If you watch Teen Mom: OG online you know that the most recent season finale featured one of the show’s most controversial scenes to date.
Viewers were shocked to see Maci Bookout’s ex Ryan Edwards driving to his wedding with Mackenzie Standifer while visibly intoxicated.
MTV has issued a statement on the incident, but the network has failed to adequately respond to fans’ questions about why it allowed it.
With cameras following the couple and Mackenzie even referencing his wasted state, how could such a dangerous scene take place at all?
Now, a crew member who was present during the notorious incident is speaking out on condition of anonymity and defending the production.
How can they justify – or at least explain – the potentially deadly decision to let Edwards get behind the wheel of a car in this situation?
Their reasoning is simpler than you might expect. The anonymous crew member tells The Ashley’s Reality Roundup:
“The reason the producers didn’t stop Ryan from driving after he was seen nodding off is because the producers would not have been able to see him nodding off.”
How so? Cameras are in the car. People are not.
“That footage (and almost all car footage) is captured on Go-Pro cameras installed on the dashboard," the insider explained.
"We do not have a live feed to watch the cast in their car, despite what some viewers think. We do not have live eyes on them the whole time we’re filming."
“That footage is captured and watched a few days later after the producers/crew get home from the shoot."
"It’s edited in later. When things happen in the car, we don’t know about it until the cast tells us, or when we watch the footage later on.”
He went on to throw some mild shade at Mackenzie, insinuating that she may have made the situation worse by turning off the dash cams.
“In the case of Ryan, he or Mackenzie would have had to alert us to watch the footage ASAP,” the crew member said.
“We wouldn’t have seen it happen as it was filmed."
"Obviously, Mackenzie unplugged the GoPros, which isn’t really allowed, but we wouldn’t even know she turned them off until later when we watched the footage.”
The source continued in the show’s defense:
“People think that the production crew is just looking for footage that will get the best ratings, no matter what and that is not true at all."
“We really do care about the safety of the cast and other people. A lot of these people on the show are our friends.”
The crew member went on to point out that even if the production staff wasn’t concerned with Ryan’s safety, they would still intervene.
For legal reasons, if not personal ones:
“Even if you take the human decency element out of it, we care because it’s our butts on the line if something happens,” he said.
"Had Ryan gotten into an accident or something while filming, even if the producers were not aware that he was under the influence?"
“The show would have been absolutely liable."
"It doesn’t matter [if we knew], we are still liable. They would be risking their jobs and possibly be liable personally for allowing that to happen.”
Thousands of fans have expressed outrage on social media, and it seems unlikely that they’ll be satisfied by MTV and the crew’s assessment.
Fortunately, Edwards checked into rehab shortly after this was filmed, and we highly doubt one troll’s assertion that MTV is his drug dealer.
None other than Simon Saran accused a producer for MTV of not only being complicit in filming this, but supplying Edwards with drugs.
That’s Farrah Abraham’s boyfriend for you.
Only time will tell if the uproar will change the way the franchise is filmed going forward, but the source obviously denies that claim as well.