Not onboard! Teen Mom OG star Tyler Baltierra is speaking out about the addition of Bristol Palin to the season 8 cast of the reality hit, saying it’s a bad move on producers’ part.
Baltierra, 26, admitted as much on the latest episode of the podcast “Reality Life with Kate Casey,” saying, “Do I think it’s weird as hell? Absolutely. Do I think it’s a really, like, not a good decision for the franchise? Yeah. But that’s out of my control.”
The husband of Catelynn Lowell also said he didn’t know anything about Palin, 27, before she was cast on the show. “I don’t know anything about anybody,” he said. “It’s weird. When it comes to that kind of stuff, I’m a f–king recluse.”
In the past two months, though, he’s heard about some of Palin’s controversies. “I got headlines sent to me, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s racist, she’s homophobic,’” he recalled. “I’m like, ‘What? I don’t know!’”
Still, Baltierra says he’s reserving judgment until he gets acquainted with the Alaska native: “I’m like, I can’t read the tabloids. I gotta just get to know the person on my own. I don’t want to get any preconceived judgments or notions about these people.”
He also doesn’t begrudge Palin for joining the show. “Do I have any hard feelings against the girls, the people participating in it now? Absolutely not,” he said. “Because I think with the franchise — like, what it turned into — if the opportunity knocks on anyone’s door, I think everyone would be lying if they said they wouldn’t take the opportunity. Honestly, things evolve, they gotta grow and they gotta adapt to change as we get on with this whole thing that we’ve been doing for 10 years now.”
Us Weekly confirmed Palin’s involvement in Teen Mom OG season 8 in July, one day before Palin herself announced the news. She joins returning cast members Lowell, Maci Bookout and Amber Portwood, and fellow newbie Cheyenne Ford.
Teen Mom OG season 8 premieres on MTV Monday, October 1, at 9 p.m. ET.
