The Bachelor franchise has had a tough 18 months. Allegations of a toxic workplace and the departure of its two top showrunners emerged earlier than ABC was pressured to shelve a complete season of The Bachelorette because of home assault allegations towards its star, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Taylor Frankie Paul.
But Disney’s actuality chief Rob Mills is assured that the franchise can rise once more.
“The Bachelor is almost a perfect format and it is really powerful. It’s over two decades old, and it’s seen really good days and really bad days. But it’s always had a lot of resilience, especially when the people making it really, really care about it, because that fan base also really cares about it,” he advised Deadline. “However The Bachelor comes back next year, it will be done with a lot of thoughtfulness and care. I do think better days are ahead for the franchise.”
ABC already renewed The Bachelor for Season 30 in June 2025 with Bachelor in Paradise’s Scott Teti set as showrunner. It is now set to air in 2027.
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However, within the wake of the Paul furor, Mills was pressured to take a broader have a look at the franchise. He advised Deadline that it was “very important to us” however admitted it was going by “growing pains.”
Mills added that he was “very hopeful” for the following cycle of The Bachelor. He would really like the courting format to be in the identical dialog as Dancing With the Stars and American Idol, which have each loved rankings renaissances in center age.
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“This is a very different type of thing than just waning ratings or being in a creative rut. These shows all have ups and downs,” he mentioned. “Dancing had a great year but a few years ago we were worried about just keeping the show on the air. I do think we’re going to take that care [with The Bachelor] but I’m very hopeful for the next cycle.”
Whether Season 22 of The Bachelorette, starring Paul, will ever air is a unique query. Mills mentioned he doesn’t know whether or not it is going to ever air on ABC or stream on Hulu and is taking all the things “day by day.”
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The indisputable fact that the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office lately declined to file charges against Paul after reviewing proof submitted to the Draper and West Jordan police departments, appeared to open the door barely to the season seeing the sunshine of day in some unspecified time in the future.
Whether Disney needs to pull up the controversy once more is a unique query.
“The day all of that stuff happened, really our first sort of concern was really for Taylor and the family and everyone involved in that, it was really more on a human level. Now, we’re sort of taking it a day at a time. I think her season is a wonderful season, by Bachelor standards. If it gets seen, I’m sure people will absolutely enjoy it,” he mentioned.
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The Bachelor and its spinoffs together with The Bachelorette are produced by Warner Horizon. There had been some recommendations when the scandal broke that the soon-to-be Paramount-owned studio may ultimately license the season elsewhere.
But Mills mentioned he’s had no conversations with Warner Bros. Television about that.
“I think if there’s something that absolutely says very clearly, one way or the other, that points in that direction, you’ll know,” he mentioned. “But right now, there’s really just nothing to say other than, it is a great season and I hope that, at some point, Bachelor Nation gets to see it.”
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