Finding love seems like such a personal journey, but for Tayshia Adams, who is taking over The Bachelorette from Clare Crawley, who found love earlier than convenient for the production, it’s less so.
Reality Steve reports that Adams will have to settle for the men already cleared for Crawley’s season. Per Steve: "They reached out to guys who never made cast, and guys who had been eliminated in previous rose ceremonies from Clare, but I have not heard of one guy that went back to filming. So Tayshia’s guys are whoever was left on Clare’s season, and possibly any new guys that were asked who never were part of the 32 names back in March, or 42 names announced in July. I guess that’s possible as well."
Which means, she gets Crawley’s rejects with a few add-ins. As has been widely reported, Crawley and former contestant Dale Moss have found love and are focusing on each other.
MIKE JOHNSON
Meanwhile, Mike Johnson, the previous fan-favorite who was thought to be contention as the first Black Bachelor, slammed the franchise in an interview with Variety.
Ultimately, he was not selected, and the season ultimately starred Peter Weber. He told Variety that he’s “baffled” by the switcheroos on the current season: “I’m definitely surprised. This is a bit much. The point is for the lead to find love and then the second point is to create a little bit of drama because the fans all like the drama. But from what I’m hearing, they’re going over the top, like too far. But we’ll see. They always do a great job and they have for nearly 20 years, so they’re doing something right.”
But there’s room for improvement. He called the lack of diversity: “atrocious. There have been numerous, wonderful Black and indigenous people of color that could have been cast in the lead roles, and for the franchise to not to do that, it’s just terrible. It should not have taken an outcry from the fans, who I absolutely adore — that was a clear sign that there is power in numbers, so I love the fans who signed petitions and things like that, but it shouldn’t have taken that. I hope that they do listen. And I hope that it’s not just the leads and contestants, but people in charge should also be diverse, as well.
Host Chris Harrison previously said of the diversity problem: “What we realized is if you don’t see yourself represented — no matter if it is on TV or in a club or whatever — you’re probably not going to want to attend. You’re not going to feel comfortable. So we had to take that first step, and we have done better at casting and putting more diverse people on the show, therefore you see yourself represented more. Again, I think it takes a long time to turn around a big boat. We needed to take that step and I think we’ve done much better in the last few seasons for sure. We’ll continue to do that."
ABC’s The Bachelor will feature its first Black star in 25 seasons with Matt James.