The Bachelor franchise has had a bit of a troubled past when it comes to diversity. It wasn’t until 2021 that the franchise had its first Black lead, Matt James. Unfortunately for ABC, Matt’s season was plagued with controversy.
Photos surfaced of Rachael Kirkconnell attending an antebellum-themed party in 2018. To make matters worse, the show’s host at the time, Chris Harrison, seemingly defended Rachael’s attendance at the party.
It couldn’t have been easy for Matt who was just trying to find love. Despite it all, he and Rachael ended up together and are still together to this day. But none of that excused the show’s rather uninclusive legacy. However, recently, two producers spoke out on the issue.
Bachelor producers say they let Matt down
Two executive producers on The Bachelor recently addressed the show’s lack of diversity. In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Claire Freeland and Bennett Graebner got real about the show’s shortcomings. “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,” Graebner said.
They continued, “We 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.” Graebner added, “I’m going to be really frank – we let Matt down.”
“That season went wrong on so many levels. We did not protect him as we should have. The finale of that season was the darkest day I’ve had on this franchise. Here was this great Black man, and we should have been celebrating his love story. Instead, what we saw was a man burdened and overwhelmed by issues of racism. It was really sad for me personally.”
However, Freeland and Graebner felt optimistic about the franchise’s future. Freeland spoke of Jenn Tran’s upcoming season of The Bachelorette. “We had extensive discussions with Jenn prior to filming,” Freeland said. “She is proud of her Vietnamese culture and she wanted to know if she could speak about that. We told her we wanted her to be her most authentic self.”
The Bachelorette Season 21 premieres Monday, July 8 at 8/7c on ABC.
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE PRODUCER’S REMARKS? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE BACHELOR AND DIVERSITY?
