in The Boom Boom Room (4/28/21)
However, the genre of reality dating shows have been in the news a lot in the showbiz industry lately for similar reasons behind the scenes, none bigger than what's happened to the show Unreal producer Sarah Gertrude Shapiro once worked on. In the past year, Bachelor Nation has found itself embroiled in behind-the-scenes drama surrounding race despite making inroads having Tanisha Adams and Matt James as their most recent leads, and host Chris Harrison stepping away from Katie Thurston's upcoming Bachelorette season next month after he also got caught in the crossfire of racial controversy over a contestant on Matt's season when he talked to Rachel Lindsay, herself Matt and Tanisha's predecessor as the franchise's first lead and as co-host of MTV's Catfish spinoff Ghosted.
Over at MTV, one of its contributions to the dating genre has also been under fire in the past month when Gianna Hammer from Season 5 of Are You The One? brought forth the same kind of charges that was leveled at Bachelor spinoff Bachelor in Paradise. There, she brought out into the open that she was sexually assaulted in an off-camera incident when she was drunk one night during her stay in the Caribbean. The show's producers in Lighthearted Entertainment are already under investigation as the production and casting process for Season 9 has been paused due to this rather disturbing matter, along with her season also being taken off of streaming platforms following the emergence of these charges.
Now, things have gotten even worse: even more dirty little secrets from the Truth Booth have now been exposed, where race was once again at the heart of matters as well as the single biggest moment of Gianna's season. And perhaps, we are now getting deep into witnessing the real-life version of Unreal unfolding inside the most controversial season ever of AYTO.
This latest round of accusations of shadiness to come from the only season that lost it all, as well as the first one from last month, comes from the same source of The Daily Beast and reporter Cheyenne Roundtree. And unlike what was the case last time out when we looked at the events surrounding Gianna, we will spare you most of the details of her second report, and provide the links here in this preamble for more cast quotables and the in-depth accounts of what happened behind the scenes. That follow-up is located at this link, with Gianna's original story located here.
First, the former: it was a year ago this coming Memorial Day that the events of what happened in the home region of castmate Andre Siemers of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Twin Cities area that reignited the Black Lives Matter movement and sparked the summer of upheaval in our society. It also had a huge impact on the reality television community with high-profile firings of cast members of Vanderpump Rules and MTV's Siesta Key and The Challenge.
What led to the exits of those like Stassi, Alex and Dee from those shows was race and their past that was seen online being brought to light during the events that happened following the hellacious murder of George Floyd and other matters related to police brutality. For here, the new report from Daily Beast brought to light something else that, like what happened to Gianna, was left on the cutting room floor but was only until now that it has been put into the microscope.
The second of the two perfect matches in the Truth Booth involved Gianna's love interest and eventual dad to her kid August, Hayden Weaver, and Brazilian Carolina Durate... and she has since found love in eventually getting engaged to Cam Bruckman from Season 4 of a year earlier. But there was a rather disturbing incident that only adds to what went down with the now-deposed people above: according to that report, a reportedly intoxicated Carolina was overheard using the N-word in the house to the point that she supposedly uttered it repeatedly to Derrick Henry (dating show king and ex of love alums Angela Babicz and Tori Deal).
Tyranny Todd, who would later go onto both Season 4 of Ex On The Beach and Bravo's reboot of Blind Date within weeks of each other over a year ago, told Daily Beast, "I'm Black and I take that very offensively. We were living that we were so disrespected like that." One who would become a lawyer after returning from the Caribbean, Michael Halpern, called the incident "...the most f____-ed up s____ I've ever heard," while Carolina herself would tell the site that she has since sent apologies to Derrick for her behavior while adding that producers did intervene in letting her sleep elsewhere after the fact.
Along with offering all the Twitter reaction to every episode of AYTO going back to 2014 and the season 1 cast, we've also offered our own analysis on the show's analytical aspect: the science of figuring out those matches. And in the most important round of the tenth and last matchups, we have pointed out the final order of the matches, the odds that they have to overcome from before they enter the house, and joining with others in trying to see who we think the matches before the house does. And it's always a tricky thing here - and if you love baseball sabermetrics, then this is your show.
As is always the case for every one of the eight AYTO seasons, only those who do the science of match-making these perfect matches before the players move in know who is matched to whom, and no one who is on set -- producers, crew, the cast and the show's host (in the case of Season 5, Ryan Devlin) -- has any idea of the order of the matches... and of course it's only indicated by the light beams that light up during that tension convention of the Matchup Ceremony. If you have at least some of this show like we have here, you know how stressful it can be sitting on that patio where the hopes of $1 million can hinge of what happens there -- from a money-losing blackout to that moment of confetti falling.
But now, could the result of what happened in the Caribbean have been meddled around without the Season 5 cast having any knowledge of that? Could one of the most memorable and gut-wrenching moments in the past decade in MTV Reality programming have been manipulated by producers behind the scenes wanting the show to get renewed and to keep it as interesting as The Bachelor? Some of the cast firmly believe with their hearts that this was, unfortunately, the case.
Shannon's choice of choosing Tyler -- one that was pressured by showrunner Scott Jeffress (who's executive produced not only AYTO but also The Bachelor, Temptation Island and both Jersey and Floribama Shore) derailed an elaborate strategy where she had to choose between Derrick and Buffalo native Joey Amoia, Bay Area native Hannah Fugazzi having to pick Joey or Tyler, and Cassandra Martinez (who later appeared on Bachelor spinoff The Proposal) being stuck with going with either Derrick or Tyler. In the end, they held the decisive hand in the game with the strategy that they had costing them it all -- Joey & Shannon, Hannah & Tyler, and Cass & Mr. Chocolate... and this led OC resident Ozzy Morales to say, "We could have won, we had everything to win, it was just the fact that they didn't let us win. So, it sucks."
As we hinted on here before, Shannon got to acknowledge on Twitter that she was the one who gets the blame for losing the game for the house in having the entire house point fingers at her for this. But the DB report states that some in the group feel that Lighthearted had paid her to try and throw this game into a tailspin, though she reiterates that she wasn't paid off for that but joins with others that she was targeted to lose the game. And it also brings up a particular aspect we don't know about: before making their matchup choices, the singles have to fill out a card of up to three people with which to choose when they stand in front of those tablets... they just can't choose anybody. And it was after that pick by her of Tyler that Shannon was consoled by Mr. Jeffress under the impression that she was deceived by those behind the fourth wall. And she added, "It was 100% unfair. ... I fell into a depression. I was f____ed up. The blame really ended up being on me."
As it was with what happened with Gianna, Lighthearted execs told DB that they deny any allegations that they rigged the game and that "at no time was any cast member forced to make a matchup decision against their will." And had all of the chips fell in the right place and had Shannon not had been pressured to make the choice that she did of Tyler, then this would've been over: Season 5 would've matched what the originals did of solving this puzzle in nine weeks. But while what happened that night and the finale chaos is the biggest bombshell to drop, there's one other understated aspect of this.
The follow-up also brings to mind the stipends the houseguests were set to receive for filming in the show, which was slated to be $2,400 -- which would've been more than the yearly prize fund paid out in annual 30-year increments (about $1,600) had the house gone 11 for 11. This payment just for being on the show would've been vital for those who come looking for love, but then would use that stipend to help pay for college tuition, to reduce credit card debt, put into a savings fun or anything else for the contestants' liking once the afterglow of this season faded out.
But the producers decided that they would deduct from that pay as a way of punishment had they done something illegal or not allowed. Former footballer Jaylan Brown stated of this side pot turned bounty, "They held that money over our head at times. That was really kind of like, 'You essentially better listen to us or else we'll take your money,' which [happened to] a lot of people." The story brought up that cash payment being taken away for little things such as trying to follow what Devin got to do and strategize with objects similar to the famed red Solo cups, to yes - discussing those sexual assault accusations.
And one particular member of this group has been leading the way in this...
This isn’t an attention seeking grab or an attempt to be recast.
— Hayden Weaver (@HaydenPWeaver) May 12, 2021
We were manipulated, threatened, and taken advantage of in a vulnerable environment, and over time we’ve since all grown to realize it was all out of line.@MTV your wokeness needs to be consistent, not trendy. https://t.co/1SVd22bT5N
A PERSPECTIVE...
AN OBJECTIVE COMMENTARY
If we thought what Gianna brought to light with the events that changed her life in the Dominican Republic was bad, then this trio of revelations just has to be the absolute nadir in this saga. The idea of what fueled Quinn King to get Rachel Goldberg to mess around with Everlasting has now made its way in a real sense to AYTO - if this indeed is all true and the findings by MTV and their people do support the cast's claims. And whenever something as shady and as messy as this happens, there is nobody that wins out of this mess... what happened here with the possibility that this game was manipulated when it's supposed to not be, then this is just totally wrong... they were victims of just sheer injustice by those desperate to give this show a better profile.
As a result of these two Daily Beast reports and those damaging allegations that's come to light, there are bound to be consequences aplenty: combined with the other can of warms that has plagued this past year, then it appears that the job of MTV's VP of Talent should soon be put up for vacancy, while there will be calls for greater transparency in how not just AYTO, but other reality competition shows on MTV and elsewhere, do their business. Perhaps, there could be a new production company or a totally new team of producers being called on to do future seasons of this show provided that it doesn't get axed because of these rather silly and unprofessional actions by producers being pressured to make Season 5 the best AYTO season ever, when in truth they may have swallowed their soul and moral responsibilities for the sake of ratings, ad dollars and better television in the never-ending battle for your eyeballs.
In the end, we have yet another sad story in the long line of controversies that have always cast this great genre in a bad light -- most especially with a lot of those in the course of the past few years alone, and which has given this show perhaps an incurable scar in an otherwise brilliant run in giving MTV a solid entry into the reality dating genre, and for me a show outside of The Challenge and Real World for me to follow - and I will still continue to watch the loyally as I've done since it all began. But if all holds true, then the allegations that plagued Season 5 of Are You The One? are an utter embarrassment and a travesty for both MTV and for this reality genre.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
