A contestant on the new season of “Love Island USA” was dropped from the reality show after videos of her using a racial slur against Black people surfaced online, just days before the season’s premiere.
Peacock, the network that streams the show, confirmed on Sunday that the contestant, Vasana Montgomery, had been dismissed. Montgomery did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Peacock did not provide additional details about the casting shake-up. It was also unclear if filming for the new season, at a luxury villa in Fiji, had begun. The show shoots in real time, and episodes air roughly two days after they are filmed. The new season, the show’s eighth, is scheduled to premiere on Tuesday.
When Peacock announced its new cast of romantic hopefuls on Thursday, Montgomery was described as a 25-year-old Sagittarius from Beaverton, Ore.
By Friday, two videos of her using the racial slur had surfaced on social media. In one, she sings along to a rap song that uses the word, and in another, she appears to use the word while at a video arcade.
A person with knowledge of the production who was granted anonymity to discuss internal matters said the videos in question appeared to be privately owned and had not been shared publicly until after the new cast had been announced.
“Love Island USA” has become one of the most popular reality dating shows in recent memory and, some argue, a cultural juggernaut. It consistently stirs up controversy, incites online debate and draws men away from the N.B.A. finals.
The show’s seventh season, which aired last summer, garnered more than 18.4 billion minutes of streaming time on Peacock, according to the network.
The show follows a group of contestants who must pair up or risk getting kicked off the island. Cameras roll on them for nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as the group participates in kissing challenges, compatibility tests and other games. Public voting helps determine who stays and who goes. The winning couple receives $100,000.
Montgomery is not the first cast member of “Love Island USA” to be dismissed for having used a racial slur.
Last year, Yulissa Escobar was dropped from the show’s seventh season after video recordings of her repeatedly using a racial slur against Black people in a podcast interview surfaced online.
Escobar appeared in that season’s premiere, but the show’s narrator announced her dismissal in the second episode. Escobar later apologized, saying she had used the slur “ignorantly, not fully understanding the weight, history or pain behind it.”
About a month later, another contestant on Season 7, Cierra Ortega, was kicked off for having used a racial slur against Chinese people.
Georgia Gee contributed research.
Derrick Bryson Taylor is a Times reporter covering breaking news in culture and the arts.
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