Nickelodeon Wouldn't Give Jennette McCurdy Antidepressants After Mom Died Fearing She'd 'Kill Herself,' Ex-Star Reveals
Jennette McCurdy was allegedly denied mental health treatment by Nickelodeon executives after her mother died, a former child star has claimed.
In a TikTok video posted Thursday, "Zoey 101" alum Jack Salvatore alleged that he witnessed "high-level conversations" he "wasn't supposed to hear."
He claimed to have learned from these purported conversations that Nickelodeon "didn't want" McCurdy taking antidepressants following her mom's death in 2013 "for fear that she might kill herself and make the network look bad."
McCurdy and Nickelodeon have not publicly addressed Salvatore's claims as of this writing.
McCurdy's mother Debra died following a nearly two-decade battle with breast cancer. At the time, the actress was starring in "Sam & Cat."
In 2022, McCurdy opened up about the alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother in her memoir, "I'm Glad My Mom Died."
In his video, Salvatore praised the recently concluded ID docuseries, "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV," for doing a "good job of uncovering the details of workplace toxicity specifically on Dan Schneider's shows for Nickelodeon."
Salvatore went on to make several allegations against Schneider, whom he worked under as a production department intern on "iCarly" and as a writer on "Sam & Cat" and "Victorious."
The former child actor claimed that the former Nickelodeon series creator allegedly once brought out a shotgun to "scare one of the writers when they were working at his house."
Salvatore also alleged that Schneider "would literally count his gold coin collection in front of his crew who was living paycheck to paycheck."
Schneider has not publicly responded to Salvatore's video.
Salvatore appeared to have posted his video in response to Schneider's new interview with "iCarly" alum BooG!e about some of the allegations made against him in "Quiet on Set."
Schneider was accused of racism, sexism, and inappropriate behavior, including allegedly asking crew and cast members to massage him on set and sexualizing child stars with inappropriate jokes in his scripts.
In the interview shared via YouTube after "Quiet on Set" aired, Schneider apologized for his behavior, saying he saw "the hurt in some people's eyes" in the docuseries, and it made him feel "awful and regretful and sorry."
"I wish I could go back to the earlier years of my career and bring the growth and experience that I have now, and just do a better job," he said.
Schneider admitted to making massage requests and acknowledged that it was "wrong" for him to "put anybody in that position."
He also called for Nickelodeon to cut the "jokes" in his shows that people deem inappropriate.
Schneider's team earlier denied claims that he sexualized child actors.
"Everything that happened on the shows Dan ran was carefully scrutinized by dozens of involved adults, and approved by the network," a rep for Schneider said in a statement to Variety in response to the docuseries. "If there was an actual problem with the scenes that some people, now years later are 'sexualizing,' they would be taken down, but they are not, they are aired constantly all over the world today still, enjoyed by both kids and parents."
The statement went on to claim that "some adults project their adult minds onto kids' shows, drawing false conclusions about them."
"Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV" streams on Max.
