Last month, Ryan Jenkins -- a hunky multi-millionaire who appeared as a contestant on a VH1 dating reality show about a woman seeking out wealthy bachelors -- was found dead in a hotel room in Canada. His death came mere days after he was charged with the murder of his ex-wife, model Jasmine Fiore.
The VH1 show, "Megan Wants a Millionaire," was quickly pulled from air and subsequently canceled. The production company that cast the show, 51 Minds, told TMZ they wouldn't have cast him if they'd "been given a full picture of his background."
But inside the world of reality television, many say that as cut-price shows continue to proliferate, so do the tales of the damage they can do by contestants who, critics say, may often often superficially or hastily screened before being put on national television.
And the lax state of screening is sparking a debate among professionals who cast the shows.
"Producers should really impart to these folks that ... things they've done in the past and the people they've had in their lives will be under the microscope," said Jenifer DeLoach, senior vice president of the background screening division at risk-assessment company Kroll, which checks out potential cast members for a number of reality television programs.
"The word on the street is that we're going to start doing double background checks now," said Jason Corwell, who was a cast member on the 1997 Boston season of "The Real World" and has since opened his own casting company, Cornwell Casting. He has cast contestants on shows like the CW's "Beauty and the Geek" and FX's "Black, White." (Read an interview with Cornwell here.)
"But my question about that is -- where's that money going to come from? If it's coming out of my casting budget, that's a problem. As long as the network is willing to cover the extra check, that's fine."
If the Jasmine Fiore murder lit a fire under the debate, a number of less serious but still questionable casting choices have created problems this summer.
"'The Hills' Made Me Bulimic," read a headline on the cover of US Weekly earlier this summer alongside a picture of Stephanie Pratt, one of the stars of the MTV show about impossibly beautiful and thin girls galavanting about Los Angeles.
Shortly after, "Bachelorette" Jillian Harris faced embarrassment after fiancé Ed Swiderski proposed on national television -- and then, just weeks later, two girls claiming to be his girlfriends claimed he'd been swindling Harris throughout the competition.
Background checks for these sorts of shows -- which can vary in price from $400 to $1,000 -- are completed by outside companies after potential cast members fill out extensive questionnaires detailing all of the places they've lived and worked and the names they've gone by. Any gaps are investigated.
On the most basic level, only records accessible online are searched, but the type of records available online -- criminal or civil -- vary from county to state.
