VH1 has done the right thing, at least temporarily, and canceled all reality shows featuring now-deceased murder suspect Ryan Jenkins. Jenkins, 32, was found hanged over the weekend in a motel outside Vancouver, British Columbia. His death was an apparent suicide. The Canadian native was the subject of an international manhunt after his ex wife’s body was found stuffed in a suitcase. Jenkins competed for the affections of reality veteran Megan Hauserman on the reality show “Megan Wants a Millionaire,” which was airing right before the murder. He was also reportedly the winner of VH1 reality competition show “I Love Money 3,” a detail which VH1 has not confirmed or denied.

In the wake of the murder investigation, VH1 indefinitely postponed airing the future episodes of “Megan Wants a Millionaire,” which was finished shooting in March. They released a statement yesterday after Jenkins’ death that the show is now canceled, and that it, and “I Love Money 3” will never air.

The NY Times had an article late last week before Jenkins’ death that questioned whether VH1 would continue running sensational and arguably exploitative reality shows in the wake of this scandal. Reality shows have never featured a known murderer up until now, but as RealityBlurred editor Andy Dehnart states, they thrive on questionable characters to create such obnoxious television. Denhart doesn’t think that’s going to change at all in light of the failure of their vetting process:

“Obviously, if the company had been given a full picture of his background, he would never have been allowed on the show,” 51 Minds said in a statement. The company said it was investigating the case and “taking steps to ensure that this sort of lapse never occurs again.”

While it is true that producers are responsible for vetting cast members, Andy Dehnart, the editor of realityblurred.com, a popular Web site about reality television, said that VH1’s “abdication of responsibility is totally disingenuous.”

“The network has built a brand on unstable, crazy people interacting on these idiotic and mindless dating shows, and can’t pretend to not have anything to do with it,” he said.

In a statement Friday, VH1 said its “ultimate responsibility is what’s on our air, and in this case we immediately took the show off the schedule as well as off of our digital platforms.” The channel added: “Everyone has a role to play in the hundreds of hours of original programming that we develop each year. Something went wrong here, so we’re all looking at the process to make sure it doesn’t happen again…”

Mr. Dehnart said the case’s impact on VH1 and the production company would be minimal, “since the crime appears to be mostly unconnected to the show, and because reality TV has a long history of contestants with sketchy backgrounds.” He noted that as early as 2000, when dating shows were first beginning to appear on network television, the star of the Fox show “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?” was revealed to have had a restraining order filed against him.

[From NYTimes.com]

I guess you can’t really find handfuls of normal, non-troubled people who are willing to do outrageous shaming stunts like pooping inside a house with witnesses and cameras rolling. I don’t know what’s more disturbing – that someone is thinking up these ridiculous concepts or that we’re accepting it as entertainment. (I’m just as guilty of this as anyone and am not blaming you if you find this crap interesting. It appeals to us like a car crash – it’s hard to keep from looking away.) Having a murderer in their midst won’t make producers question the programming, and they probably think it’s enough to eliminate the specific shows he was on. This type of shock TV isn’t going to change after one horrific incident. It will take more than just one dead woman to change the rotten culture of “reality” television.

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