How 'Quiet On Set' Has Changed Investigation Discovery's Future

The popularity of 'Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV' has changed the way Investigation Discovery looks to the future.

The docuseries has taken the world by storm as many former Nickelodeon stars share their experiences working for the network. While many 90s kids looked forward to watching shows like 'Drake & Josh' and 'The Amanda Show,' what was happening behind the scenes was reportedly the complete opposite of joy.

The docuseries explores the behind-the-scenes world of children's television programs from the 1990s to the 2000s and the alleged work environment that former producer Dan Schneider created. Former actress Alexa Nikolas appeared in the project, detailing her experience working on the set of 'Zoey 101.'

Other former cast and crew members of 'All That,' 'The Amanda Show,' and other Nickelodeon shows also came forward, alleging a toxic work environment, racism, favoritism, and verbal abuse, amongst other things.

The docuseries was launched through the Investigation Discovery network, which is known for its murder mysteries, but thanks to the success of 'Quiet on Set,' the network may take things in a different direction moving forward.

Jason Sarlanis, who is president of TNT, TBS, TruTV and HLN in addition to ID, spoke to Variety. “It has been a fundamental shift for us,” he said. “It has brought a spotlight back to all the other things that are outside of the lane of what people expect an ID show to be.”

ID also gained popularity thanks to its recent documentary, 'Spacey Unmasked,' which explored "never-before-heard experiences and emotional testimony around allegations against the Oscar-winning actor [Kevin Spacey] for over three decades, tracing back to 1981."

“When I joined the network, we looked at the name: Investigation Discovery,” Sarlanis told Variety. “We realized that gave us the license to tell all kinds of investigatory shows, and really open the aperture beyond a myopic thinking of what a basic cable true-crime show could be.”

According to ID, 'Quiet On Set' achieved the highest weekly viewership on MAX, with 1.25 billion minutes the week of March 17. ID also notes that it is currently the top-rated cable network among women aged 25-54, excluding news and sports channels.

“I knew ‘Quiet on Set’ would hit a nerve,” Sarlanis added. “I think the stories of what child stars have gone through seem to resonate in every generation. And I also knew it would resonate because we were truly the first of a corporate media brand to tell that story."

"It feels like when those phenomenons can help shed light on things and potentially do some good in the world. It was speaking to a new generation of Millennial parents and giving them some of the language and tools to understand what grooming is, for their kids now. That’s a powerful thing that not all television shows get to do," he continued.

Jason Sarlanis added that the docuseries has "shown filmmakers that when you’re in business with ID, we can do that elusive thing of making a project work on multiple platforms at once, in this very complicated age of linear and streaming."

"In addition to that, the type of story we told is not the thing that you would imagine coming from the ID of years ago," he continued. "That has allowed us to attract more kinds of stories that the filmmaker community might not have thought to come to us with.”

The ID President then acknowledged that it is not always easy to come forward, and so he expressed his "tremendous empathy for all the people that were willing to sit down with us on all of our different shows."

"I’m just happy that we were able to give them such a big platform to tell their story — even if it wasn’t the platform they thought going into it. I still am really proud of the product, and I hope they are as well… ‘Quiet on Set’ truly was a phenomenon. And it feels like when you can help shed light on things, that can potentially do some good in the world.”