Love Is Blind star announces the shockingly low amount she got paid to appear on Netflix reality dating show

The show may be hugely popular among viewers, and rank among the most-watched shows on Netflix, but participants who take part in the American version of the show supposedly get paid less than minimum wage, as reported by the MailOnline.

Veterinarian Renee Poche, aged 32, who took part in season five of the dating show claims to have only been paid just $8,000 (around £6,000) for her time - which included working up to 20 hours per day and seven days a week.

Previously, it was revealed by Variety that cast members were paid a “flat rate of $1,000 (around £750) per week”. The publication pointed out that the amount 'works out to as little as $7.14 (£5.34) per hour, which is less than half the minimum wage in Los Angeles County of at least $15 (£11.22) per hour.'

Earlier this year, Poche sued Netflix and production companies Kinetic Content and Delirium TV after allegedly being penalised for “breaching her contract by publicly discussing her experience on the show”, according to USA Today.

The producers had taken out an arbitration against her in November for “some limited public remarks about her distressing time on the programme”.

In her countersuit, filed on January 2, Poche shared that she felt like “a prisoner” during her time on the show. “On her first night in Los Angeles, the programme’s production staff seized Poche's phone, passport, and driver’s license,' the suit states, according to Deadline.

“When not filming, Poche was locked in her hotel room, unable to leave without a ‘castwrangler’ accompanying her. She was expressly forbidden from interacting not only with other participants but also with random hotel guests and staff. In some ways, and this is a sentiment shared by many participants, Poche felt like a prisoner.”

Poche has since spoke about her experience in a number of podcasts, which she believes is why producers have reportedly claimed that she violated her Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), and are seeking $4 million (around £3million) from her.

Poche is seeking damages, a jury trial, as well as a court declaration that the NDA is “illegal, invalid and unenforceable”.

Love Is Blind sees contestants go to private pods to meet their dates and be able to talk to them - but without being able to see them. If they form a connection, they become engaged and it is only then they may meet face-to-face.

Afterwards, the relationship is fast-tracked as they move in together and meet each other’s friends and family and then, after only a few weeks, they have a wedding ceremony. At the altar, they decide if they will say ‘I do’ and legally get married or say ‘I don’t’ and split up.

This is not the first time the reality dating show has come under fire. Season two contestant Jeremy Hartwell accused producers of the show of “intentionally underpaying the cast members, depriving them of food, water and sleep, plying them with booze and cutting off their access to personal contacts and most of the outside world”, in a lawsuit he filed in July 2022.

His attorney, Chantal Payton, claimed that this “made cast members hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making.”

In May this year, he reached a $1.4 million (around £1 million) settlement with Netflix in the case, according to local press. The money was to be divided between attorneys and approximately 144 former cast and crew members.