It’s Time to End the ‘Bachelor’ Franchise

Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text ABC and Warner Horizon, the network and studio behind The Bachelor franchise, knew about Taylor Frankie Paul ‘s guilty plea on a 2023 assault charge when they hired her to lead season 22 of The Bachelorette . The incident involving her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen was, after all, a story point in the very first episode of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives , the Hulu reality show that brought Paul and her fellow “MomTok” influencers a much larger degree of fame than they previously had on social media. The case initially carried charges of domestic violence in the presence of a child and misdemeanor child abuse, both of which were dropped in exchange for Paul’s guilty plea to aggravated assault. News reports from the time indicate that police saw video footage of the altercation and that it showed Paul’s then-5-year-old daughter was struck when she threw a metal chair at Mortensen. Related Stories TV Former 'Bachelorette' Rachel Lindsay Says Taylor Frankie Paul Controversy Has "Completely Destroyed" 'Bachelor' Franchise: "It's Over" TV ABC Faces $30 Million-Plus Loss From Scrapped 'Bachelorette' Season But until Thursday, when TMZ published the video , ABC was going full steam ahead in promoting Paul and The Bachelorette . A preview of the season aired after the Oscars and drew more than 5 million viewers, a good sign for a show coming off both a long break and, before that, its two least watched seasons on record. It raises the question: Had the video not become public, would ABC and Warner Horizon have gone ahead with the season instead of shelving it ? The sad answer to that is probably yes. Even in the sometimes squalid world of reality TV, the Bachelor franchise seems more prone to unseemly revelations about the people involve...