Ex-‘Love is Blind’ Contestant Sues Over Inhumane Working Conditions
A former contestant on Love Is Blind has sued the makers of the Netflix dating series for a series of alleged labor violations, marking another lawsuit challenging working conditions and pay in reality TV.
In a proposed class action filed in California state court on Monday, Stephen Richardson says he and the show’s other contestants should’ve been classified as employees, which would’ve entitled them to certain protections relating to minimum wage, overtime and illegal contractual terms over confidentiality.
The filing comes after the National Labor Relations Board last year issued a complaint against the production in which it said that castmembers were misclassified as independent contractors, opening the door to possible unionization. For years, contestants on Love Is Blind and other reality TV shows have complained of unsafe working conditions. Many, including those on Bravo’s Real Housewives and Vanderpump Rules, have sued.
One castmember, Renee Poche, filed a lawsuit last year against the production companies behind Love Is Blind, which includes Kinetic Content and Delirium TV, accusing them of labor violations. Arbitration proceedings seeking $4 million were later initiated against her for allegedly violating her nondisclosure agreement.
Like Poche, Richardson, who appeared on season seven of the series, says he was forced to sign a similar contract. It requires him to pay roughly $97,000 for breaches of the agreement, which includes terms relating to confidentiality and a noncompete.
The reality TV industry has long shielded itself from litigation by leveraging contracts with nondisclosure agreements and provisions requiring legal action to be taken in arbitration.
Any by classifying contestants as independent contractors rather than employees, the productions can avoid minimum wage and overtime obligations, among other things. One of the factors used by courts to decide the classification question is whether the employer, in this case Kinetic and Delirium, exercised a minimum degree of control over their workers.
On this issue, the lawsuit claims that the production oversaw “every aspect of the lives of their show’s cast,” including their communications and eating and sleeping schedules. At the hotel where castmembers resided during shooting, the production directed staff not to provide food, according to the complaint. Contestants’ IDs, wallets, phones and credits were taken away, “thus eliminating [their] ability to leave the hotel living quarters or production set,” the lawsuit says.
When Jeremy Hartwell, a castmember on the second season of Love Is Blind, sued the production in 2022, it was revealed that contestants were paid $1,000 per week — an effective wage of roughly $7 per hour for working 20 hours a day and seven days a week. Richardson’s lawsuit doesn’t disclose if the stipend has increased since then, though he also alleges he should’ve at least been paid minimum wage and overtime.
The lawsuit, which also names Netflix, seeks unspecified damages and brings claims for multiple labor violations. It seeks to represent people who applied for or participated in reality TV productions produced in California on behalf of Netflix, Kinetic, or Delirium, which didn’t respond to requests for comment since 2021.
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