Ariana Grande opens up about Quiet on Set and Dan Schneider allegations on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed

Ariana Grande shared her childhood acting experiences from Nickelodeon and discussed her perspective on Investigation Discovery's docuseries "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV."

The 30-year-old Wicked actress reflected on her early career as a child actor on Nickelodeon and her response to the eye-opening docuseries during an episode of Penn Badgley's podcast, Podcrushed, which aired on Wednesday, June 12.

Grande appeared in both Victorious and its spinoff Sam & Cat, both of which were created by Dan Schneider, a prominent figure discussed in Quiet on Set.

Quiet on Set exposes Dan Schneider

The docuseries delved into the harmful environments prevalent in children's television programs during the 1990s and 2000s, focusing on several series produced by Schneider, such as All That, The Amanda Show, and Zoey 101.

Former actors, writers, and crew members from popular Nickelodeon shows recounted instances of sexual abuse, harassment, and racial discrimination purportedly occurring behind the scenes.

Ariana Grande comments on the Quiet on Set allegations about Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider

“A lot of people don’t have the support that they need to get through performing at that level at such a young age, but also dealing with some of the things that the survivors who have come forward…there's not a word for how devastating that is to hear,” Grande commented.

“I think that the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting, and I think there should be therapists, I think there should be parents allowed to be wherever they want to be,” she continued.

“I think if anyone wants to do this or music or anything at any level of exposure that it means to be on TV or to do music with a major label or whatever, [it] should be in the contract.”

The multi-talented individual acknowledged that young performers can be susceptible to adults' reactions to their performances on set, creating “a strange pattern that occurs where it’s really taking advantage of how much it means to the young performer to get a laugh from Video Village.”

“You’re like, ‘Oh s---, I’m doing something great. Like, this is funny, this is good.’ ”

However, Grande acknowledged that her perspective is based on her own experiences from her show, highlighting how she and her fellow cast members—Victoria Justice, Daniella Monet, Leon Thomas III, Matt Bennett, Elizabeth Gillies, and Avan Jogia—“pushed the envelope with [their] humor.”

Ariana Grande comments on the inappropriate jokes made on Victorious

“And the innuendos were like, we were told and convinced as well that it was the cool differentiation. And I don’t know, I think it all just happened so quickly and now looking back on some of the clips I’m like, ‘That’s… damn, really?’ ”

She added: “The things that weren’t approved for the network were snuck on to like our website or whatever it was, and that is another discovery. But I’m going into it…I guess I’m upset.”

New episodes of Podcrushed are released every Wednesday on podcast streaming platforms. You can stream all five episodes of Quiet on Set on Max.