I’ve been keeping my eye on the Bachelorette catastrophe, which exploded last week. The new season of The Bachelorette was due to premiere this past Sunday, with Taylor Frankie Paul as their star bachelorette. Taylor already had reality-show stardom from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and she already has a huge social media following. Disney and ABC wanted that – they wanted someone extremely online with a built-in following. They also wanted Taylor’s chaos and mess, because they thought it would bring higher ratings. They hired her as their bachelorette knowing that she was charged with domestic violence against her boyfriend/lover Dakota Mortensen though, and Disney was seemingly unprepared for the DV video to come out just days before the premiere of the show. Disney/ABC ended up canceling this season completely. Well, the LA Times has more – how much this debacle has cost Disney, and just how many people screwed up along the way.
How much Disney will lose: In the summer of 2025, Walt Disney Co. executives placed a big bet on a reality TV star prone to high drama: messy personal relationships and allegations of domestic violence. Now, Disney’s ABC network could lose at least $70 million with a nearly finished season of “The Bachelorette” sitting on the shelf.
The DV case: Draper City, Utah, police have separately confirmed an investigation into a subsequent domestic violence incident in February between Mortensen and Paul. As part of that inquiry, Paul, 31, has temporarily lost custody of the couple’s son, Ever, who turned 2 last week — the day the troubling video came out. Representatives of Mortensen could not immediately be reached for comment. In a statement to People magazine, a representative for Mortensen said that “his number one priority here is protecting” his son, Ever.
Before the video came out, Disney was already investigating: Last month, Disney requested an investigation to sort out Paul’s and Mortensen’s differing accounts of the February incident, according to people close to the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive situation.
The new Disney chief: The scandal has become the first big test for Dana Walden, who last week was installed as Disney’s president and chief creative officer — the day before the video showing a violent Paul was leaked to TMZ. The episode has raised uncomfortable questions about why Disney made Paul the face of one of ABC’s marquee franchises. It also has shined a light on the decision-making of Walden’s newly anointed ABC team: Debra OConnell, the chair of Disney Entertainment Television; Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich; and Rob Mills, Disney TV’s executive vice president of unscripted and alternative entertainment.
Will Disney ever air this season of The Bachelorette? The network has not said whether it plans to eventually air Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette.” But the network made a huge investment, paying a license fee of about $5 million an episode for the season to Warner Bros., said sources familiar with the matter. The season includes nine episodes and other programming elements, including a special that ran immediately after ABC’s Oscar telecast this month, which attracted 5.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen. ABC also orchestrated a huge marketing blitz — billboards for the show had sprouted around the country, social media channels were crackling and Paul appeared on ABC’s stalwart “Good Morning America,” where she discussed her role on “The Bachelorette,” where she dated nearly two dozen men in search of her soulmate….Advertisers, including Cinnabon, have also pulled back in light of the controversy.
Filming on Secret Lives of Mormon Wives has also been paused: Disney also has paused filming on “Mormon Wives” during production of its fifth season. Over the show’s four-season run, there have been tensions among the castmates, which accelerated as Paul and the other wives pursued fame in other venues, including on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” When the recent allegations of domestic violence surfaced, castmates expressed concerns about working with her, which contributed to the decision to hire an outside law firm to investigate. The firm was hired, at Disney’s request, by the show’s production firm, Jeff Jenkins Productions, based in Sherman Oaks.
I’m sorry, but organizing an outside investigation of your new bachelorette while wrapping up filming on TWO SHOWS is the WORST cover-your-ass move I’ve ever seen from a corporation like Disney. Oh my god – the executives couldn’t admit that they failed to properly vet Taylor before they hired her, nor could they admit the same thing A MONTH AGO when they realized that everything was going off the rails. What were Disney’s executives doing? Just ostriching like a motherf–ker, crossing their fingers that no one could prove that Taylor really beat the sh-t out of her partner? That their $70 million gamble would yield must-watch trainwreck television and no one would question why Disney was promoting a domestic abuser? Insane.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, ABC’s Instagram.
