As you know, Buckwild star Shain Gandee passed away at the age of 21 in a tragic accident last week. Shain died in his Ford Bronco, along with his uncle and a friend, following a late night off-road mudding session. The vehicle got stuck in the mud, and the three died from carbon monoxide poisoning when they left the engine running to keep warm. The tailpipe had been covered in mud, slowing killing them. It was a sad story and some called it a cautionary tale about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning, although that’s no comfort to the families.

As far as MTV’s culpability, they weren’t filming at the time and they weren’t promoting a practice that’s known to be deadly. Mudding is just good fun normally and it’s relatively safe in most cases. They’ve still decided to cancel the show due to Shain’s death, and have pulled the plug in the middle of filming the second season. In response to this news a producer really vented, on the record, to The Hollywood Reporter about how MTV sucks and this accomplishes nothing. He does have a point. This also reveals the kind of relationship MTV has with their show runners and talent.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter late Tuesday, Williams, who manages most of the cast members and produces the show, took particular aim at MTV for pulling the plug midway through filming on the second season.

“This is the network that has shows about teen pregnancy. They’ll stick by a show that allows you to abandon a child, but a kid dies by accident doing what he does for a living [mudding] and they cancel the show?” he fumes. “There’s something that smells of s— here on every level.”

News of the show’s cancellation comes a week or so after Gandee, 21, was found dead April 1 in his vehicle, along with his uncle and a friend, after going off-roading, or “mudding,” on a remote road in West Virginia. The local sheriff’s office ruled the death was caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. The network had suspended production as it considered whether to continue with the hit series, which was intended to fill a void left by one-time juggernaut Jersey Shore.

According to Williams, his Beverly Hills-based Parallel Entertainment along with production company Zoo Productions were informed Friday that MTV would be moving forward with the series. At that time, the network had four episodes in the can and was planning to shoot four more plus a special dedicated to Gandee to kick off the season. But Williams says MTV brass followed up Tuesday with a different message for the show’s producers: The network had opted to cancel the series instead.

“There was no explanation,” he says, still bewildered. He adds that the cast, which had planned to come to Los Angeles for the MTV Movie Awards this weekend, had not been informed of the news. The network is expected to formally announce the show’s cancellation Wednesday morning. A special, which was shot before Gandee’s death and was produced by an outside production company, is still expected to air.

Williams, who manages eight of the show’s cast members, including Gandee, does not intend to move on to other projects. In fact, he suggests that he will continue shooting the series and will look to produce a Buckwild film, which he would self-finance if need be. “My job is to protect these kids,” he tells THR, adding: “This will get ugly.”

[The Hollywood Reporter]

This Williams guy has a point. I mean, I don’t think these shows should exist in the first place but MTV has some messed up standards. (Hence these shows existing.) Remember all that drama with Teen Mom 2’s Jenelle Evans? We stopped covering it after a while as she was such a drug addicted, chaotic mess. She later admitted that she was a heroin addict. Another one of their Teen Moms, Amber Portwood from the original series (which ended last year) is in jail for five years. Teen Mom has had domestic abuse situations (with Amber) caught on tape and no one from the show has intervened, they’ve just taped and aired them.

So in that respect I get where this Buckwild producer is coming from. There were rumors that Teen Mom 2 would be canceled because of Jenelle’s very obvious, very severe and most importantly very public problems, but there’s been no announcement yet. Shain from Buckwild died in an accident that no one could have predicted and MTV pulled the plug very quickly. They’re just covering their asses, which have been bare and waving in the wind for a very long time.