-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email In a twist of events, "The Bachelor" franchise's producers are taking accountability for how the flagship ABC dating reality television show has handed racism that former contestants and leads have faced in the past. Executive producer Claire Freeland said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times published Wednesday, “It’s hard to say out loud, that people of color didn’t see themselves represented, that they did not see ‘The Bachelor’ franchise as a safe place.” Freeland added, “[The franchise] didn’t have a Black lead in this franchise for 15 years, and that’s inexcusable.
It created a vicious cycle, and it’s taken a lot of work to get back to a place where we feel at least we’re working for the positive.” "The Bachelor's" glaring diversity and race issues came to a head in 2020 after casting the first Black Bachelor in Matt James. During the season, photo of front-runner Rachel Kirkconnell leaked, showing that in 2018 she had participated in an antebellum-themed party, which many saw as glorifying the period of slavery in the South.
The backlash was swift. Then long-time host Chris Harrison was interviewed by "Extra" reporter and former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay about the photo, in which his response was criticized as minimizing its racist implications. Harrison was then later fired.
Related “The Bachelorette” has a responsibility to protect its first Asian lead Despite the franchise's missteps in 2020.
