Did MTV Mess Up With Emy?

Spies, Lies and Allies was an odd season that gave us a huge class of rookies. We only saw seven of them do subsequent seasons, but there’s one non-returner who seemed poised to become a Challenge mainstay. Emy Alupei slowly earned respect throughout season 37 — likely because CT took a liking to her — and she was the only rookie in the Spies, Lies and Allies final.

MTV even dedicated time at the Spies, Lies and Allies reunion to let Emy perform her song alien — but it turns out her music career would be her downfall.

In 2016, Emy was on the Romanian version of the X Factor. For one of her performances, she sang “Only” by Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, and Drake, which included the uncensored chorus with the n-word in it. At that point in time, viewers were quick to call out MTV’s hypocrisy. Following the Dee controversy, the network wasn’t casting competitors who had histories involving racial language. In fact, producers even scrubbed an alleged incident using racially insensitive language from Spies, Lies and Allies.

Despite this, Emy made it through Spies, Lies and Allies without any repercussions, and she was poised to return for Ride or Dies with her fellow Romanian (and future Champion) Emanuel as her partner. If the rumors are to be believed, she made it all the way to the airport for that season, just to get cut at the very last second.

In 2022, Emy apologized publicly for using the n-word in her X Factor performance, explaining that she was unaware of the impacts of her language in 2016. She grew up in Romania where she was exposed to American media, but she didn’t have enough knowledge of American history know cultural impact and “heaviness” of the word.

Even after the apology, MTV seems to have forgotten about Emy. She wasn’t on Battle for a New Champion — where she would have been an obvious casting choice — and we haven’t heard from her on the show in a few years.

We have, however, seen many other people who have said offensive things in the past. So why was Emy different?

Likely, her disappearance isn’t because of what she did, rather, it’s about who she is: a Challenge rookies. It’s easier to just replace her and avoid further controversy than try to move past the scandal. Most viewers that know about this situation have some level of understanding when it comes to Emy’s ignorance; after all, English isn’t her primary language.

As we move further away from Emy’s time on the show, the response reflects pretty poorly on production. This scandal could have easily been avoided by not casting Emy on Spies, Lies and Allies in the first place. It’s not like anyone in the US knew who she was, nor was anyone asking for her on the Challenge. If the casting department audited her public appearances Romanian television, they easily would have found the offending performance — after all, it’s one of the few things she did that’s actually in English.

Now, it seems like Emy continues to perform, but she was easily the standout rookie on Spies, Lies and Allies. She seemed willing and eager to continue her time on the Challenge, and if MTV was going to invest in anyone from that season, she established a fairly compelling story in her 19 episodes.

It’s not too late for Emy to make a return, and she’s not banned from the show (to my knowledge). But at this point, it would almost be like starting at square one. Many viewers want to forget about Spies, Lies and Allies, and in doing this, they’re forgetting about MTV’s efforts to make Emy a personality on the show.