Content advisory: This article has mentions of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
With streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Peacock, our generation is spoiled when it comes to finding a show. From each of these platforms comes your everyday romantic competition show. Too Hot to Handle, Love Island USA, and The Challenge: Are You the One? never fail to provide viewers with juicy drama, complex challenges, and steamy dates. But, in my opinion, none can beat the almighty: The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.
From its inception in 2002 all the way to now, The American Broadcasting Company has cornered the market on reality dating competitions. Group dates, lavish destinations, and fantasy suites galore, The Bachelor franchises seemingly have everything. But there is one piece of criteria that the show lacks: representation. Coupled into this is apparent ABC’s failure to properly examine the backgrounds of contestants, much to the deficit of its POC leads. So, let’s skip the rose ceremony and get into the thorns of The Bachelor franchise.
The Bachelor franchise by the numbers
The Bachelor franchise has a notably checkered past when it comes to the diversity of the leads. Across a combined 49 seasons and 22 years on the air, the show has only featured eight leads of color. Even out of these eight leads, four of them are biracial, with three being half white, and one-half Mexican and half Black. The other side of this issue is the amount of diversity in the contestants. On both series, Black contestants are among the earliest to be eliminated, with an estimated 59% going home within the first two weeks, and a few earlier seasons of The Bachelorette not featuring any Black contestants at all, according to a study by Splinter. In 2017, when Rachel Lindsay became the first Black lead of either series during The Bachelorette 13, fans were not happy with it. Rachel’s season even saw viewership drop from 8.4 million during Jojo Fletcher’s season to 7.5 million during hers, according to TV Line. This wave of sweeping discontent is still felt today.
The Bachelorette: Jenn’s Version
This past season of The Bachelorette, which premiered on July 8 and concluded shockingly on Sept. 3, was led by former The Bachelor 28 contestant Jenn Tran, who became the first Asian-American to lead a season of either show. With this being my first time ever watching the show, I was surprised to see the amount of backlash Jenn was getting before the season had even started. Many in the show’s fanbase, dubbed as “Bachelor Nation,” was boiling over with discontent for Jenn as the leading lady.
All across Instagram, Reddit, and TikTok, there was an outpouring of how ABC should have chosen Season 28 runner-up Daisy Kent or fourth-place Maria Georgas, who are both white. For context, Jenn finished in fifth place, with bachelor Joey Graziadei sending her home in the final rose ceremony before hometowns. In terms of specific reasons as to why the fans weren’t receptive to her, many social media users that I saw said that Jenn was “immature,” “boring,” “inconsiderate,” and “predictable”. There were even fans drawing comparisons between Jenn and Charity Lawson, the face of The Bachelorette season 20, who was the second Black woman to lead the show. Fan grievances aside, I believe the worst behavior toward Jenn came from the contestants on her season.
The thorny side of The Bachelor Franchise
The Bachelor franchise has made headlines in recent years for contestants having racially insensitive posts, stances, and activities surface on social media. Specifically, the 2018 Antebellum South fraternity ball attended by Rachael Kirkconnell, winner of The Bachelor 25 and fiancée to Matt James, the first Black Bachelor. Photos of Kirkconnell attending surfaced in 2021 and caused an uproar among both Bachelor Nation and former contestants. This was only a few months after former Bachelorette Hannah Brown caught fire for saying the N word in May 2020 while singing along to DaBaby’s “Rockstar” on Instagram Live. Kirkconnell’s controversy even cost the show its original host, Chris Harrison, who was interviewed by former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay and defended Kirkconnell, saying, “We all need to have a little grace, a little understanding, and a little compassion.” When Lindsay commented that the theme of the party and Kirkconnell attending at the age of 22 “aren’t a good look”. Harrison added fuel to the flame saying, “Well, Rachel, is it a good look in 2018 or is it not a good look in 2021?” and “I am not the Woke Police. There’s plenty of people who will do that.” To no one’s surprise, Harrison exited the show shortly following this and was replaced by current host Jesse Palmer.
The Fantasy from Hell
Unfortunately, a few of Jenn’s contestants brought some similar skeletons out of their closets and to this season — notably, runner-up Marcus Shoberg, and Jenn’s ill-fated fiancé, Devin Strader. As the season started going by, I was watching along with some of my Summer Stock castmates, many of whom were seasoned viewers of The Bachelorette. I was fully locked into the show and rooting for Jonathan Johnson (who made it to the top three), Grant Ellis (who will be leading The Bachelor 28), and Devin to make it to the end.
Around week four of the season, the Bachelor Nation Reddit page was buzzing with news about both Devin and Marcus. Marcus Shoberg, a veteran who was hesitant to love, had allegations of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse from a past girlfriend anonymously surface during the season, among other things. Though there has been no follow up in the eyes of the public, it was enough for Bachelor Nation to want him gone. Marcus ended up finishing in second place and getting sent home from Hawaii. Upon his departure from the show, Marcus made comments about how he had hoped Daisy would’ve been the bachelorette when he applied. When I had thought it couldn’t get any worse for Jenn, I was proven grossly wrong.
Devin had formerly been an amateur rapper in 2019 known as 96dev and produced his own music, including the song “96Waves”, where he said the N word halfway through the second verse. To make matters even worse, fans who went through Devin’s likes and follows brought to light that he had been liking far-right, pro-Trump, and racially insensitive posts on Instagram all the way up until March 2024, when Jenn’s season began filming. Devin was also revealed to have been arrested in 2017 and had a restraining order taken out against him by an ex-girlfriend, according to E News. Devin went on to win the season and the heart of Jenn, but it didn’t last long.
The “After the Final Rose” portion of Jenn’s season finale was the most heartbreaking to watch. Jenn was forced to sit beside Devin and detail him breaking off his engagement to her over a 2-minute phone call, as well as the fact that she discovered that he had followed Maria Georgas on Instagram the morning after. Despite Jenn being visibly upset and emotionally damaged by the end of her relationship with Devin, she was still subjected to watching the final moments of her season, with her proposing to Devin and him to her. When Palmer asked her if she was ready to watch her engagement back, Jenn replied through tears, “Do I really have a choice?”
The Reality Check For ABC
I couldn’t help but feel frustrated watching the way Jenn’s season ended. With all of the publicity that ABC garnered using Jenn and the moniker of “first Asian Bachelorette,” it was disgusting to see Jenn’s emotions exploited for ratings, in my opinion. Even more so, it’s disheartening to see yet another lead of color being subjected to subpar treatment by the contestants that get selected for the show. In Jenn’s entire season, there was only one Asian man for her to choose from, Thomas Nguyen, who faced relentless racist scrutiny from fans.
The treatment of Jenn and the gross pasts of her contestants coming to light throughout the season should be a wakeup call to ABC. The producers of The Bachelor franchise spoke to Variety in June 2024 to acknowledge the racism stemming from the show and its fan base, citing how they didn’t do enough to protect former Bachelor Matt James. But to not acknowledge the damage that ABC inflicts upon their leads and contestants of color in their strive for ratings makes them look like the pot calling the kettle black.
With a second Black Bachelor on the way this upcoming season, I beg ABC: protect your BIPOC leads in The Bachelor and The Bachelorette franchise.