Jennette McCurdy Claims Nickelodeon Offered Her $300,000 In Hush Money

Last year, former child star Jennette McCurdy, best known for her role as Sam Puckett in Nickelodeon’s iCarly and Sam & Cat, announced she was done with acting and would be shifting her focus to writing, directing, and podcasting. Since then, 30-year-old Jennette actually wrote something (um, a real writer would procrastinate for years!); a memoir, entitled I’m Glad My Mom Died. That was also the title of her one-woman show, so, like, Jennette’s definitely glad mom Debra McCurdy died of cancer in 2013.

Ahead of her book’s August 9 release, Jennette did an interview with The New York Times and discussed some of her memoir’s more troubling revelations, including the fact that Nickelodeon allegedly offered her $300,000 in hush money to never talk about her experiences with the network. It doesn’t take the child genius brain of iCarly (was she smart? I never watched) to put two and two together… this has gotta be Dan Scheider-related.

56-year-old Dan Schneider is the rumored creep who created a bajillion Nickelodeon shows, including iCarly, and “parted ways” with the network during #MeToo’s peak in 2018. In her memoir, Jennette writes about her disturbing experiences with “the Creator”, who is 1000% Dan:

“McCurdy endured various embarrassments and indignities at Nickelodeon, where she writes of being photographed in a bikini at a wardrobe fitting and being encouraged to drink alcohol by an intimidating figure she simply calls the Creator. In situations where her mother was present, Debra did not intervene or speak up, instructing Jennette that this was the price of showbiz success: ‘Everyone wants what you have,’ she would tell her daughter.

Hmmm, the title of that memoir is making more and more sense. Jennette says that when she co-starred with Ariana Grande in 2013’s Sam & Cat, the network prevented her from pursuing other acting opportunities. But, apparently, that rule didn’t apply to Ariana:

“What finally undid me was when Ariana came whistle-toning in with excitement because she had spent the previous evening playing charades at Tom Hanks’s house. That was the moment I broke.”

Sam & Cat ended after just one season in 2014, and that’s when Jennette says Nickelodeon offered her $300,000 to never speak publicly about her experiences with the network. She turned them down. The New York Times reached out to Nickelodeon, but they declined to comment. When Dan Schneider and the network split in 2018, a Deadline reporter wrote that she’d heard about “multiple complaints of abusive behavior against Schneider filed by members of his staff”:

…For years Schneider had been under a cloud of suspicion over the treatment of some younger stars of his shows. Among the things that have raised eyebrows are his tweeted photos of the toes of his young female stars.

Although the “Dan Schneider is a pedophile” rumors have been swirling for years (many of them are connected to Jamie Lynn Spears on Zoey 101 and Amanda Bynes on All That and The Amanda Show), there haven’t been any official, on-the-record accusations. But that silence makes sense if Nickelodeon is offering hush money and pressuring kids to sign NDAs. Gross! Here are some Twitter reactions to Jennette’s allegations:

It can’t be stated enough times that Nickelodeon knew Dan Schneider was a pedophile who abused children contracted to them and protected him for years because he made them money. https://t.co/PXDZBAkG4a

— Potentially Trevor Walker (@ConditorCancri) August 5, 2022

Dan Schneider was clearly the Harvey Weinstein of children’s television.

— Meredith Lee (@meralee727) August 4, 2022

Dan Schneider needs to go to jail. I need him to get the exact same treatment as R Kelly and Bill Cosby because WHY is he still walking the streets?

— J ✨ (@dojasharley) August 5, 2022

so nobody gone talk about her sitting in his lap???? like why were parents okay with this??

— Lil foreign. (@lildiablaaaa) August 5, 2022

The New York Times article also explores Jennette’s relationship with her mom. The former child star says her mother forced her to start auditioning at age 6. When she finally booked iCarly at age 14, she writes that she believed, “Everything’s going to be better. Mom will finally be happy. Her dream has come true.” Debra completely controlled her daughter’s life, including what she ate (“dinners consisted of shredded pieces of low-cal bologna and lettuce sprayed with dressing”). She even administered her showers, shaved her daughter’s legs for her, and conducted breast and vaginal exams. Teen Jennette was told these inspections were to check for cancer. Jesus. Unsurprisingly, Jennette had some major issues:

As McCurdy grew older and more independent, her relationship with her mother became further strained. The book reproduces an email in which her mother calls her “a SLUT,” “a FLOOZY” and “an UGLY MONSTER,” then concludes with a request for money for a refrigerator. When Debra had a recurrence of cancer and died, Jennette, then 21, was liberated — and left to navigate a complex world without her guidance, contending with destructive romantic relationships, bulimia, anorexia and alcohol abuse.

Jennette is well-aware that her past as a child star was fucked:

“My whole childhood and adolescence were very exploited,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears. “It still gives my nervous system a reaction to say it. There were cases where people had the best intentions and maybe didn’t know what they were doing. And also cases where they did — they knew exactly what they were doing.”

It’s so sad. I’m glad Jennette is finally getting to tell her story. And it takes some balls to stick it to her mom with that book title. I can’t wait for the sequel, “Let’s Murder Dan Schneider The Foot Pedo Perv: And Fuck You Nickelodeon!”

Pic: Instagram