Nick Lachey has seen the criticism surrounding the season 4 reunion of Love Is Blind — and he doesn’t disagree with the negative response.
Lachey, 49, addressed the live event, which took place in April and ended up delayed by 16 hours, during an appearance on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy.
“I appreciate what you said after the fact because I think very few people understand like you do what all goes into that and what’s involved,” Lachey told Andy Cohen on Monday, September 19, after the Bravo executive producer, 55, weighed in on the drama at the time.
Lachey acknowledged that the “technology failed” when it came to executing the idea, adding, “But to your point, a reunion, there’s so many things you want to flush out, so many things you want to get to and to try to do that in a timetable that’s finite is not the way to go.”
Netflix made headlines earlier this year after users couldn’t watch the season 4 Love Is Blind special at its advertised time. The episode, which was set to premiere at 8 p.m. ET, was ultimately filmed for a live audience and uploaded the following day.
“To everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon … we are incredibly sorry that the Love is Blind Live Reunion did not turn out as we had planned,” the company tweeted about the technical difficulties. “We’re filming it now and we’ll have it on Netflix as soon as humanly possible. Again, thank you and sorry.”
Days later, Cohen explained what he thought didn’t work about the concept. “Live reunions are a very bad idea. There is a reason we don’t do reunions live,” he said on his radio show. “There is a reason [reunion episodes are] edited down. We could talk about a topic on a reunion taping for 25 minutes, for 45 minutes before really getting to the heart of something.”
According to Cohen, the priority should be the quality and not the speed.
“Reunion shows are almost like a fishing expedition. You’re talking about different topics [and] you don’t know what’s going to land [or] what’s going to hit,” he continued. “By the way, a lot of times people will have incredible one-liners that no one in the room really heard because someone on the other side is talking. So we go through the footage, we hone it, we edit it [and it] is finally shaped.”
He concluded: “There are ebbs and flows. You can’t say, ‘OK, we’re going to do it tightly in an hour.’ Sometimes it takes longer to get someone revved up emotionally. By the way, you want them to be feeling the most intense feelings that they can about the seasons. That takes time to shape and craft. There’s an art here. You can’t just bang it out and say, ‘OK, we’re doing it from 9:00 to 9:59 and that’s when the reunion’s going to be.’”
Nick’s wife — and cohost — Vanessa Lachey also took to social media to address the controversy.
“I want to take a moment, on this platform, to acknowledge the intense vulnerability that goes into our show (each season). I’m so proud of this cast and their willingness to put themselves out there. It wasn’t easy and this has been a LONG process to get to the reunion,” she wrote via Instagram that same month. “Please keep in mind online (and in life) that ‘words have weight.’ What you say to someone you don’t know (and don’t know the whole story to) can have a lasting affect on them… in many different ways.”
During his interview on Monday, Nick defended his and Vanessa’s process as hosts.
“You’re cutting people off. In your ear you’re getting, ‘We’ve got to go, move on!’ So you’re trying to let people flush out their stories and get things off their chest and you’re doing it while you’re being rushed,” he noted. “In fact, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
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