When television executives cast Taylor Frankie Paul as their star this fall, they were under no illusions that she was a typical Bachelorette.
Unlike the women who led the show’s previous 21 seasons, Ms. Paul had no history with ABC’s “Bachelor” franchise, among the longest running in reality television. She did, however, have a publicly known criminal history, after pleading guilty in 2023 to aggravated assault against her boyfriend at the time.
But for a franchise looking to reverse a trend of declining ratings, the benefits of casting Ms. Paul, a 31-year-old social media influencer, on “The Bachelorette” were undeniable. She was media savvy, a bit incendiary and wildly famous, with a built-in fan base from Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” that viewed her as refreshingly candid about her flaws.
It did not hurt that she had more than seven million followers across Instagram and TikTok.
“They didn’t for one minute think they were casting Julie Andrews,” said Rob Shuter, an entertainment podcaster and former publicist. “But they were willing to take the risk because the potential reward was so great.”
Three days before the season’s first episode was supposed to air, that risk backfired spectacularly, when TMZ published footage of the 2023 assault that showed her attacking her partner and throwing metal chairs in a fit of rage.
Disney’s ABC, which broadcasts “The Bachelorette,” pulled the season indefinitely in what could end up as a major financial loss. The season had already been filmed in full, and Warner Bros., which produces the show, had already delivered a half-dozen episodes that were close to being finished, said two people familiar with the production who were not authorized to speak publicly. Between hefty licensing fees and ad revenue, ABC’s losses could be in the tens of millions.
In deciding whether the season will become a buried relic of reality television history, executives will closely follow Ms. Paul’s legal troubles in Utah.
After the 2023 assault, prosecutors dropped initial charges of child abuse and domestic violence when Ms. Paul pleaded guilty to aggravated assault of the man depicted in the video, Dakota Mortensen. Their tumultuous on-again-off-again relationship has been depicted over the four seasons of “Mormon Wives.”
Ms. Paul and Mr. Mortensen, the father of one of her three children, are the subjects of a separate domestic violence investigation by the police in Draper, Utah, after an encounter last month. According to the police, both sides have lodged allegations against the other. Mr. Mortensen has filed for a protective order, and Ms. Paul’s public relations team has alluded to plans for the influencer to share her own grievances.
By recruiting Ms. Paul, ABC was replicating a tested strategy: casting social media stars to tap into audiences who may not already be habitual viewers. Other dating shows like “Love Island” regularly pluck contestants from the influencer class. The strategy has been particularly successful on “Dancing With the Stars,” another ABC property, which has cast Olivia Jade, the beauty YouTuber; the TikTok star Charli D’Amelio; and two of Ms. Paul’s co-stars on “Mormon Wives.”
“If you have influencers, you’re just gold,” said Mark Cronin, a veteran reality TV show producer and one of the creators of the “Below Deck” franchise for Bravo. “There’s no money for marketing. The networks need people coming in with big social media followings — they need that army. And it works.”
The strategy can have pitfalls. When “Survivor” teased a cameo by MrBeast, the YouTube sensation, for the show’s 50th season this year, some longtime fans viewed it as a stunt pandering to a younger generation.
Ms. Paul also offered the potential of drawing Gen Z viewers. She rose to fame as the queen of MomTok, a collective of Mormon women in Utah who grew popular through cheeky videos about their marriages and friendships that often involved coordinated dances. Ms. Paul stoked drama by revealing that some members of the group had been romantically involved with one another in what she termed “soft swinging.” The public fascination bred by the scandal set the stage for “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” an instant hit since its debut in 2024.
After Ms. Paul was announced in September as the next Bachelorette, ABC played up her unconventionality: “If you don’t fit the mold, break it,” one of its advertisements asserted. On social media, Ms. Paul recently said she was floored to have been chosen — at first, she thought it was a joke — and framed the role as validation of her worth in the face of self doubt. But she has also alluded to ongoing personal struggles.
“As glamorous as it may seem the more you share with an audience the more emotional toll it takes,” she wrote on Instagram this month. “Reminding myself you have to be okay with being misunderstood and you have to be okay with not being liked by everyone.”
The casting was divisive for fans who search for a contestant’s sincerity. And after it emerged this week that Ms. Paul was the subject of a new domestic violence investigation, further criticism mounted. “A lot of people were like, ‘They would never have put a man with a domestic violence background as the lead of the show,’” Ashley Iaconetti, a former “Bachelorette” contestant, said on her podcast.
For a couple of days, Ms. Paul continued on her press tour for “The Bachelorette,” even while acknowledging on “Good Morning America” that filming of “Mormon Wives” had been put on pause.
Then TMZ published the 2023 video, rapidly shifting the calculation for Disney’s executives. Ms. Paul is seen kicking Mr. Mortensen and putting him in a headlock; after she throws a third chair, her daughter, who was 5 years old at the time, erupts in tears.
The decision to pull the show was an early test for Disney’s new leaders. On Wednesday, Josh D’Amaro, its former top parks executive, formally took over as the chief executive of Disney, replacing Robert A. Iger.
Debra OConnell, a company veteran, assumed the newly created position of chair of Disney Entertainment television this week, as well. It will be up to her and other top ABC executives to figure out if there is any path forward for Ms. Paul’s “Bachelorette” season to eventually be broadcast.
Disney did leave the door open to such a possibility. On Thursday, the company was careful to say that the season was being pulled “at this time.” Warner Bros. producers are also planning to edit the remaining episodes it owes to Disney, one of the people familiar with the show said.
But the legal fallout will take time to fully unfold, leaving the executives in something of a holding pattern. If a new criminal case is filed against Ms. Paul, it could jeopardize her probation. A court was set to review her 2023 case this summer to determine whether the felony assault charge should be lessened to a misdemeanor.
Among “Bachelorette” fans and analysts, the controversy has led to some soul searching over the liabilities of an industry that often thrives on interpersonal drama and inflammatory behavior.
“Is this like a huge moment in reality TV where us as an audience is observing how irresponsible reality TV is so often?” Jess Ambrose asked on her entertainment-focused podcast, “Your Mom & Dad,” after ABC’s decision.
Danielle Lindemann, a sociologist who wrote a book about reality television, said part of the genre’s appeal had always been the “train wreck” dynamic. In the first episode of “Mormon Wives,” Ms. Paul is seen sobbing just before she gets arrested in 2023. But “there comes a tipping point,” Ms. Lindemann said, “where it’s too much, it’s too dark.”
In the absence of a new episode of “The Bachelorette” on Sunday, ABC is slotting something that is dependably benign: a rerun of “American Idol.”
Shivani Gonzalez and Benjamin Wood contributed reporting.
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
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