The Bachelor franchise needs to take a break after a heartbreaking season finale for The Bachelorette proved that the franchise doesn’t care about the people who lead their shows. While there have been issues throughout The Bachelor and The Bachelorette for years, the shows have been as popular as ever with audiences and have brought new spin-offs to the franchise. Having first aired in 2002, The Bachelor quickly resonated with audiences. Showing fairy-tale romance mixed with a level of genuine love developing over a few short weeks, the show mixed elements of reality with the fantastical, creating a new experience.
As the show has become more modern, spin-offs like Bachelor In Paradise and The Golden Bachelor have brought new elements into the franchise. Showing off different types of relationships and styles of communication, the franchise has become a cornerstone of reality TV dating, but it hasn’t been easy for the contestants and leads who appear on the show to advocate for themselves. While The Bachelor franchise appeared to cater to leads, The Bachelorette season 21 has proven that the franchise doesn’t care about them at all. Now, with the audience distrustful, it’s time for the franchise to take a break.
The Bachelor Franchise Has Had Long-Standing Problems
They’ve Been Criticized For Years
Although The Bachelor has been the longest-running franchise in reality TV dating with its many spin-offs and must-see episodes, it’s also been one of the most criticized over the years. With long-standing problems regarding race, social issues, sexuality, and behind-the-scenes care of the contestants, the franchise has never been without problems. Early on in The Bachelor’s history, the shows were criticized for their unrealistic standards, bringing couples on luxurious, unattainable dates before dropping them into the real world, only to see their relationships fail. In the ensuing years, things have become far more problematic for the popular reality TV franchise.
With the franchise taking over a decade to cast a lead of color or incorporate practices of diverse casting into the shows, The Bachelor and its spin-offs have been critiqued for their racially insensitive practices through the years. The franchise had to be pushed to become more racially inclusive, as they struggled to understand any issues. On top of this, the franchise has struggled to be inclusive of all sexualities and has rarely taken care of the contestants on the shows. Dealing with health issues, both mentally and physically, those involved in the Bachelor franchise haven’t been properly cared for.
The Franchise Has Tried To Fix Things Without Taking A Step Back
They Haven’t Taken Time Away
While The Bachelor franchise has been called out numerous times in the past, they’ve never taken a step back to reassess their failures without the majority of their shows being in production. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when social justice issues were being called out frequently in public, The Bachelor franchise was called into question regarding specific and general issues viewers had. While some things were addressed, like original host Chris Harrison being removed from the series due to some racially insensitive remarks, most of the problems weren’t thoroughly looked at in favor of staying in production.
While the franchise claims they’ve reassessed their practices and feel like they’re doing a better job at being sensitive and inclusive, none of the shows were ever off the air for the practices to be assessed. The Bachelor franchise is a non-stop machine that doesn’t take breaks from production, regardless of what shows they have coming up. Without there being any stoppage of work for the production team to genuinely look at the issues people have brought up, there’s no way for the franchise to actually change or grow. Instead, The Bachelor franchise has made minor fixes to small issues.
Jenn Tran’s Season Of The Bachelorette Offers Prime Examples Of The Problems
The Franchise Is All About Spectacle
Throughout Jenn’s season of The Bachelorette, it became increasingly obvious what the problems Bachelor Nation as a whole has noticed about the franchise, as they were all evident during the season. First, Jenn’s casting wasn’t intentional, but instead a third-choice for the upcoming season. Because Jenn wasn’t the initial choice for Bachelorette, her season wasn’t shaped around her journey, so it didn’t work on many emotional fronts. On top of all of that, The Bachelorette producers weren’t concerned for Jenn’s emotional well-being throughout the majority of the season, making it difficult for viewers to trust the way anything was handled.
The Bachelor Franchise Needs To Take A Break & Address Its Failures
They Need To Go Back To The Drawing Board
Although The Bachelor season 29 is already in the works with Grant Ellis as the lead, the franchise needs to take a break from production to address its failures and choose how to move forward. While many are hopeful to see more Bachelor content in the coming months, it would benefit the franchise to take a step back to try to solve the problems they face rather than putting a band-aid over them. Things will simply grow worse within The Bachelor franchise if their issues aren’t addressed properly and changed for the better, with the leads and contestants as priorities.
