Marc Summers says Quiet on Set producers 'ambushed' him with questions about abuse at Nickelodeon

Marc Summers briefly appears in Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV  — but the former Double Dare host claims producers didn’t tell him what the docuseries was about.

The television personality, who hosted the beloved Nickelodeon game show from 1986 to 1993, told the Elvis Duran Show that he was unaware until midway through filming that the Investigation Discovery docuseries was investigating allegations of abuse and a toxic work environment at the network. “They asked me what I thought of Nick, and the first 10 to 12 seconds, from what I understand, in this documentary is me saying all these wonderful things. But they did a bait and switch on me,” Summers said in the upcoming interview, per Variety.

“They ambushed me,” he continued. “They never told me what this documentary was really about. And so they showed me a video of something that I couldn’t believe was on Nickelodeon. And I said, ‘Well, let’s stop the tape right here. What are we doing?'”

Reps for Quiet on Set and Summers did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.

Summers, who went on to host The Next Food Network Star and Unwrapped on the Food Network, briefly appears in the opening minutes of Quiet on Set’s first episode, asking “Did that air on Nickelodeon?” in the midst of footage of Ariana Grande squeezing a potato from Sam & Cat. He later says, “Nickelodeon wasn’t there to educate you. We were there to have fun, to get slimed, to be entertained. I was slimed more times than I care to tell you about as part of my job. It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s gooey, it’s sticky.”

Later in the Elvis Duran interview, Summers explained how he exited the production of Quiet on Set while he was being interviewed. “I left. So I got a phone call about six weeks ago saying you’re totally out of the show. And I went, ‘Great,’” he recalled. “Then they called me about four weeks ago and said, ‘Well, you’re in it, but you’re only in the first part of it because you talked about the positive stuff of Nickelodeon,'” he continued. “What they didn’t tell me — and they lied to me about — was the fact that they put in that other thing where they had the camera on me when they ambushed me. And so, now we get into a whole situation about who’s unethical.”

Summers clarified that he didn't know Dan Schneider, the prolific producer whom other Quiet on Set participants accused of cultivating a toxic work environment. "Those people came in after and took over our studios. I never met the man, I have no idea about any of those things,” he said. “As far as anything that happened on that show with any of those people, I never met any of them. I didn’t know anybody. But it made it seem like I knew those people.”

Additionally, when asked about the possibility of legal action against Investigation Discovery, Summers said, “Well, there’s a phone call coming today at 3 o’clock.”

A new episode of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV premieres on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ID. The first four episodes of the docuseries are streaming on Max.

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