'Teen Mom' Jenelle Evans Returns to MTV 5 Years After Firing

Jenelle Evans is back in the MTV fold amid a bitter divorce.

MTV's Teen Mom: The Next Chapter is back for another season. The new season is set to premiere on Thursday, May 30th at 8PM ET/PT with Mackenzie McKee joining the cast and Jenelle Evans making a special appearance. Catelynn Baltierra, Jade Cline, Cheyenne Davis, Briana DeJesus, Ashley Jones, Maci McKinney, Leah Messer, and Amber Portwood are back returning.

The new season will feature 15, hour-long episodes. McKee joins the cast with her boyfriend after a lengthy divorce. Evans makes a special appearance amid her divorce and life-changing moves as she's recently relocated to Florida. Evans previously returned to the show in 2022 for a brief cameo, attending an event for DeJesus. 

Evans' return comes after she was fired in April 2019 after her then-husband, David Eason, shot and killed their family dog. According to Eason's account, the dog tried to bite the couple's toddler daughter Ensley in the face, forcing him to put it down. Ensley was two years old at the time of the incident. 

Evans and Eason have since separated after six years of marriage and are heading toward divorce. Their marriage was marred with allegations of abuse, with the final straw seemingly being Eason getting physical with Evans' teenage son, Jace, which promoted an investigation from Child Protective Services after Jace ran away from home several times.

Evans claimed in a recent TikTok video that Child Protective Services dropped the case against her and Eason, and that Jace had been returned to her home after he was briefly taken from her custody. She previously went through a custody battle with her mother, Barbra, who gained legal guardianship of Jace when he was a toddler. Evans earned custody back last year. She's seemingly had trouble disciplining the teen.

"Now that this case has been dropped, I'm focusing on Jace's mental health and I want to focus solely on his mental health right now," she said in the TikTok video, as reported by Entertainment Tonight. "Right now I'm not going to give any details on what happened pertaining to the case but it will be shared eventually and soon. Just not right now. It's not the best time."