For years, the “Bachelor” empire has been in decline.
Its flagship series, “The Bachelor,” a fixture of ABC’s winter programming schedule for nearly two decades, has not been seen since last March, with no star or premiere date announced for its return.
Ratings for last year’s finale of “The Golden Bachelor,” an attempt to reinvigorate the dating franchise by casting older contestants, dropped by nearly 60 percent compared with the inaugural season.
And “The Bachelorette” was on life support, failing to air last year after two underperforming seasons and a devastating reveal on live television.
All of that was before ABC abruptly pulled the plug on the new season of “The Bachelorette,” starring the influencer and reality star Taylor Frankie Paul, who ABC had hoped would lead a ratings renaissance. The season had been scheduled to premiere on Sunday, but a leaked video showed Ms. Paul assaulting her partner in 2023.
Once considered the pre-eminent dating competition series in the United States, “The Bachelor” and its spinoffs have been plagued by a revolving door of executives, innovative competitors and a stream of contestants with troubled pasts. Viewership of “The Bachelor,” which regularly drew nine million viewers per episode in 2016, according to Nielsen, has fallen by nearly three-quarters over the past decade.
“It’s going to be tough to relaunch it, because people will be asking questions,” said Ryan Callahan, a former producer of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” about the prospect of reviving “The Bachelorette” after the Paul controversy. “‘Did they vet this person properly? Are they pulling a fast one on us again?’ Something like this breaches the faith of the viewer.”
On an episode of the podcast “Bachelor Party,” after learning in real time that Ms. Paul’s season had been scrapped, Rachel Lindsay, a former Bachelorette, was more definitive.
“I think it’s over,” Ms. Lindsay said. “The name ‘Bachelorette,’ ‘Bachelor’ is tainted at this point. How do you move forward past that? You can’t.”
When ABC agreed to cast Ms. Paul in September, it knew that she was on probation after pleading guilty to aggravated assault in the 2023 encounter, which involved Dakota Mortensen, who is now the father of one of her three children. On Wednesday, when she was promoting the new season of “The Bachelorette” on a morning talk show, the network was aware that both Ms. Paul and Mr. Mortensen were the subjects of a domestic violence investigation by the police in Draper, Utah, after an encounter last month.
The network needed a ratings win, though, and Ms. Paul had more than seven million followers across Instagram and TikTok after starring in Hulu’s “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” where her tumultuous relationship was front and center.
Then TMZ published the video of the 2023 assault on Thursday. In it, Ms. Paul, who was initially also charged with domestic violence and child abuse, kicks and throws metal chairs at Mr. Mortensen.
Disney, ABC’s parent company, did not respond to a request for comment. Warner Bros., which produces “The Bachelorette,” declined to comment.
Before the announcement of Ms. Paul’s season, executives at Disney were in reset mode, leaning on offshoots like “The Golden Bachelor” and the friskier “Bachelor in Paradise” as “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” fell off the production calendar.
“We’re only going to roll these out as they come together and meet the bar of excellence that the tradition of the show has set,” Craig Erwich, Disney’s president of television, told The Wrap last spring.
In July, ABC announced that Scott Teti, a former producer of the reality shows “Flavor of Love” and “Summer House,” would take over the responsibility of relaunching “The Bachelor.” He had led that summer’s season of “Bachelor in Paradise,” and was later handed the keys to “The Bachelorette,” as well.
He was taking over a franchise that had lost considerable ground to streaming competitors that can amp up the raunchiness and dramatics of their dating shows without the proprieties of network television.
“Love Island USA” broke records last summer to become Peacock’s most-watched original season of television. Each season of “Love Is Blind” goes straight to the top of Netflix’s top 10 list. “Love Overboard,” a new show on Hulu that the popular “Bachelorette” and “Traitors” contestant Gabby Windey hosts, is scheduled to premiere this week.
Amy Kaufman, the author of “Bachelor Nation,” said the ‘Bachelor’ franchise’s identity had become muddled as its cultural relevance had waned.
“They’re torn between leaning more into the origin of ‘The Bachelor,’ which is about the love story and the fairy tale, versus it’s 2026 and people hook up all the time on television,” she said.
When “The Bachelor” premiered in 2002, it was the first show of its kind. Unlike “The Dating Game” and “Temptation Island,” “The Bachelor” was a long-form dating show that focused on people actually finding a relationship with an eligible partner, instead of competing for a prize (beyond a comped engagement ring).
And it was a hit.
The premiere brought in nine million viewers, which doubled to 18 million by the season finale. The first season of “The Bachelorette,” in 2003, was also a ratings success — over 17 million people tuned in to the premiere — and it set a gold standard for what the show was trying to achieve. The lead, Trista Rehn, married Ryan Sutter in a televised ceremony, and they are still together with two children.
The franchise remained popular for years, especially after it started making a popular contestant on one season the next season’s lead, bringing along a built-in fan base.
Then the scandals started to pile up. It was discovered that a contestant on Becca Kufrin’s season in 2018 had been charged in a groping case before he was cast. Colton Underwood, the show’s lead in 2019, had a restraining order filed against him the next year by a woman he had met on the show. In 2021, the longtime host Chris Harrison left the franchise after defending a contestant who had attended an Old South antebellum party. Mike Fleiss, the creator of “The Bachelor,” stepped down in 2023 amid allegations of racial discrimination in the workplace.
And in 2024, the “Bachelorette” lead Jenn Tran sobbed during a live special after explaining that Devin Strader had broken off their engagement over the phone. Days later, it was revealed that Mr. Strader’s former girlfriend had filed a restraining order against him.
How much the video of Ms. Paul’s assault will further derail the franchise is yet to be seen. Disney worded its statement on Thursday carefully, saying that her season was being pulled “at this time.”
Erica Rose Sanders, a former contestant on “The Bachelor,” said she had watched the show less in recent years because it felt repetitive and a bit mundane. But Ms. Paul offered the promise of something different: a woman who was divorced, who had several children, who could be unpredictable.
“A lot of times it had gotten to be cookie-cutter,” Ms. Sanders said of “The Bachelorette.” “They needed something to revitalize it, and Taylor was definitely going to be that person.”
She is not convinced that the season is dead — especially because the controversy has drawn even more interest to the franchise.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they changed their minds,” she said, “because it would boost the ratings even more.”
Julia Jacobs contributed reporting.
Reggie Ugwu is a Times culture reporter.
The post The Chaotic Downfall of the ‘Bachelor’ Empire appeared first on New York Times.
