In an old episode of Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh, Drake Parker (Drake Bell) and Josh Nichols (Josh Peck) are surprised when they discover the home of the latter’s boss Helen (Yvette Nicole Brown) — a former actress who still makes a hefty amount of money from an old sitcom on which she starred. However, Bell has learned the hard way that this is not the case in the modern era of television.
In an episode of the Unplanned Podcast that dropped on Wednesday, July 2, Bell shared details of his earnings from streams and reruns of Drake & Josh — which originally aired on Nickelodeon from 2004 to 2007. Unfortunately, the earnings are not much, and Bell revealed he is dealing with financial woes nearly 20 years after the show’s end.
“There are three channels doing Drake & Josh marathons,” he said after noting that most Nickelodeon stars don’t get residuals from their past work. “Netflix just bought it, it’s top 10 on Netflix, and I’ve got to figure out how to pay my rent this month.”
Bell continued, saying “And some fat cat with a cigar is just sitting up at the top of Viacom just…getting high on child labor.”
Last year, Bell appeared in the explosive documentary Quiet on Set, which detailed alleged abuse members of the cast and crews of Nickelodeon shows endured as children at the hands of some of the shows’ creators and producers. He revealed for the first time that he was the unnamed minor in a lawsuit in which he accused dialogue coach and manager Brian Peck of sexual assault when he was 15 years old — between periods of filming The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh.
Brian was arrested in August 2003 on 11 charges, including sodomy, lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 by a person 10 years older and oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance. Brian received 16 months in prison and was required to register as a sex offender.
In recent memory, Bell competed on season 12 of The Masked Singer as the Ice King. He also released an album last year titled Non-Stop Flight.