Alannah Keyser, aged 21, has been ousted as the second participant from the ongoing season of Love Island USA for using a racial slur in a revived online video clip. The dismissal occurred shortly after the Miami-based college student made a dramatic entrance during the Casa Amor segments on the Peacock reality dating show.
Shortly after her arrival on June 21 at the villa, an old selfie-style Snapchat video resurfaced showcasing Keyser singing along to a song containing the N-word, seemingly from rapper Roddy Ricch’s 2019 hit, The Box. Following the familiar pattern of the show, Love Island USA narrator Iain Stirling acknowledged her sudden exit during Thursday night’s episode, stating, “Alannah has left Casa Amor.”
After her initial appearance on Season 8, where she seemed to form a connection with contestant Zach Georgiou, viewers noticed a decrease in her screen time. Some Reddit users pointed out that she was notably absent from Tuesday’s episode.
Keyser’s situation is not an isolated incident for this season or the franchise as a whole. Shortly after Peacock revealed the Season 8 cast, Vasana Montgomery faced similar circumstances with resurfaced clips of her using a racial slur, leading to her removal from the show before it even premiered on television.
In previous instances, Season 7 contestants were also removed from the cast due to separate incidents. Yulissa Escobar was removed after old clips of her using racial slurs on a podcast came to light, prompting her to issue an apology on Instagram. Cierra Ortega faced a similar fate when similar clips surfaced online, leading to her removal from the show.
CBC News attempted to contact Keyser for a statement but received no response by the time of publication.