We are losing ancient texts.
It’s been nearly 23 years since The Bachelorette premiered on ABC. Its preceding series, The Bachelor, premiered the year prior and eventually launched “Bachelor Nation”. Fans of the franchise get together each year to watch the main series, as well as its spin-off shows: The Golden Bachelor, and Bachelor in Paradise.
The formula? Finding 25-30 singles to date one bachelor or bachelorette. Each week, the lead eliminates candidates in order to get one step closer to their happily ever after.
How is the lead for the next series chosen? They are typically the runner-up of the previous season or overall fan-favorites.
Why does this work? The audience has seen the contestant grow and navigate this journey, therefore becoming invested in them. This investment pays off when the contestant becomes the lead and gets a second chance at their forever.
It’s no secret that the ABC franchise has been trying to keep itself above water, and to stay afloat, they decided to contract an already established reality star as the next bachelorette. The reality star in question? The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Taylor Frankie Paul.
As someone who has been part of Bachelor Nation for a decade, this is not the answer. Moreover, as someone who has followed Taylor Frankie Paul since 2020 and watched Secret Lives, it is definitely not the answer.
Let’s set the record straight: an established reality star should not be near the Bachelor franchise with a 10-foot-pole. No matter who they are.
Unfortunately, in order to get ratings up, ABC opted to clout chase rather than select a woman from Bachelor Nation. It’s not necessarily that fans aren’t interested, but it’s that ABC doesn’t listen to what the fans want.
Coming off from the latest season of Bachelor in Paradise, multiple relationships were affected by alum Susie Evans. Whether a man was waiting for her to arrive or hung up on her, Susie was a sought after woman. Even leaving soon after her arrival, she was still brought up in conversation. From this alone, fans were calling for her to be the next bachelorette. She clearly had a certain gravitational pull, so why not?
Perhaps ABC didn’t choose Susie because she was on the same season as Gabby Windy and Rachel Recchia, who went on to become a bachelorette-duo. That’s fine. However, there were women from Joey Graziadei’s season and Grant Ellis’s season that would be more recent.
Personally, I would’ve loved to see Lexi Young from Joey’s season. She has a glowing personality, is open about her struggles with endometriosis, and was unsuccessful in Paradise. As for Grant’s season, Litia was the runner-up, and fans loved seeing her stand her ground after Grant seemingly blind-sided her.
In the event that perhaps she would’ve turned it down, I’d find Rose Sombke an eligible consideration. While she wasn’t seen much, and was briefly involved in drama, overall she seemed sweet. Giving her the lead would allow the audience to get to know her better.
And if there was ever a time to give someone to shine, beloved Lea Cayanan was right there! Initially a villain on Joey’s season, she has since reclaimed her reputation on TikTok and Bachelor in Paradise.
Getting into the Taylor Frankie Paul of it all, she hadn’t always had a messy reputation. Before MomTok took on a life of its own, her content consisted of claiming her house was haunted, her son that people said looked like Stefan Salvatore, and proving her hair wasn’t extensions. She also made videos with Miranda Hope and Camille Munday, where she trolled viewers by saying she was their 50 year old mother.
Of course, later on the Swinging Scandal broke. I was there when she went on live explaining the ordeal. When Secret Lives premiered, viewers saw the dynamics of MomTok and praised Taylor for being blunt and petty, often applauding her emotional outbursts and defending how she chooses to call people out. This would all be relatively okay if it stayed in the lane of its own show. It does not, however, have any business being in another reality show. Especially not one about finding love.
Perhaps ill-timed or perfect timing, depending on how you look at it, the fourth season of Secret Lives aired just a week shy of The Bachelorette premiere date. If I thought Taylor Paul shouldn’t have been the lead when she was announced, it was certainly cemented within just the first episode of season five.
Being the lead of the Bachelor Franchise is a big deal. We as viewers want to follow you and root for you. We want to learn about you and watch you grow. What brings the most authenticity is when it’s an everyday person. As an established reality star, the audience is predisposed to the baggage and image you carry, whether good or bad.
While Taylor may seem like a “girl boss”, she is a 30 year old woman who has not been able to truly work on herself, regulate her emotions, or get herself out of a toxic relationship. She insists that baby daddy Dakota Mortensen is “trash” and that she’s done with him. Recently, a video detailing her 2023 domestic violence incident was released, causing ABC to pull her Bachelorette season ahead of its premiere.
Before these events however, she continued to be antagonized by him, and being reactionary to his actions. If that wasn’t bad enough, she slept with him twice in the new season. The final time being the night before she leaves to embark on her Bachelorette journey.
Quite frankly, I’m not on anyone’s side. If I am, I’m on the side of their children and the environment they’re in. Throughout the season, Taylor and her friends seem to treat this opportunity as a way to move on and get away from Dakota. Leaving one reality show to go onto another is not a solution! It’s a band-aid fix, if anything.
Taylor repeatedly states that she’s in a cycle and easily gets triggered by anything Dakota does. The way she quickly turns on her friends, gets angry, and calls women names is alarming. Not Bachelorette behavior at all. Has there been controversial and concerning people in the franchise? Of course. But it’s handled in that environment, in the moment.
My initial issue with Taylor Paul as the Bachelorette lied on the principle that the show is not for celebrities; it’s for everyday people. I still stand by that. With Taylor, it’s only affirmed after having seen her behavior and that she needs healing. Coming from another show also creates problems for those involved.
Herself, her family, and Secret Lives castmates have now had certain aspects of their life hindered. Furthermore, with her season not seeing the light of day for the foreseeable future, the men of her season do not get to be seen by America. It might sound silly, but at the end of the day these men uprooted their lives to join her on this journey, and won’t gain visibility for it now.
Unfortunately for the franchise, it has caused massive scrutiny and backlash from the public. They knew Taylor Paul’s past and disregarded the potential consequences. This only affirms that they chose the infamous Mormon as a cash grab first, and person last.
My hope at this point is that networks, reality stars, and viewers alike take this disheartening spectacle as a time to reflect and advocate for better regulations across all reality television.