While perhaps not as not as popular and/or endlessly messy as Jersey Shore or The Hills, MTV's reality series Siesta Key has had more than its share of "Oh, snap" moments over its first three seasons. Now, the show is making big headlines for all the wrong reasons, as star Alex Kompothecras has been fired by the network after allegedly racist social media posts were recently discovered by those in charge.
The timing of Alex Kompothecras' firing is extremely relevant, given that the news broke on the same afternoon that MTV was raring up to give Siesta Key an extended two-hour Season 4 premiere. Viewers didn't get to experience that, though, with the runtime getting cut in half by the time it aired on Tuesday evening. Kompothecras' presence in the premiere was noticeably truncated, and viewers also noticed that his name had been removed from the opening credits.
MTV execs reportedly gave a statement to TMZ about Alex Kompothecras' firing, saying the below:
We’ve made the decision to cut ties with Alex and are editing the current season to minimize his presence. He will not be in future seasons of Siesta Key.
It doesn't sound like MTV sees any reason to investigate deeper into the matter, and is content to just cut all ties with Alex Kompothecras based on the social media posts that were dug up. (No examples were provided, however.) While it sounds like he might show up on screen during the remainder of Siesta Key Season 4, Kompothecras will likely just show up in the background of shots where other stars are talking.
The MTV team took swift action in distancing the show and the network from Alex Kompothecras. By Tuesday afternoon, MTV had removed all traces of Kompothecras from its Siesta Key website, as well as references to his girlfriend (and mother of his child) Alyssa Salerno. On social media, Kompothecras seemed to immediately excise Siesta Key and MTV from his bios, and he no longer follows either.
If Alex Kompothecras' name is familiar to anyone who doesn't watch Siesta Key on a regular basis, it might be from his connection to a disturbing news story from a few years ago. At the time, it was reported that Kompothecras was friends with one of the fisherman seen on a viral video to be dragging a shark behind their boat using a fishing line. The video caused quite a stir among animal activists, and the Siesta Key star apparently got death threats over it, despite not being present for the video.
This is far from the first time in recent weeks that MTV has had to fire one or more of its reality TV stars over issues relating to racist language on social media. The network axed The Challenge star Dee Nguyen for posts that spoke negatively about the Black Lives Matter movement, and soon after, execs supposedly fired Teen Mom O.G.'s Taylor Selfridge over racist posts from back in 2012. Selfridge has since come out to say that she'd stepped away from the show a week earlier to focus on her new baby, and is bothered by the network's decision to refocus her absence on posts that she'd already publicly apologized for.
Will this be the final time MTV has to part ways with one of its reality TV stars over racist language online? Or will there be even more big terminations on the way? Viewers will just have to wait and see. In the meantime, Siesta Key episodes air Tuesday nights on MTV at 8:00 p.m. ET. For those in need of more to watch in the coming months, head to our Summer 2020 TV premiere schedule.
