Drake Bell Admits He Struggles To Pay His Hire After ‘Drake & Josh’

Former youngster star Drake Bell is pulling again the curtain on the downsides of Hollywood.

Throughout his look on a July episode of “The Unplanned Podcast,” the “Drake & Josh” alum revealed that regardless of his present’s enduring reputation, he noticed little or no of its earnings—and nonetheless does not.

Drake Bell took it even additional, slamming the executives at Nickelodeon for profiting off his laborious work whereas he struggles to pay for requirements, together with his lease.

Earlier than his hit present “Drake & Josh,” Bell appeared on the favored Nickelodeon collection “The Amanda Present,” which famously starred Amanda Bynes.

In accordance with him, nonetheless, his years with the community weren’t almost as profitable as followers would possibly assume.

“That’s the notion of the world, it’s at all times been this fashion,” Bell mentioned. “It is like, you realize, ‘Oh, you made a Folgers Espresso business. You could reside in a mansion in Hollywood. Like, I noticed you on TV. You are wealthy.’”

Bell went on to say that the notion many have of kid stars is “removed from the case.” He added, “And particularly, which is the bummer for many of us on Nickelodeon, we do not get residuals for our reveals.”

For context, residuals are further funds made to creatives within the leisure trade each time a TV present is reused—comparable to in reruns or on streaming platforms—past its preliminary broadcast.

Not like another performers from common tv reveals of the previous, Bell and his co-stars do not obtain residuals each time their present is aired or streamed.

Bell defined that he needed “Drake & Josh” to enter syndication, which is the method of promoting broadcasting rights of a program to a number of tv stations, permitting them to air the present on their channels, no matter whether or not they’re affiliated with the unique community.

“You wanna get to 100 episodes to be able to get to syndication, and you then wanna get into syndication as a result of you then get your residual cash, that is the place you make your cash,” he mentioned earlier than highlighting the stark distinction between his contract and people of different TV stars.

“For instance, the ‘Associates’ solid on the peak was making one million {dollars} an episode,” he defined. “You make 13 episodes that 12 months, you make $13,000,000. You make 20 episodes that 12 months, you make $20,000,000, proper?”

“However proper now, every solid member of ‘Associates’ simply in syndication alone is making over $20,000,000 a 12 months, and so they’re not filming a present each week. They don’t seem to be going to work, however they’re enjoying their present and so they’re utilizing their likeness and so they’re doing all this, in order that they receives a commission for it. They usually’re making over $20,000,000 in a 12 months simply because different networks are shopping for the rights for syndication,” he said.

Because the dialog continued, Bell blasted “quite a lot of evil, corrupt folks” within the trade, including, “There is not any different reply.”

And to make issues worse, Bell shared that he sees episodes of “Drake & Josh” airing on tv and streaming on Netflix, but he receives no compensation from the reruns.

“There are three channels doing ‘Drake & Josh’ marathons,” he continued. “Netflix simply purchased it, it is high 10 on Netflix, and I gotta determine find out how to pay my lease this month.”

“And a few fats cat with a cigar is simply sitting up on the high of Viacom simply [laughing]. What do you name it? It is similar to getting excessive on youngster labor,” Bell added.

That wasn’t all Bell needed to say about his unlucky contract with Nickelodeon, although. He additionally slammed the community for seemingly “throw[ing] us to the wolves.”