Marc Summers is speaking out about his experience being interviewed for ID’s “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” documentary. During an appearance on “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show,” the longtime host, said he was called and asked to be part of a doc about Nickelodeon. At the time he agreed, he didn’t know it was set to expose toxic behavior at the network.
“They asked me what I thought of Nick and the first 10 to 12 seconds, from what I understand, in this documentary, is me saying all these wonderful things. But they did a bait and switch on me,” Summers says in a sneak peek of the interview, set to go live on Friday. “They ambushed me. They never told me what this documentary was really about. And so they showed me a video of something that I couldn’t believe was on Nickelodeon. And I said, ‘Well, let’s stop the tape right here. What are we doing?’”
Summers, who hosted “Double Dare” from 1986 to 1993, said that when they told him what they were actually making the documentary about — detailing Dan Schneider’s behavior and Brian Peck’s sexual assault of Drake Bell — he walked out.
Marc Summers in “Quiet on Set”
“I left. So I got a phone call about six weeks ago saying you’re totally out of the show. And I went, ‘Great.’ Then they called me about four weeks ago and said, ‘Well, you’re in it, but you’re only in the first part of it because you talked about the positive stuff of Nickelodeon,’” Summers says. “What they didn’t tell me — and they lied to me about — was the fact that they put in that other thing where they had the camera on me when they ambushed me. And so, now we get into a whole situation about who’s unethical.”
In the doc, Summers can be seen watching a clip on his phone, asking, “Did that air on Nickelodeon?” The documentary reveals multiple suggestive scenes from “Zoey 101,” “Sam & Cat,” “Victorious” and other series run by Schnieder. (At first, Schneider denied sexualizing the young teen stars; he later responded and apologized for his actions and the inappropriate scenes.)
Summers went on to say that he never met Schneider, as “Double Dare” ended before his reign began.
“Those people came in after and took over our studios. I never met the man, I have no idea about any of those things,” he says. “I mean, I know Kenan [Thompson] from ‘Kenan and Kel,’ because we’ve done stuff together. But as far as anything that happened on that show with any of those people, I never met any of them. I didn’t know anybody. But it made it seem like I knew those people.”
When asked if there’s anything he can do about this now, Summers responds, “Well there’s a phone call coming today at 3 o’clock.”
ID has not responded to Variety‘s request for comment.
A fifth episode of “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” is set to air on Sunday on ID and stream on Max. Summers’ full interview will go live on the YouTube channel for “Elvis Duran and the Morning Show” on Friday at 8:45 a.m. ET.