A second contestant from the current season of “Love Island USA” was kicked off the reality dating show on Thursday for using a racial slur in a video that surfaced online.
The contestant, Alannah Keyser, who is 21 and enrolled in the University of Southern California’s film school, first appeared on the show on Sunday night as part of a new crop of female contestants who are introduced to test relationships already underway. Not long after her debut, viewers found a 10-second video online in which Keyser appears to be singing along to “The Box,” a rap song by Roddy Ricch whose lyrics include a racial slur for Black people.
About 20 minutes into Thursday’s episode — three days after the video began circulating — the show’s narrator, Iain Stirling, announced, “Alannah has left Casa Amor.”
A representative for Peacock said that the video of Keyser was not accessible during the show’s vetting process. Keyser could not immediately be reached for comment.
Before the season began airing on June 2, another contestant, Vasana Montgomery, was ousted from the show after she was seen using a racial slur in two videos — once while singing the lyrics to a song and another while at a video arcade.
Last season, two contestants were also removed from “Love Island USA” for using racial slurs. Yulissa Escobar was dropped during the second episode after a video of her using a slur against Black people resurfaced. A month into filming, Cierra Ortega was ejected after a video of her using a slur against Chinese people was found online.
Montgomery, Escobar and Ortega have all apologized and noted that the backlash has been harsh. Ortega, who is of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, said that “Love Island” fans had called Immigration and Customs Enforcement on her family.
“Love Island USA,” which encourages young people to pair up in a tropical villa for a chance to win $100,000, has become one of the biggest shows of the summer, with episodes that air just days after they are filmed.
The current season, the show’s eighth, is close to its halfway mark, but new contestants enter the show until its final week, which is scheduled to air in mid-July.
