deprived and hydrated by drinks beyond alcohol?
Danielle Ruhl and Nick Thompson appeared in the second season of Love Is Blind and were engaged and married. (Photo by Adam Rose/Netflix)
The challenges
Love Is Blind’s Tran Dang, who filmed but didn’t appear in the fifth season of the show, sued the production company Kinetic Content in May 2024 for false imprisonment and for failing to protect her after she says she was sexually assaulted on the set.
While the company pushed for arbitration, the trial court in Harris County, Texas, denied the motion, holding that the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, which states that sexual assault cases are exempt from arbitration, applied to Tran’s complaint. The First District Court of Appeals of Texas has upheld that ruling, and the case is still pending on the trial court’s docket.
Love Is Blind season five participant Renee Poche accused the production company in early 2024 of watching idly while she got engaged to an unemployed drug addict. Delirium TV responded by initiating arbitration proceedings, as she allegedly violated her nondisclosure agreement. A California judge denied Poche’s request for a preliminary injunction, granting the arbitration.
And Jeremy Hartwell, who was involved with the show’s second season, settled for $1.4 million in 2024 in a class action lawsuit filed in 2022 with Netflix after claiming that the company violated various labor laws, including a federal law prohibiting inhumane working conditions.
“With reality TV, a lot of the drama, a lot of the psychological steering, is made possible by deprivation techniques,” Hartwell says over the phone, explaining that he wasn’t allowed to eat or to drink water at will, nor was he allowed contact with the outside world. He also wasn’t permitted to leave the set.
Kinetic Content and Delirium TV did not respond to requests for comment.
Independent contractors vs. employees
According to Hartwell’s suit, the cast and crew of Love Is Blind, which is returning for eighth season Feb. 14, were forced to work up to 20 hours per day, seven days per week for $1,000 per week, which equates to $7.14 per hour.
Reality show contracts are largely, if not entirely, independent contractor agreements, so they typically receive fewer worker protections, explains Kassandra Vazquez, an associate at Wigdor, a law firm in New York City that focuses on employment, sexual harassment and sexual assault.
If they were deemed to be employees under the law, the participants would have the right to minimum wage, overtime pay, better working conditions, the ability to unionize and projections against exploitation. This could lead to increased production costs for networks and a shortening of the surveillance time, Vazquez says.
“It makes sense from a business standpoint why they would want to classify them as independent contractors,” says Angela L. Angotti, a partner at Bowman and Brooke in Austin, Texas, and a co-host of The Bravo Docket podcast.
To be classified as employees, the participants would have to demonstrate that the show has control over what they do, according to Angotti. Are they told where to be at what time? Do they follow a show’s schedule?
“You see complaints, but no one forced them to do this,” Angotti says. “You could leave at any time.”
Still, the realities of reality TV for contestants can be very harsh. They’re under a microscope and often are paid less than minimum wage, Vazquez explains.
For example, take Love Is Blind season two contestant Danielle Ruhl, who was engaged to and married Thompson.
“She was literally having a panic attack on TV while trying to have some privacy, and the camera people were watching her through an opening in the curtain,” Vazquez says. “Nobody knows how they’re going to react knowing that everything they do or say could be broadcasted on TV or to be constantly surveilled.”
Hartwell, meanwhile, points to the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act as one labor law that helps reality show participants. This is a huge win for reality TV participants, as the shows won’t be able to keep some issues under wraps anymore, Hartwell says.
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