EXCLUSIVE: The challenges of working in TV production, particularly in the unscripted sector and in 2025, have been laid bare in a new row that has enveloped custom-car build series Ride of Your Life with Courtney Hansen.
Deadline understands that the series, which airs on the MotorTrend channel as well as on Discovery+, has become embroiled in controversy over non-payment to a large group of post-production workers and editors.
In a nutshell, Hansen, who runs series producer High Road Productions, and Bad Burrito Productions, a production services company owned by Dave Wilson, are blaming each other for the situation that has left numerous workers out of pocket.
One Los Angeles-based editor who said they are owed more than $2,000 has filed a claim with the California Department of Labor against Bad Burrito alleging that he has yet to be paid for work on episodes that have already aired. Sources close to the production tell us that around 20 people have been similarly affected.
Six crew members who spoke with Deadline said they’ve also been left in the dark as to why they’re still trying to collect wages nearly four months after they stopped working on Season 2.
Last September, Hansen hired Bad Burrito Productions to provide post-production services on the show’s second season. This work began in October and was supposed to run through December, but within days there was already work stoppage, per emails reviewed by Deadline. Wilson told crew at the time that Hansen had not provided requisite funds, prompting pencils down until those funds were received.
“I apologize for bringing you all into this situation without ensuring she had the capital up front to pay,” Wilson wrote to in an email seen by Deadline.
Post-production resumed by October 16, but crew continued to receive mixed messages about when they would be paid. In emails reviewed by Deadline, Wilson reiterated his commitment to paying crew and assured them multiple times that he was expecting more funds from Hansen to remedy any outstanding wages.
However, post-production was paused again by November 8 and did not resume with Bad Burrito Productions. Several episodes of Ride of Your Life Season 2 have already aired, including those that these crew members say they provided services on. Deadline understands Hansen commissioned another post-production crew to finish the project once Bad Burrito’s team paused work amid the dispute.
One crew member told Deadline that there were red flags from the very beginning. “Right now in the entertainment industry, we’re all hurting for jobs … I kind of put the red flags aside,” a separate post-production source said.
Hansen said she agreed to pay Wilson $230,000 to work on the 10-episode run, and Deadline has reviewed bank statements that show several payments made to Bad Burrito from October 3 to October 29 totaling at least $220,000. The money is owed to episodic editors and others for work on graphics, music, remote systems operation, and color correction.
“I am very proud of the work my new team has done to finish the season and re-create the two unapproved episodes that Bad Burrito botched and that had to be completely redone,” Hansen said in a statement to Deadline via her attorney Kenneth Freundlich. “It is unfortunate to hear that Bad Burrito did not pay the editors what they were owed. My company paid Bad Burrito $230,000, and all that I received for that money were two unsatisfactory and incomplete episodes. The real question is, where did that money go?”
Wilson did not deny that Hansen paid him those funds, insisting that all the money he received from Hansen has been used to pay crew.
“Yes, she has paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars. TV shows cost money,” Wilson told Deadline.
However, he said he was only paid a fraction of the $649,000 he quoted Hansen for the job. While he said he submitted an invoice to Hansen for that amount, he admits he didn’t sign a contract prior to hiring the crew. When asked, Wilson declined to provide Deadline with a copy of the invoice.
“We were going to turn in one a week for every week from October through the beginning of January, and I explained to everyone that this was going to be a very expensive proposition in order to get all of this stuff done,” Wilson said.
Freundlich, Hansen’s attorney, denies Wilson’s characterization of the events.
Crew members have told Deadline that they were paid partial wages, mostly via fragmented Zelle and Venmo payments from Wilson’s personal account, and only one was able to recoup a full month’s wages. Wilson said that, in addition to using the funds Hansen did provide, he has also taken on personal debt to pay his team. He said that between his debt and outstanding payroll, there is about $165,000 in unresolved payments.
While Hansen seemingly paid Bad Burrito Productions for at least some of the work, many in the crew have questioned Hansen’s role in the ongoing dispute and when she knew about the problem.
“You’d think at the very least, Courtney would come out and say, ‘Hey, I heard this is happening. This is unacceptable to my team that’s producing my show,’ ” one crew member told Deadline.
Freundlich told crew in a November 12 email that the wages “are certainly not owed by Ms. Hansen, and she knows nothing about this.”
“Dave Wilson hired a group of editors, and we do not know what their relationship is with Dave Wilson’s company, Bad Burrito,” Freundlich told Deadline. “If it is true that Bad Burrito engaged the editors to work on the show and didn’t pay them what they were owed, he should pay them immediately. At High Road Productions’ own expense, season two was completed on a delayed schedule, and once episodes were delivered, they aired. It is Bad Burrito who is going to have to answer to these editors.”
The California Department of Labor claim remains open, and the crew member who filed it said they have been assigned an investigator.
While this appears to be a specific problem between a producer and a post house, the battle highlights the increasing challenges for freelancers in the entertainment industry coming off the back of Covid, two strikes and the L.A. wildfires. According to a recent report from FilmLA, production in Los Angeles was down more than 30% over five year averages in 2024.
“We’re all professionals … I really love my job,” one crew member said. “I hadn’t been working for the last year hardly at all, like most people. It was such an incredible disappointment. We all wanted to work, and we all wanted to make a good show.”
Hansen owns the rights to Ride of Your Life and licenses the show to Motor Trend and Discovery+.
“MotorTrend licensed the rights to air this show, but was not responsible for employment of the production or post-production staff. We are disappointed by this situation involving a third-party company and hope they resolve it quickly and fairly,” a Discovery+ spokesperson told Deadline.
Hearst, which acquired most of Motor Trend’s assets from Warner Bros. Discovery in December, declined to comment for this story. Deadline understands the company did not acquire or assume liability for Motor Trend’s television business as part of the deal.
