Nick Lachey has spoken out about the production issues that occured during the Love Is Blind season four live reunion, which aired back in April.
During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, the singer, 49, reflected on the challenges that arose throughout the reunion of the reality program, which follows couples who go on a series of blind dates and get engaged, before meeting in person and deciding if they want to get married. On 16 April, Love Is Blind fans were left furious after technical difficulties caused delay in the livestream of the reunion special. Amid the outrage, Netflix issued an apology to fans who “gave up their Sunday afternoon” to watch the event, which aired 16 hours later than initially planned.
During his conversation with Andy Cohen, Lachey expressed his gratitude for the fellow talk-show host, noting that they both understand the difficulties that come with running a live segment
“I appreciate what you said after the fact because I think very few people understand like you do what all goes into that and what’s involved,” he said, referring to how Cohen said in April that the Love Is Blind live segment was a “bad idea” from the start, since there’s “a lot of grist to go through before you get to the prime beef,” which is why reality shows are usually “edited down”.
Lachey went on to back up Cohen’s previous point, noting that during the Love Is Blind live reunion, there wasn’t enough time to address all the drama that happened both during and after season four.
“It was definitely not the way it was meant to go down, the technology failed. I think people were frustrated with that,” he said. “But to your point, a reunion, there’s so many things you want to flush out, so many things you want to get to and to try to do that in a timetable that’s finite is just not the way to go.”
After confirming that he and co-host, wife Vanessa Lachey, only had an hour to host the reunion special, he recalled how he had to “cut people” off during the segment, with claims that Netflix producers encouraged him to do so.
“In your ear you’re getting, ‘We’ve got to go, move on!’ So you’re trying to let people flush out their stories and get things off their chest and you’re doing it while you’re being rushed,” he said.
The singer’s brother, Drew Lachey, then shared his thoughts about the conversation, quipping: “I hear you guys talking about the ins and outs of it, and in my mind, all I can hear is: ‘Nick did something wrong.’”
However, both of the TV hosts shut that claim down, with the Love Is Blind host responding: “In fact, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
On 16 April, many Love Is Blind fans took to social media to express their fury about the live reunion being delayed, after it was initially expected to stream at 8pm ET. Netflix then issued an apology for the delay on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing: “To everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon… we are incredibly sorry that the Love Is Blind Live Reunion did not turn out as we had planned,” the statement said. “We’re filming it now and we’ll have it on Netflix as soon as humanly possible. Again, thank you and sorry.”
While the segment went on to be filmed live, it wasn’t available to watch until the following day, 17 April at 3pm ET.
After the reunion aired in April, many fans shared their thoughts about the co-hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey, and called for an end to their hosting duties. Along with claims that the hosts didn’t ask questions that delved deep enough into the drama, fans were also angered by Vanessa’s line of questioning when it came to asking the married couples if they’ll start having children soon.
In April, several contestants responded to the criticism towards Vanessa’s behaviour during the Love Is Blind reunion. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, contestant Kwame Appiah came to her defence, claiming that she was simply following her responsibilities as a TV host through the questions she asked.
“I do think obviously she wants to get answers. She wants to make sure that the people get what they want. It is her job as a host,” he said. And so, you know, I can’t critique that too much. I think she did what she thought would be best to create closure for everyone who viewed it, and everyone who was in that experience.”
