Netflix and a production company made sure contestants were drunk, sleep-deprived, almost starved and abysmally paid during a grueling production schedule, a former “Love Is Blind” participant alleges in a lawsuit.
In a reality show that only allows couples to meet in person after they’re engaged, the production companies made sure to cut contestants off from everything, not just each other, the recent lawsuit alleges.
“The combination of sleep deprivation, isolation, lack of food, and an excess of alcohol all either required, enabled or encouraged by defendants contributed to inhumane working conditions and altered mental state for the cast,” the complaint said.
Besides Netflix, the complaint names Kinetic Content and Delirium TV, a casting company. The suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 29 by former contestant Jeremy Hartwell, and is intended as a potential class action on behalf of all participants in that and other “unscripted” shows over the past four years.
The conditions also violated labor laws, the suit claimed, by classifying contestants as independent contractors rather than cast members, and demanding complete control over every aspect of their lives. They were kept in thrall by the threat of incurring fines that dwarfed their pay if they quit.
Contestants were also deprived of lifesaving water, the suit alleges.
“The only drinks that defendants regularly provided to the cast were alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, energy drinks and mixers,” the lawsuit states. “Hydrating drinks such as water were strictly limited to the cast during the day.”
Netflix and Kinetic Content did not immediately answer requests for comment from the Daily News.
“They intentionally underpaid the cast members, deprived them of food, water and sleep, plied them with booze and cut off their access to personal contacts and most of the outside world,” Hartwell’s attorney, Chantal Payton, said in a statement. “This made cast members hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making.”
Anyone who tried to leave early would be fined “liquidated damages” of $50,000, an amount that eclipsed their $1,000-per-week pay.
Contestants’ 20-hour, seven-day workdays effectively earned them $7.14 per hour in Los Angeles County, where the minimum wage is $15 or more, the complaint said. They also had to hand over identification, credit cards, wallets and phone; were consigned to either their hotel — sans room key — or the production studio, and were not given food if they asked.
“The exploitative working conditions served to control the participants’ conduct and elicited irrational behavior for entertainment value in the final project,” said attorney Laurel Holmes.
The Emmy-nominated “Love Is Blind” was hailed as breakthrough television when it debuted on Netflix in 2020. Its third season is slated to air later this year. It has spawned spinoffs in Japan and Brazil.
The suit also cites “Married at First Sight” and “The Ultimatum,” among other shows, as cases in which “the use of substantial amounts of alcohol is apparent and excessive,” Payton said. “You see cast members constantly have an alcoholic beverage in their hands or within arm’s reach, and they are shown drinking a lot more than eating, and there are instances of individuals being visibly drunk.”
Hartwell, a mortgage company director, was filmed for a week in 2021. He did not make the final cut or get engaged. The fitness enthusiast said he spent days recovering afterward.
“It was like an out-of-body experience for him, and he realized that he was open to emotional manipulation,” Holmes asserted. “He left the show feeling like a zombie, and he was told he looked that way too once he got back to Chicago.”
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