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Contestants from the hit reality TV show ‘Love is Blind’ should be classified as employees, a complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has argued.
According to the complaint, filed in Minnesota, the show has committed multiple labor violations against the cast members, including illegal restrictions in their contracts including noncompete and confidentiality clauses.
The case is a first for reality TV shows. On ‘Love is Blind,’ 30 single contestants get to know each other while kept in separate rooms. They are only able to see one another once they have become ‘engaged.’ Engaged couples are then filmed in the build to a wedding where they are given the chance to marry one another.
What labor violations has ‘Love is Blind’ reportedly committed?
In the latest of a series of complaints issued by former ‘Love is Blind’ cast members, two participants sent official complaints to the NLRB.
The labor board subsequently investigated Kinetic Content and Delirium TV, the production companies who make the TV show. Netflix, the platform that streams ‘Love is Blind,’ was not named in the complaint.
One of those contestants, Renee Poche, claims Delirium TV accused her of violating a nondisclosure agreement in her contract, seeking $4million, after she publicly criticised the show.
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Poche spoke out about the TV show after she became engaged to a contestant who was “unemployed with a negative balance in his bank account” and often “aggressive and volatile.” She said her comments only amounted to “limited public remarks about her distressing time on the program.”
The NLRB argues that as an employee, the “non-compete, confidentiality, and stay-or-pay provisions” in her contract were “illegal” and claims the arbitration demand for $4 million is unlawful.
In a separate complaint, Nicholas Thompson, a contestant on series 2, alleged poor working conditions. He has described his experience on the show as “pretty awful.”
Since the show first aired in 2020, other former contestants have filed suits or made public complaints about their experience on the show and allegations about contractual restrictions.
Bryan Freedman, the lawyer representing Poche on ‘Love is Blind’ said: “Cast members are stripped of fundamental rights, gagged from speaking out, denied legal recourse, paid virtually nothing, subjected to the ever-present threat of ruinous liquidated damages and prevented from working elsewhere…These practices must stop.”
Reality TV stars as employees? What happens next
The lawyer argued the classification of reality TV participants as employees could transform the industry. Achieving employee status would offer contestants protections including the right to unionize.
However, given this is one of the first cases for the NLRB in reality television, and comes at the beginning of attempted reforms to how the industry is legislated, it is likely to come up against significant opposition.
While Kinetic Content and Delirium TV have not publicly responded to requests for comment on this occasion, Kinetic Content CEO and ‘Love is Blind’ creator Chris Coeleon has addressed complaints in the past, pushing back against those who have called for greater protections for participants.
“We document the independent choices of adults who volunteer to participate in a social experiment,” he told People magazine in 2023. “Their journey is not scripted, nor is it filmed around the clock. We have no knowledge or control over what occurs in private living spaces when not filming, and participants may choose to end their journey at any time.”
The CEO also told Variety last year that a clause which stipulated a $50,000 penalty for contestants who left the show early was never enforced and subsequently removed.
The next step in the process is a hearing before an administrative law judge in April 2025, who will determine if Kinetic Content and Delirium TV violated labour law. If violations are found to have taken place, while the production companies could appeal the decision, it would have a major impact on the future employment status of reality TV contestants.
