Ryan Jenkins Suicide: Will VH1 Air 'I Love Money 3?'

The New York Times reports that while “51 Minds would not confirm reports that Mr. Jenkins was the winning contestant,” it “did say that he visited its production office on Aug. 12 to pick up a check for $5,200, his honorarium for appearing on the show.” It’s unclear if that’s different than his potential prize money; the second season gave its winner $250,000.

The paper also reports that “VH1 has not decided on the future of the other show, ‘I Love Money 3,’ which was set to make its debut in January.” In a new statement released to the Times on Friday, VH1 backed away from its initial, completely disingenuous statement that shifted any responsibility to the show’s producers for casting someone with a sketchy past.

Before Jenkins was discovered dead, the network said it has “ultimate responsibility is what’s on our air, and in this case we immediately took the show off the schedule as well as off of our digital platforms.” It hedges a bit more saying, “Everyone has a role to play in the hundreds of hours of original programming that we develop each year. Something went wrong here, so we’re all looking at the process to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The network has canceled both Megan Wants a Millionaire and I Love Money 3 after Jenkins was charged with murdering his ex-wife last week and was subsequently found dead on Sunday from an apparent suicide, a VH1 spokesman told The New York Times.

Both shows are produced by 51 Minds Entertainments, the same production company behind dozens of other VH1 reality series that have been ratings hits for the network in recent years.