A complicated situation. MTV aired a new episode of The Challenge: Total Madness on Wednesday, June 10, two days after the network fired Dee Nguyen. At the top of the new episode, a statement was displayed on screen.
“As a result of Dee Nguyen’s offensive comments on the Black Lives Matter movement, we have severed ties with her,” the statement, originally tweeted from the show’s official account on Monday, June 8, read. “Out of respect for the competition and other Challengers, MTV will air the season as planned.”
The network also revealed that Nguyen, 27, “will NOT appear in the reunion to be filmed at a later date.” The statement concluded with, “MTV strongly condemns systematic racism. Take action by texting DEMANDS to 55156.”
Nguyen is a current competitor on season 35 of The Challenge and won the previous season, War of the Worlds 2.
The Geordie Shore star was fired by MTV following a since-deleted tweet. “Idk why some of u think I’m anti BLM. I’ve been saying that since the day I lost my virginity,” she wrote on Saturday, June 6. In an Instagram comment, she wrote, “People die every f–king day” when someone brought up the May 25 murder of George Floyd.
“I want to sincerely apologize to my fellow cast members, the production crew at Bunin-Murray and the staff at MTV for my choice of words and actions in the most recent events,” the reality star said in a statement to Us Weekly on Wednesday. “What was stated wasn’t meant to be hurtful or discriminatory in any matter. It was a knee jerk of a reaction and it’s certainly not the way that I feel nor what I meant.”
She noted that although she “would love to take it back,” her comments are now out there.
“To set to record straight, racial intolerance is intolerable and unacceptable,” the War of the Worlds finalist added. “Having had to deal with racism my entire life, ironically through all this, there is a warm feeling I have with the fact that humans are standing together to call out unacceptable comments and behaviors that in the past were rarely called on. Again, we are shown that you can be judged in a second on all social media platforms.”
The Challenge: Total Madness airs on MTV Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.