'It was all made up': KKK members claim A&E producers paid them to FAKE scenes in their documentary  

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Members of the Ku Klux Klan, who were the subjects of an A&E TV documentary series that was canceled last week, have claimed that several scenes from the show were faked by the producers.

A&E was due to air the eight-part series, 'Escaping the KKK', on January 10, until the network announced it was pulling the plug on the program after it learned participants had been paid to allow third-party producers access for filming.

Some KKK leaders told Variety that they were paid hundreds of dollars in cash each day of filming to distort the facts of their lives to fit the documentary's narrative.

Richard Nichols, who was one of the featured members of the series from Tennessee, told Variety that the production team even paid for the construction of wooden crosses and Nazi swastikas.

Members of the Ku Klux Klan, who were the subjects of a TV documentary series that was canceled last week, have claimed that several scenes from the show were faked by the producers. Pictured are members constructing a cross in a field 

Steve Howard (pictured), the Imperial Wizard for the North Mississippi White Knights, was the only featured Klansmen that denied being paid for his appearance on the show. He said that he 'was never paid a dime but I wished they did' 

'We were betrayed by the producers and A&E,' Nichols told the website. 

'It was all made up—pretty much everything we said and did was fake and because that is what the film people told us to do and say.'

The show followed three high-ranking Klan members and their families in Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee, and had originally been titled, 'Generation KKK'. 

Nichols is the Grand Dragon in the Tennessee Knights Of The Invisible Empire. 

Members of the Klan said they were promised that the show would capture their true lives in the organization, but instead they were reportedly presented with fictional story scenarios. 

And they claimed they were told what to say on camera at a given moment.

Other times, they were told to misrepresent their identities and were repeatedly asked to re-enact camera shoots until producers were satisfied, Variety reported.

The documentary series was produced by the TIJAT production company. 

Nichols told Variety that TIJAT producers manipulated nearly every aspect of what appeared on camera.

'They kept asking me, wanting me, to use the word 'n****r,' he told the website. 

He also claimed that he was getting paid $600 per day by producers to participate. 

In the interview with Variety, Nichols said that he was being filmed and used the word 'blacks', but then 'the producer interrupted me and said 'No, no, no. We want him to use the word 'n****r!''

The production company were also reportedly successful in organizing more than one cross-burning ceremony in Pulaski, Tennessee. 

Chris Buckley (left), the Grand Knighthawk for the North Georgia White Knights and peace activist Arno Michaelis (right) were set to be featured on A&E's new series

'While we stand behind the intent of the series and the seriousness of the content, these payments are a direct violation of A&E's policies and practices for a documentary,' A&E said. Pictured is a scene from the now-cancelled documentary

'It was the producers who told me they wanted a cross-lighting,' recounted Nichols. 'In fact they made two cross-lightings cause they wanted to reshoot some scenes. 

TIJAT also issued a statement to Variety in response to the allegations.

'We take these allegations very seriously and in partnership with A&E we will be looking into them fully,' the statement read.

'We have been told that participants in the series have received threats and coerced into speaking out against the authenticity of the show.'

Out of all of the featured Klan leaders, one member in the series, denied receiving payments for his participation.

Steve Howard, the Imperial Wizard for the North Mississippi White Knights, told Variety: 'I was never paid a dime but I wished they did.'

The show received widespread public backlash.

But A&E insisted it didn't want to spread the KKK's views while shedding light on the lives of committed Klan members. 'The only political agenda is that we really do stand against hate,' A&E general manager Rob Sharenow told the New York Times.  

 'Our goal with this series has always been to expose and combat racism and hatred in all its forms,' the network said in a statement, according to the Hollywood Reporter. 

Filming began a year and a half ago, not long before the Klan endorsed Donald Trump for president. The Klan's leader, David Duke, has since celebrated Trump's win. 

When A&E announced the cancellation of the show, the network said that they had learned 'from the third-party producers who made the documentary that cash payments - which we currently understand to be nominal -were made in the field to some participants in order to facilitate access'. 

Anti-hate activist Bryon Widner (left) meets with potential Klan prospect Cody Hutt (right)

The KKK is defined as a 'racist, anti-Semitic movement with a commitment to extreme violence to achieve its goals of racial segregation and white supremacy' by the anti-defamation league. Members of the Fraternal White Knights participate in annual march in Tennessee

A&E announced it was pulling the plug on the program on Saturday after it learned participants had been paid to take part. Members of the Klan stand around a burning cross 

'While we stand behind the intent of the series and the seriousness of the content, these payments are a direct violation of A&E's policies and practices for a documentary. 

'We had previously provided assurances to the public and to our core partners - including the Anti-Defamation League and Color of Change - that no payment was made to hate group members, and we believed that to be the case at the time. 

'We have now decided not to move forward with airing this project.'

The statement continued to say the network still plans to tackle serious issues, such as 'racism, hatred and violence'.

'Just because this particular show goes away, the issues of hate in America do not,' it read. 

'We will still seek to fight hate in America through on-air programming including town halls and documentary programs produced in partnership with civil rights organizations, as well as continue to work with the civil rights community to facilitate a deeper dialogue on ending hate through comprehensive educational and outreach campaigns.' 

Steven Howard, the Imperial Wizard of the North Mississippi White Knights, can be seen at the opening of the series gifting his two young daughters pointed KKK hoods, saying they represent his 'legacy'.

Chris Buckley, a Grand Knighthawk with the North Georgia White Knights, also appears on the show. 

His wife at one point meets an anti-hate activist and says she wants her five-year-old son to stop imitating his father's white supremacist salutes and racial slurs before he starts school.

There were 190 registered Klan chapters in the US in 2015 - more than twice the 72 chapters accounted for in 2014, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The KKK, defined as a 'racist, anti-Semitic movement with a commitment to extreme violence to achieve its goals of racial segregation and white supremacy' by the anti-defamation league, has an estimated 3,000 to 8,000 members across the nation. 

But the Southern Poverty Law Center estimates it is comprised between 5,000 and 8,000.