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You’re probably already aware that ABC has canceled Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette.
It’s an unprecedented move that will cost the network tens of millions in lost ad revenue and production costs.
And it might be just the beginning of the fallout, as many are now calling for the show to be canceled entirely.
In fact, some prominent media figures think ABC should go a step further and 86 the entire Bachelor franchise.
It might sound like an extreme solution — but it may also be the only way that the network can avoid further scandal and embarrassment.
As a new piece in The Hollywood Reporter points out, this is not the first time that ABC execs have been forced to weather a Bachelor-related scandal.
Whether it’s Chris Harrison getting fired for making problematic comments or the many, many reports of drunken, inappropriate behavior on the set of Bachelor In Paradise, the most problematic shows on network TV all have “Bachelor” somewhere in the title.
Producers have repeatedly promised to “address” these matters, but as the years go by, the Bachelor scandals continue to crop up.
Bachelor creator and showrunner Mike Fleiss left the franchise in 2023, and it was later revealed that he departed amid an HR investigation.
Just two years later, his replacements, Claire Freeland and Bennett Graebner, departed amid allegations that they had created a toxic work environment.
The Paul situation could be the most damaging Bachelorette controversy yet, as people who have never watched a single second of the show are now aghast at footage of Taylor attacking then-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen.
As if it weren’t bad enough that we see Paul punch and kick Mortensen, she also throws several metal barstools at him, one of which allegedly struck her 5-year-old daughter.
To make matters worse, Paul pled guilty to assault charges back in 2023. The incident was a matter of public record that had been discussed on Taylor’s reality show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, on numerous occasions.
In other words, ABC and Bachelorette producers absolutely knew that Taylor had been in a violent altercation with her ex not all that long ago.
And they decided to go ahead and cast her as the Bachelorette anyway.
“The bloom is off the rose. ABC and the Bachelor franchise need a divorce,” reads THR’s latest opinion piece on the matter.
The author of the piece, Rick Porter, goes on to note that if video of the fight had not been made public, Taylor would be basking in the glow of her Bachelorette moment, and millions of Americans would be watching dozens of men as they fought to win her affections.
“If it took a video of a child being injured to pull the show from TV, then the Bachelor franchise is beyond help. It’s time for it to go away,” Porter writes.
It’s hard to argue with that assertion. For as much guilty pleasure as The Bachelor and its spinoffs have provided over the past 24 years, it might be time for ABC to concede that this franchise belongs to a bygone era.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thehollywoodgossip.com
