Looking Back on Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica

Sue Colinsky, a producer on all three seasons of Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, recently sat down for an interview with Complex Magazine, where she reminisced about her time on the show. Here's what she had to say:

Were you fans of Nick and/or Jessica before production started?
"I had no idea who Jessica was."

So how did you end up working on the show?

"A group of us had worked with MTV on The Osbournes, and then two shows came up, and we had a choice between Rich Girls with Tommy Hilfiger's daughter or Newlyweds. I just chose Newlyweds because it sounded fun to be inside the world of somebody's brand new marriage. As soon as we started looking at the footage and I saw the "Is this chicken or fish?" [scene], I knew it was going to be a really fun ride."

What’s your take on people who said Jessica was just putting on a “dumb blonde” act?

"There were times when we were like, "Hm, does she really not know what this means?" I truly believe the whole 'chicken & fish' situation was accurate. She really did not know. I remember there was a scene where there was a dead mouse by their pool and it had been dead for a while. Nick said, "it's in rigor mortis" and Jessica said, "Riga-what?" I truly believe she didn't know what that meant."

They split up soon after the last season aired. What was it like to be on set at that time? 

"You could feel there was tension between the two of them. They were very different people. He was a blue collar guy—he did a lot of things himself, like he and his brother would build things. He was frugal, and she had excessive taste. In the end they weren't suited for each other. The only thing they really had in common was their music. She was really young; I think he's seven years older than her. He wanted a family, and her father thought maybe she was too young. Her father was very involved in her life."

Did you have any interaction with Joe Simpson?

"The first season, I didn’t [interact with] him, really. But with the popularity of the show, he was given an executive producer credit and he did get a little more involved. He had a little more say in what went in and out of the episode. Not a tremendous amount."

Read the full interview at Complex Magazine.