Another week, another Bravo star bites the dust for being a complete racist.
On Wednesday (June 17), Bravo announced that Below Deck Mediterranean star Pete Hunziker had been fired from the show and the network for an abhorrently racist post on social media.
“Peter Hunziker of Below Deck Mediterranean has been terminated for his racist post,” the network’s official statement read. “Bravo and 51 Minds are editing the show to minimize his appearance for subsequent episodes.”
The post in question, shared by the now-former Below Deck star on his Instagram Stories, involved a sexually graphic meme featuring a Black woman tied up in a compromising position with the caption “When black men been doin you wrong your whole life and you decide to date the nice caucasian guy Peter from whole foods.” Beneath the photo, Pete callously wrote, “Pretty much.”
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(Thankfully, the meme seems to have been mostly scrubbed from social media, though there is a fan-captured screenshot exists in this Twitter thread. Warning: the post is extremely NSFW and very offensive, so please take its contents into consideration before viewing.)
Thus far, Pete has only appeared in three episodes of Below Deck Med‘s new season. And frankly, he hasn’t been great. As the lead deckhand aboard The Wellington, the father of one’s misogyny has been constantly on display during Season 5. He’s repeatedly referred to bosun Malia White — his superior on board — as both “sweetheart” and “sweetie.”
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He’s constantly undermined her authority in subtle and passive-aggressive ways. By the end of this week’s episode, Malia had reached her boiling point over Pete’s sexism. In the episode’s closing moments, Captain Sandy Yawn calling an emergency deck crew meeting to put the now-fired star and his male colleagues in their place.
It will be interesting to see how much Bravo and 51 Minds can edit around Pete. The building tension between him and Malia was bound to be a major storyline of the season. Plus, the charter season already wrapped. It’s not like Bravo can replace him with someone else at the last second. (And on top of this latest drama, Lara Flumiani already quit the show after the first charter. Pete cried after the second stew left. Like a lot.)
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The Wellington may be the biggest boat Sandy has ever captained, but it’s still only 1,800 feet long. It’s not like there’s a ton of room to edit Pete out of shots. You can’t pretend he wasn’t on board. So excluding him as much as possible in post-production is bound to change the season’s narrative. What will this season of Below Deck Med look like now? Only time will tell, but it’s down one racist.
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TELL US – ARE YOU GLAD PETE GOT FIRED? HOW DO YOU THINK IT WILL AFFECT THE SEASON OF BELOW DECK MED FROM A STORYTELLING PERSPECTIVE?
[Photo Credit: Karolina Wojtasik/Bravo]
