Corey, who used to write with us, got me into Nailed It! on Netflix and I binged the first two seasons. I’ve seen about three episodes of the third season, which came out recently. It’s a baking show where they pick the most inept bakers to make complicated things, with really hilarious results. Comic Nicole Byer is the lead judge and she’s accompanied by French pastry chef Jacques Torres. They have a new guest judge in every episode, often someone I’ve never heard of like a YouTube personality or a comic. Nicole is absolutely the star, she’s funny and can veer goofy depending on who the guest judge is. She keeps it interesting with jokes, but the nice thing is that the judges always give people credit for trying and aren’t mean at all.
Anyway a Twitter user found a thumbnail on Netflix for the show, it’s unclear which platform he was using, featuring Torres and the assistant director, Wes, who just comes on at the end in goofy costumes to hand out the trophy. The tweet has since been deleted, but he called out Netflix for leaving Byer out of the thumbnail. She responded by saying that she was grateful for the show but that it could be considered whitewashing and that black women are used to it. She’s since deleted that response too, writing that Netflix explained how the thumbnails are chosen and have fixed it. That’s cool. Here’s this story from E!.
A Twitter user named @dylsauce tweeted an image of a Netflix thumbnail for the hit baking show and made some comments about the people in the photo. dylsauce wrote, “i remember reading somewhere that @netflix puts men on the thumbnails of shows and movies a lot, but yo – this is NUTS. @nicolebyer IS NAILED IT. I love wes and chef jacques but COME ON – this is so upsetting.”
In one of her first now-deleted tweets, [Byer] wrote, “If Netflix didn’t sign my checks and give me a huge platform and opportunity to showcase my comedy. I would talk about how f–ked up and disrespectful this is to me a black woman. Also how black women are a lot of times erased from many different conversations.”
The comedian wrote in a subsequent tweet, “I would talk about how it makes me know my true value as the host of the show where I work incredibly hard to elevate the material given to me. Lot of moments people love are improvised.”
She continued, “I would talk about how this essentially white washing for more views. But they sign my checks and I’m honestly so happy and greatful [sic] to and for the show and no sarcasm I love my job and wish to keep it so I’ll be quiet.”
Her last note read, “To be clear. I know there are thumbnails with and without my face… This one just seems for lack of a better word deliberate. Again I love my job.”
Not long after deleting all of her tweets about this, the 32-year-old clarified her comments and shared that she spoke about the thumbnail situation with Netflix.
“I deleted my last set of tweets bc I talked to one the execs on my show about it and the thrilling conclusion is the removal of the image and a conversation about how the thumbnails are made and selected that I’m happy with,” she wrote.
The original tweet has also been deleted. The initial Twitter user replied to Byer’s most recent tweet, “I’m glad it came to a good resolution! I’ll delete the original tweet. thank you for all your hilarious work and keep up the great work!”
E! has more with background from a 2016 article on how Netflix chooses thumbnails. So it may have been a “mistake” but one they hopefully learned from. I’m glad it worked out ok for everyone and I like how outspoken Nicole was about it. Not everyone can do that and she may have faced consequences for it. Also this got more publicity for this show for Nailed It!, which is the kind of silly filler show you need after watching something heavy. We used it as a palette cleanser after watching Chernobyl recently, and it hit the spot. The only problem is that even though the desserts look awful I still want cake after watching it.
Here’s a screenshot of that tweet, via E!
Photos credit: Adam Rose/Netflix press
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