All That star says Dan Schneider asked for support before Quiet on Set aired

Actress Giovonnie Samuels didn’t have particularly kind things to say about Nickelodeon megaproducer Dan Schneider during her appearance on Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV — but Schneider seemed to think they were on good terms.

In the new episode of the bombshell Investigation Discovery docuseries, the former All That performer said that Schneider contacted her shortly before the doc premiered, presumably to help him craft his response to the series. “I got a phone call. He reached out a week before the documentary aired,” Samuels said. “He asked if I could give a quote of support.” This memory causes her to laugh.

A rep for Schneider did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.

In previous episodes of Quiet on Set, Samuels and her former All That costar Bryan Hearne alleged experiencing racism and a hostile work environment on Schneider’s set.

Schneider posted a 19-minute response video on March 19, the day after Quiet on Set aired its third and fourth episodes. In the video, former iCarly actor BooG!e asked the Amanda Show creator about his reaction to the docuseries, to which Schneider replied, “I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.”

Samuels, who appeared on All That from 2000 to 2004, speculated on why Schneider reached out to her. “He knew I was in the documentary for a year, and he was like ‘Oh, I love Gio, she’s great, she’s nice, great, she can tell my side!’ And I don’t know what you want?” she said. “He asked because I did come back to do Henry Danger, which was some time later, he was like ‘You had a good time on set, right? Right?’ 

She did return to Nickelodeon for a 2018 episode of the Schneider-created series Henry Danger. That didn’t stop her from giving Schneider a piece of her mind when he called, however: “I told him I was terrified of him,” she said in the new Quiet on Set episode. “I said, ‘You have the power to make people stars, and I was intimidated by you. I wanted to do a good job.’”

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is streaming on Max.

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