In case you’ve been wondering whether Bachelor in Paradise was going to ignore that possible sexual incident between Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson, which halted filming back in June, your answer is here. It turns out that the show is embracing the whole thing – and it’s not pretty.
In an exclusive, People released BIP‘s first trailer for season four, and let’s just say that the show isn’t exactly trying to hide from the controversy.
The trailer opens with a voiceover saying, “The sun had almost set. Summer was almost ruined. Paradise was almost lost,” and features footage of a tropical storm and a woman’s scream thrown in for good measure. Tweets of despair from fans upon finding out the show had stopped production fly up on the screeen. The narrator continues, “Until it wasn’t,” and a contestant is shown yelling in agreement, “Paradise is back!” Suddenly, everything is fine again and the show is back to its regular shots of scenic beach footage, complete with overjoyed tweets from contestants about the show’s announcement that season four would continue.
Paradise has been found. #BachelorInParadise returns to ABC August 14! pic.twitter.com/KNrlmn4uoB
— Bachelor in Paradise (@BachParadise) July 18, 2017
It’s truly, um, interesting – especially because it’s not exactly like the cancellation of a reality show is the worst possible thing that could result from alleged sexual assault.
Fans are taking notice too, and some took to Twitter to call the show out on what they felt was a tone-deaf trailer.
It’s ABC’s Sizzling Summer of Almost Rape!!!
— Seth Abramovitch (@SethAbramovitch) July 18, 2017
The #BachelorInParadise trailer basically laughs at the allegations made against the show https://t.co/NBAg0ezQ77 pic.twitter.com/AsFpwseKj8
— Emily Longeretta (@emilylongeretta) July 18, 2017
The Bachelor in Paradise trailer is insane. You can’t just throw a bunch of sad tweets on a crab & pretend u don’t have a problem
— amil (@amil) July 18, 2017
Season four premieres August 14th so we’ll just have to wait and see if the actual show is as cringe-y as the trailer – but things aren’t off to a great start.