Ariana Grande 'upset' over Nickelodeon Quiet on Set scandal, says child stars should have mandatory therapy

Ariana Grande, who first emerged as a young actress on Nickelodeon’s Victorious, is reflecting on her experience as a child star.

During a visit to Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed podcast, the Grammy-winner reflected on her time at the network, in the wake of revelations explored in the Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. While neither Grande nor her Victorious costars appeared in the series, footage from the show often played as examples of Nickelodeon’s content being inappropriate for children. Grande admitted to noticing this herself, while revisiting the series. 

"I think that’s something that we were convinced was the cool thing about us,” she said. “That we pushed the envelope with our humor and innuendos. We were told — and convinced as well — that it was the cool differentiation. It all just happened so quickly and now looking back on some of the clips I’m like, ‘Thats… Damn, really?’”

She added, “And then the things that weren’t approved for the network were snuck onto like our website. And that is another discovery. But I’m going into it… I guess I’m upset.” 

On the subject of child-acting in general, she continued, "My relationship to it has — and is currently — changing. I’m reprocessing a lot of what the experience was like. I think that the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting, and I think there should be therapists. I think there should be parents allowed to be wherever they want to be.”

She added, "Not only on kids sets — if anyone wants to do this or music or anything, at the level of exposure that it means to be on TV or to do music with a major label or whatever, there should be in the contract something about, ‘Therapy is mandatory twice a week.’ Or thrice a week. Or something like that.”

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Quiet on Set featured former Nickelodeon stars making allegations of racism, sexual harassment, sexism, and verbal abuse on sets headed by megaproducer Dan Schneider, who left the network in 2018. The series also established that two convicted child abusers, Brian Peck and Jason Handy, worked on Schneider's shows.

Grande, who starred in two Schneider-produced shows, said, "A lot of people don’t have the support that they need to get through performing at that level at such a young age. But also, dealing with some of the things that the survivors who have come forward [have]... There’s not a word for how devastating that is to hear about. So, I think the environment just needs to be made a lot safer all around.”

The “Eternal Sunshine” singer also pointed out that young performers are vulnerable to reactions from adults on set, which create “a strange pattern that occurs where it’s really taking advantage of how much it means to the young performer to get a laugh from Video Village.” 

Grande starred in Victorious for four seasons, alongside Victoria Justice, Elizabeth Gillies, Leon Thomas II, Matt Bennett, Avan Jogia, and Daniella Monet before the series ended in 2013. The following year, Nickelodeon launched the Schneider-created spinoff, Sam & Cat, which Grande led with Jennette McCurdy. 

Grande went on to say she is happy with the ongoing conversation surrounding children in Hollywood, as it signals a "cultural shift." She further pointed out that it’s "not just actors and singers” experiencing sexual assault and abusive behavior in the workplace.

You can watch Grande’s full conversation on Podcrushed above.