Party Down South’s Josh Murray Could Face Jail Time
Another cast member of CMT’s flagship reality series Party Down South has found himself on the wrong side of the law. Josh Murray, the cast member known for drinking to excess and disrobing at a moments notice, was arrested in Rankin County, Mississippi on November 15th, and charged with DUI and driving with a suspended license. The reality TV star already had his license suspended from previous DUI charges. Now he could face jail time, and have his license suspended for two years.
Though the new charges could potentially jeopardize Murray’s ability to star in future seasons of the CMT reality show, the next season set to air in February has already been taped, as were recently aired “Drunksgiving” and “Christmas Hangover” specials.
Josh Murray’s legal troubles are just one in a long list of incidents that have plagued the CMT show. Louisiana native Lyle Boudreaux was arrested in Maurice, LA for burglary of a vehicle at a Mardi Gras parade. Boudreaux found an unlocked car, rifled through a woman’s purse, and stole a credit card to fund the night’s drinking. Mattie Breaux of Louisiana was also served a bench warrant after she failed to appear in court as part of a pretrial hearing in March. The hearing was for a previous arrest for driving while intoxicated. Breaux was taping Season 2 of the reality show at the time of the hearing.
Then in early August, Ryan “Daddy” Richards, was accused of rape by a woman who says she entered the Party Down South house, was handed an open beer, and woke up later naked in a bed with a camera in her face. The woman went to the hospital the next day, and according to medical professionals, showed signs of sexual assault. An investigation by local police that included interviewing cast and crew and reviewing footage, did not result in any charges being filed. A day later, one of the cast members, Taylor “Lil Bit” Wright, permanently quit the show amidst what she characterized as safety concerns.
Party Down South has come under heavy scrutiny for its portrayal of Southerners in the show. Season 2 was initially scheduled to be taped in Pensacola, FL, but had to move to Athens when local residents and businesses did not want the show blemishing the city’s reputation. The third season also found trouble securing a location near Biloxi, and were turned down for a location in nearby D’Iberville before finally finding an appropriate house. Ben “Cooter” Jones of The Dukes of Hazzard fame has also been a vocal opponent of the show.
A second franchise of the controversial show called Party Down South 2 started airing in November as CMT follows the regular pattern of Viacom-owned music-based cable stations of becoming a vehicle for reality TV instead of sticking to their music programming.
December 28, 2014 @ 6:44 pm
Save that Country Music!!!
December 28, 2014 @ 6:46 pm
Ok, WHY is this show still on? Is it successful at all, and if so, WHY? I’m pretty sure nobody thinks of Thanksgiving as Drunksgiving and all that, and no sane southerner would portray others and being all about drinking and partying. Do people really think southerners are that bad? All this stupid party shit! This stupid show, these stupid songs, I DON’T GET IT!!!
December 28, 2014 @ 6:58 pm
It’s Bro Country but on reality TV! If Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Cole Swindell had a reality show this would be it! And I LOVE HOW THIS COMPLETELY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH COUNTRY MUSIC OTHER THAN IT’s ON CMT! Another great breaking news story in COUNTRY MUSIC!!!!
December 28, 2014 @ 7:19 pm
Doug,
I understand your concern, and no, “Party Down South” has nothing DIRECTLY to do with country music. But as you said yourself, it is the television equivalent of Bro-Country, and the lowering of the brow of the rural consumer affects ALL sectors of culture, including music. I think you can draw direct parallels between the perversion of country music and this show and shows like it, not to mention the important issue of Viacom-owned music channels being changed into reality TV smut fests that perpetuate negative stereotypes on not just of country folks, but similar outcomes for Northeners, and people of color, etc. through MTV, VH1, and BET reality shows. It is a despicable practice that I am proud to say I am in full-throated opposition of, and I will not shy from opportunities to highlight the depravity of these shows and the people involved with them. In my opinion, it is at the very heart of my duty under the “Saving Country Music” flag to oppose these shows.
December 28, 2014 @ 7:24 pm
Glad you caught my satire Trigger! Bro Country reality TV is the next big thing from Big Machine Records!
March 21, 2016 @ 12:03 pm
We have drunksgiving the night before Thanksgiving..although no arrests or crazy fighting go on..it’s laugh and joking..so i guess our drunksgiving isn’t guite the same..
December 28, 2014 @ 7:28 pm
This article falls flat and is tantamount to a gossip magazine piece because you don’t explain how or why this reality show negatively impacts the cause of “saving country music.”
December 28, 2014 @ 7:44 pm
Maybe I could have done a better job of explaining why I was posting an article such as this, but I have written so many articles along those lines about “Party Down South” specifically, I didn’t want to come across as redundant and brow beat the same information many people have read already. This point of this article was to extend the narrative about the type of depravity this show is a harbor for.
What I did do is link to many of the articles in this piece that expound on the issue of CMT’s reality shows and the Viacom issue, so if people wanted to read further, there was an opportunity to do so.
If you want to read further on why Saving Country Music posts news and opposition to “Party Down South” and other similar shows, here’s some links:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/cmt-whores-itself-with-new-party-down-south-show
https://savingcountrymusic.com/ben-cooter-jones-pens-open-letter-to-cmt-over-party-down-south
https://savingcountrymusic.com/viacom-purveyors-of-cultural-filth
December 28, 2014 @ 7:32 pm
But WHY is Bro-Country all the rage anyway? Let’s forget about the fact that most pop country is not country whatsoever and focus exclusively on the party-type songs. Most peoples’ lives don’t revolve around party’s, and a lot of people, including myself, don’t drink for a variety of reasons, so what possible explanation is there for the popularity of drink/party/truck songs? Unless it’s that small number of double digit IQ, no self-respecting, morally repulsive rednecks who live these songs and support them with all their heart. But it’s not just them, a very large number of people, even a good many intelligent people, eat this stuff up like candy. So I ask, for the love God, WHY?!
December 28, 2014 @ 7:55 pm
Before I say this stuff, I admit I’m speaking in generalities here.
The reason that a show like “Party Down South” and music like Florida Georgia Line are so successful and intermingled is because it is all part of one big rural corporate culture that is sold to consumers in a lock step bundle. Corporate culture tells people how to dress, what to drive, how to act, what to listen to, and what to watch on TV, feeding a rabid consumption cycle. People buy into it because they’ve been robbed of their indigenous culture, many times because it’s been demolished along with local commerce, or lampooned by popular culture at large. So wanting to be cool, they buy into whatever is sold to them as mainstream and acceptable. The stores are all shut down on Main St., so you walk into Wal-Mart and buy a Duck Dynasty T-shirt and a Florida Georgia Line CD. Most of the time people consume this garbage culture because that’s all they have access to. Then suburbanites buy in because it gives them a sense of identity and uniqueness. The enemy of corporate culture is choice, because as soon as these consumers find out they have better, healthier, more fulfilling alternatives, they make better choices. That’s one of the points of stories like this, to open up avenues for consumers to discover they have alternatives.
December 28, 2014 @ 8:13 pm
That’s a good answer. I’ve never been one to follow others, because what others want are usually stupid lol. But this whole dumbing down reflects poorly on country music, and by extension, southerners themselves. People like FGL are the default laughing stock of everybody but devoted fans. To constantly put this out there as southern way of life is potentially damaging to even our nation as a whole.
December 29, 2014 @ 2:38 am
This show’s cast and target audience is precisely the demographic bro-country is going for. And Trigger nails it; the faux reality presented in this show (and promoted and perpetuated by bro-country) represents the Walmartitization of what was once a vibrant and original genre of music.
(I’ve always found it curious that chains like Walmart will refuse to carry a rap or hip-hop CD because of “explicit” lyrics or a risqué cover, yet it’ll carry and promote FGL et al, whose lyrics are almost just as bad and misogynist and implicitly promote illegal acts such as drinking and driving, etc. And of course Walmart offers “Party Down South” on its video-on-demand service.)
December 29, 2014 @ 11:14 am
Very well put, amigo.
It troubles me to see my culture packaged and marketed by some big marketing machine.
It reminds me of Barbara Mandrell’s and George Jones’ “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool”.
I watched about 2 minutes of an episode of this show and felt the same guilt I did when I went to freak shows at the carnival as a young boy (i.e. why am I looking at this?).
I think that this guy could probably use a stay in Parchman Farm.
The Louisiana cast members with legal problems in that state could similarly use a little time in La. State Prison at Angola.
This show is emblamatic of the theft and marketing of our culture which pervades the mainstream radio stations these days.
It’s white trash chic garbage which is designed and marketed to pass as country music.
December 29, 2014 @ 11:16 pm
Recommended you tube video: Bob McDill interview… What “good ol boys like me” used to be like. The Dukes are high brow thanks to the low bro dipshits of the day.
December 30, 2014 @ 11:16 am
Just about perfectly put, Trigger.
This show is the lowest pile of dogshit ever to be foisted on
an audience of idiots. It speaks to the corruption of a culture
by people who are not of that culture.
What goes around comes around……
The best thing that came out of it for me was hooking up with Saving Country
Music. Don’t your critics know that country music is about everything in life?
Or, at least, it used to be…..
Ben
December 30, 2014 @ 11:29 am
It’s been very cool to have Ben Jones as a commenter/contributor as well!
January 3, 2015 @ 10:01 am
I think that that’s an excellent representation, Trigger. Southerners have had their own culture defined, most often negatively, by others, so now those with the least resistance-the uneducated, the unsophisticated, are unthinkingly and ignorantly accepting this latest negative definition, just to have some kind of culture to claim, negative as it is. We’ve always appreciated the rednecks amongst us, but “redneck” has been downwardly defined to its lowest, most narrow definition-they leave out the hard-working, blue-collar, family man aspect of it. Can’t allow southerners to claim anything good about our culture.
December 28, 2014 @ 9:38 pm
The producers must be in total shock.
January 3, 2015 @ 10:05 am
LOL. I know-so unexpected.
December 29, 2014 @ 2:09 am
Trigger, we’ve got your back on this one man! Lol. You did right by putting this article up. Let the powers that be know how we feel. I may not always agree with you, but on this one, I am shoulder to shoulder with you!
December 29, 2014 @ 7:35 am
With that kinda wardrobe you can’t really fault him for disrobing at a moments notice though.
December 29, 2014 @ 2:43 pm
In my eyes, CMT airs this show because its like they are starving for viewers. “Let’s shoot a show that is just composed of people getting drunk while also killing both theirs and the viewers brain cells, and also getting rich doing so!!” This is just Jersey Shore all over again only with a “southern” twist, and I’d rather play a solo game of Russian Roulette than watch either of them. All this show does is just give a stereotypical view to others that southern folk love to just get drunk and just party! But hey! Anyone will do anything if it means being on TV these days!
Sorry for the rant Trig.
December 30, 2014 @ 7:31 am
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be THAT guy…
December 30, 2014 @ 11:51 am
I’m guilty of this show being a guilty pleasure. However, I don’t watch it because I think they’re cool for acting how they do, and I don’t come away with the belief that this is stereotypical of how people from the South act. I think they’re fools, and if I knew someone like that, I would be embarrassed for them. But, I do get a laugh and some entertainment out of it… more of a laughing-AT-them, not laughing-WITH-them. Maybe I’m in the wrong for providing ratings to keep fools like this on TV, and have a feeling I’ll probably be villified for saying this, but after a long, crappy day at work, sometimes I DO just want to unwind by watching something mindless and silly, even if its not intelligent.
I think CMT airs stuff like this because they HAVE to. Its probably a lot easier to sell commercial time for a show like Party Down South than commercial time for videos, or the weekly countdown. Not saying that its RIGHT, but when it comes down to it, money is what is keeping CMT on the air, and as silly as it is, people are more likely to sit down and watch a tv show from start to finish than videos, and thats the kind of thing that sells ads.
December 30, 2014 @ 12:46 pm
Hey Lisa,
No offense I hope, but if one is going to have “guilty pleasures”, that is a strange one
to choose, in my opinion.
Compared to this grotesquery, ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ is like Masterpiece Theatre.
Of course, everybody loves to make money, but Viacom and CMT have put profits ahead of everything: heart, soul, responsibility, values, and decency.
When CMT picked up The Dukes of Hazzard a few years back, they had over 23 million viewers on their first weekend marathon. Those are unheard numbers for a show that went off the air almost thirty years ago. A “hit” show now on CMT gets maybe 3 million viewers. Their fall has been a consequence of their own decision making. They have little to do with Country Music and everything to do with corporate
cynicism.
When thousands of “Dukes” fans protested the airing of commercials for “Party Down South” during the “Dukes” by calling and e-mailing CMT, they were met with absolute
silence. Not even the courtesy of a response. Instead, CMT started an obvious flak driven counter-offensive. The producers of this show demean Country music, they
demean the rural heartland, and they demean themselves. The program decisions for
Country Music Television are made in New Jersey and California. Do you wonder
why traditionalists are concerned?
Ben Jones
December 30, 2014 @ 1:35 pm
In looking for viewer demographics and target audience for PDS2 I happened to stumble across this little nugget…
CMT is using a new technique from AdTheorent that lets ads for their reality series “Party Down South 2” set your DVR to record the show straight from your smartphone.
The campaign, which launched last week, has an ad unit that when clicked can detect DVR apps on your phone from among Verizon FiOS, DirectTV and Time Warner. It is a neat trick, since more deep-linking is searching for a specific page in a single app. AdTheorent CEO and Founder Anthony Iacovone tells me that the technology searches for multiple possible apps on a phone. If it doesn”™t find one of the possible apps, it just looks for another. “This creates a seamless user experience and ensures that the user does not receive any error messages.” The add can click into the DVR app to let the user set record for the premiere show or for the full season.
This particular click-to-DVR model works especially well for this show, because playback viewers for the series increased 64% in Season Two. “Party Down South” is one of the most successful original series CMT has, and it is especially strong among digital-heavy Millennials. And even though the click-to-DVR functionality of the campaign works with a select range of cable and satellite providers, CMT Director of Consumer Marketing Mary Kate Miller tells us that those apps map well against her target audience. FiOS, DirectTV and Time Warner “represent 41% of CMT”™s viewers (based on Season Two of ‘Party Down South’),” she says. “Over 2.8MM users would be exposed to the ”˜set-to-DVR”™ functionality in the expandable state (based on AdTheorent”™s expansion rate benchmark). The unit is new to the market and we are confident that, due to changing viewer habits and the DVR success for this series, this functionality will result in high engagement.”
The whole story is here… http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/238299/cmts-tune-in-campaign-gets-tuned-up-with-mobile-a.html
December 30, 2014 @ 3:35 pm
Interesting.
December 31, 2014 @ 7:55 am
It kind of eliminates the need for tech savvy targets as the app is so seemless. Which leads me to think that AdTheorent sold this to CMT with data in their pitch to them that the typical low brow PDS audience is considered be the perfect test group. They need a smart phone, any DVR app, and of course a DVR but it does all the rest.
January 3, 2015 @ 9:56 am
Well-just told my husband that I’m a tiny bit surprised yet a tiny bit proud that my hometown of Biloxi, and nearby D’Iberville, turned the schmucks down.
January 7, 2015 @ 8:12 pm
In OTHER news… Josh Murray was just arrested this morning, January 7, 2015, on dead beat dad charges in Humphreys County, MS. He apparently has never paid child support. He was delinquent over $14,000! And we THINK that’s a felony. So much for a teddy bear.