Reuters Mr. Gandee.MTV has suspended production on its reality series “Buckwild†in the wake of news that one of its most popular cast members, Shain Gandee, was found dead on Monday. Details about Mr. Gandee’s death remained unclear on Monday, though several news reports said he had been discovered along with two other men, one of them his uncle, in an all-terrain vehicle near his home in Sissonville, W.Va.
CBS News reported that the men were last seen at 3 a.m. Sunday in a bar and had told other patrons that they intended to do off-road driving. In the “Buckwild†series off-road driving, which the characters called “mudding,†was central to several of the episodes. The show, which chronicled the daily adventures of a group of young adults from rural West Virginia, had been called “Appalachian Jersey Shore†by some reviewers.
Mr. Gandee, 21, was also widely identified as a breakout character in the series. He called himself “the redneck MacGyver†after the inventive character in the television series of the same name. During its first season of 12 episodes, which began in early January, “Buckwild†was the No. 1 show in cable television with viewers between the ages of 12 to 34, the base audience for MTV. Overall the series averaged 3.2 million viewers per episode, a good total for cable television. MTV had already ordered a second season of the show. But its future is now in some doubt.
Though MTV executives declined to comment on the record about whether the show would continue, the current season, which had been in production for more than a week, has been suspended indefinitely.
