MTV Halts Production on Hit Series Following Alum's Claims of Sexual Assault, Drugged by Production

A former contestant on MTV's Are You the One? is claiming she was drugged and sexually assaulted while filming for the reality series. Gianna Hammer is coming forward and accusing the production and network of aiding in an unsafe environment after the incident allegedly took place during 2016 for Season 5 episodes. MTV, which is owned by ViacomCBS, has launched an independent investigation into Hammer's accusations according to Yahoo.com, and as a result, filming for Season 9 has been put on hold.

Hammer claims that halfway through filming Season 5 is when the incident took place. Hammer told The Daily Beast that during one night when she had been drinking quite a bit, she got into an argument with a male castmate. She says that three production crew members pulled her aside to give her some of her antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications, but claims she was not supposed to be taking those while drinking. "I know that my castmates said that I kept telling them, 'I'm not supposed to do this when I'm drinking. I'm not supposed to do this when I'm drinking.' They still said it was OK, they said it wasn't a high enough dosage or something. So, I took it," she told the outlet."

At the time, everyone was filming in Cabarete in the Dominican Republic. Hammer says the next day she was pulled aside by production and informed that she had gotten into bed with one of the male contestants. At the time, some of her cast members said that when she said "no" while in bed with him, they pulled her out. When Lighthearted Entertainment — the company behind the production of the reality series — asked her if she wanted the male member to be removed from set, because she was unable to recall what exactly happened, she felt pressured to just keep him on set.

While admitting she felt pressured to keep him, it was partially because they guilted her. "They made this comment, saying, 'He flew all the way out here, we did all this testing for him, he has a perfect match in this house, it would be a lot to send him back, he'd have to spend the rest of the time in a hotel by himself,'" she recalled. Their resolution was to remove him from the main bedroom and make him sleep on the couch, while also cutting both Hammer and him off from drinking for the rest of the season. She also detailed that she had to sign a document that stated she was not allowed to discuss what happened while filming and that the footage from that night would be removed from any episodes.

However, over time she pieced together what happened that evening, along with five cast members stepping forward to share what they witnessed in her defense. "I guess [I] really thought about it and was like, 'Wow, that was really f—d up," she said. "They should have never left me in an unsafe position. I'm definitely a changed person after it all." Hammer said "the production company admitted that there was an incident and admitted to the pills," but claimed, "a situation happened in a hot tub, which didn't happen, we never even had a hot tub."

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