MTV announced it will cancel Season 2 of its ‘Buckwild” reality show following to the death of cast member and Kanawha County resident Shain Gandee.
“After careful consideration, MTV will not be moving forward with Season 2 of ‘Buckwild’ in West Virginia,” the network announced Wednesday. “We love the cast and the show and this was not an easy decision, but given Shain’s tragic passing and essential presence on the show, we felt it was not appropriate to continue without him. Instead, we are working on a meaningful way to pay tribute to his memory on our air and privately.”
Gandee, 21, his uncle and a friend died last week in an accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. The three had gone mudding near Sissonville when Gandee’s Ford Bronco became stuck in a mud pit and the tailpipe submerged.
MTV said it will air a marathon of the show’s first season beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday. The network will follow that with the ‘Buckwild: WV to the NYC,’ at 8 p.m. Sunday, an episode filmed before production of Season 2 began.
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper, a critic of the show, said the cancellation didn’t mean much to him.
“That’s really not even important,” Carper said on MetroNews “Talkline” Wednesday. “We lost three Kanawha Countians in a very tragic accident.”
Carper said he never liked the show.
“It was just a bad idea to encourage folks to do reckless things, besides the image of the state,” Carper said. “The fact that they’ve canceled it, that’s their business.”
Two cast members tweeted Wednesday once word came out about the cancellation.
Shae Bradley tweeted:
“@mtv can have shows about horrible parents and horrible influences and were just good people having good hearted fun and Shain was the best”
“Buckwild’s” Michael Buford seemed to accept the network’s decision in his tweet.
“Ya know shain started the show and he ended it….. He always ended what he started #EndWhatYaStart wouldn’t be right without him anyways”
Carper said the show never had any value: “It put a very good community in a false light.”