Of all two people who have nabbed the Kids’ Choice Awards’ elusive Lifetime Achievement honor throughout its 35-year run, one is a hulking monster with a reputation for scaring children — and the other is Optimus Prime.
Days after the Kids’ Choice Awards oozed its green slimy broadcast through boob tubes across the nation, a new tidbit had emerged about the return of the ceremony’s Lifetime Achievement honor. Mr. Prime would be joining a very small hall of fame, one only containing disgraced Nickelodeon producer and alleged child abuser, Dan Schneider, who received the award in 2014.
“This is 100% true, the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards have a lifetime achievement award that they have only given away twice and you will never guess who they have given it to” explained TikToker @joekwa in his now-viral video before displaying a screengrab of the award ceremony’s Wikipedia page.
Though Schneider long served as a Nickelodeon staple — creating, producing and existing as a general higher-up on several iconic Nickelodeon series like Kenan & Kel, Drake & Josh, iCarly and Victorious — his reputation had soured in recent years as several allegations of abusive behavior and misconduct emerged from his former colleagues.
A 2018 investigation by Nickelodeon’s parent company ViacomCBS found that Schneider was a notoriously terrible boss, prone to yelling, throwing “tantrums,” sending angry emails to his young stars outside of working hours and even verbally abusing his colleagues, per the New York Times.
While the probe found no evidence of sexual abuse — he just really liked neck massages and peppering some very weird scenes into his shows — several actors who worked alongside Schneider recounted tales of his purportedly creepy behavior. “Whenever I had wardrobe fittings, [Schneider] always had to be in them,” Zoey 101 alum Alexa Nikolas recounted in a podcast appearance last fall. “Thank God there was a curtain, but he was literally [sitting] on [a] chair right outside of the curtain.”
After emerging in her costumes, which often consisted of “very short skirts,” Nikolas said Schneider would ask the wardrobe artist for photos of the actress, who was just 12 at the time.
Beyond Nikolas, it’s also widely speculated that Schneider served as the secondary villain in iCarly star Jennette McCurdy’s bestselling 2022 memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died, in which she details an unnamed figure known as “The Creator” who massaged her and pressured her to drink alcohol while underage.
Nickelodeon ultimately severed ties with the producer in 2018.
So Kids’ Choice Awards overlords, good on you for choosing a fictional character — and not an IRL (purported) creep — to receive one of your highest honors (though maybe it’s worth revoking Schneider’s lifetime mini-blimp, too?). To paraphrase Mr. Prime’s acceptance speech: “Let this award seal the bond between humans, Maximals and Autobots as we fight together to protect the planet … against weirdos in children’s television.”
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