“I can’t wait to show little girls that look like me that being in a position like this is possible,” said Charity Lawson, the fifth Black lead in the “Bachelor” franchise. Since its inception two decades ago, the reality dating mainstay has been reluctant to reflect the demographics of a modern America — instead opting to overwhelmingly choose contestants who cater to the biggest portion of its audience: young, straight white people who tout their Christian values at every turn.
For years, the shows’ fans and participants — known collectively as Bachelor Nation — have demanded that the franchise diversify its lead and contestants. Its loudest advocates have called for more racial, bodily and religious representation, among other things. The Bachelor Diversity Campaign, a fan-led collective championing these efforts, began in 2020. However, few substantive, long-lasting changes have actually been made by the “Bachelor” production team.
Though there may be more Black contestants than in earlier seasons, the “Bachelor″ franchise fails remarkably when it dips its toe into diverse waters, neglecting to support its Black leads and leaving them to educate others while also facing online vitriol. As a knee-jerk reaction to its shortcomings on diversity, the franchise reverts back to its default factory settings: a white lead front and center to appease its core base. See the Clayton Echard and Zach Shallcross seasons.
“The Bachelor” seems content in maintaining its lily-white veneer. While Black viewers have never needed “The Bachelor” for validation of Black love stories, repetition of the contestant archetype — a thin, white, cisheterosexual, evangelical model citizen — becomes disheartening to watch, fans told HuffPost. Ultimately, this leads Black audiences and fans to seek out other reality dating series that have approached diversity with care; it has made them wonder what “The Bachelor” — and other dating reality shows — could be doing differently. Rather than fighting for inclusion, is it possible to create a successful Black dating series on network television?
“We saw a very obvious gap in the ‘Bachelor’ podcast-sphere,” Scott-Reichel said. “Our intention was to connect with other viewers of color and Black women that watch the franchise. But along the way, we found a community of women, regardless of race, that were really interested in having more nuanced conversations about what we were watching on screen.”
“We didn’t realize how bad they were going to botch that season. We had to get really deep with it in a way that made recapping the show very arduous for us,” Scott-Reichel said. “At the crux of it, we just want to watch a TV show and have fun — we didn’t want our podcast to morph into a platform for educating white people.”
Scott-Reichel said a successful reality dating series not only needs to have and support Black contestants, but its casting process should select genuine, emotionally secure candidates. Referencing OWN’s “Ready To Love,” she said that the show’s focus on matching successful 30- and 40-year-old Black singles often brings in more mature contestants, but they also “have lived a full life and are showing up ready to bring their full selves and find a partner.”
The series, which is hosted by comedian Tommy Miles and produced by Will Packer Media and Lighthearted Entertainment, debuts its eighth season on July 7. Audiences see couples date multiple people and ultimately choose the one who is “ready to love.” There have been a few long-term couples who continued their relationships after the cameras shut off. Clifton Pettie proposed to Joi Carter last September after a whirlwind romance on the series. Since then, the couple has been married and appeared on “Love and Marriage: DC,” another reality show on OWN.
Like other dating reality shows, “Ready to Love” can have its share of mess and drama. Mario Tolliver dated Reva Stout in a few episodes of Season 2, which was set in Houston, but he ended the season choosing Tondy Gallant as his biggest connection. On that reunion show, Tolliver revealed that he ended up reconnecting with Stout — and they’ve been together ever since.
But Black-led franchises such as “Ready To Love” and TV One’s new show “The One” should not be the only offerings to represent Black love in reality television. Another issue is that these shows garner limited visibility since they air on cable networks and satellite TV, or are included as add-ons to bundled subscriptions with Hulu, YouTube TV, Fubo and other services.
Kay says that in addition to ensuring appropriate casting, an all-Black dating show would have to be culturally relevant to the community. Kay and Scott-Reichel already have ideas for such a series: the contestants would all be members of historically Black Greek fraternities and sororities who are looking for love.
Kay said the key to success is taking a concept, practice or tradition that lies within one’s culture and building off that foundation. Netflix’s “Indian Matchmaking” and “Jewish Matchmaking,” for example, successfully found ways to showcase common practices in dating within their respective communities.
“When the cast comes out for the show, especially in ‘The Bachelor’ where it’s the women competing, we do this thing on our podcast where we broach the colorism topic,” Smith said. “Each time, we do the ‘brown paper bag test,’ right? We’re like, ‘Look, how many of these women are really light-skinned or racially ambiguous?’ I don’t think there’s any incentive for them to change. They’re a lily-white legacy franchise.”
“There’s so much data out there showing that Black people are a force in media when it comes to viewing content, and appealing to them can only help you,” Pope said. “[Disney] is a company that just released ‘The Little Mermaid’ with Halle Bailey, had the ‘Black Panther’ phenomenon, and they’ve got cartoons like ‘Doc McStuffins.’ Yet when it comes to the ‘Bachelor’ franchise, they lose all ability and all diversity, equity and inclusion common sense here.” (Disney is the parent company of ABC, where the “Bachelor” franchise airs. It is produced by Warner Bros.)
Smith said the intention behind casting James was “obvious,” as his close friend Tyler Cameron was a previous contestant. But Smith also recalled that during the premiere, audiences were introduced to his white mother, who presented a nonthreatening air of respectability to the franchise’s “faith, football and family audience.”
And the season signaled to Black women that perhaps it’s futile to seek love from a Black man on reality TV. On James’ premiere episode, he talked about the outside pressures to choose a Black woman — and made it clear that he might not pick one.
Pope said that the structure of the franchise is stale, too — and the concept of a Black version of “The Bachelor” is not “interesting enough.” If another Black reality dating series emerges, Pope and Smith would like to see it model an experimental format akin to “The Ultimatum,” “Love Is Blind” or “Married at First Sight.”
“What if there was like a group of people in a house — kind of like ‘Love Island’ — but they go on dates and they pair up?” Edwards said. “But then there’s a matchmaker behind the scenes, who is possibly a Black woman. I feel like that’s what makes ‘Love Island’ a cut above the rest. I don’t know if it’s like the casting process or what, but you can tell they’re very intentional about making sure that they’re finding the right people.”
The show revolves around 11 initial contestants, referred to as “islanders,” vying for love and a cash prize. They have to “couple up” to survive and advance; occasionally, a “bombshell” enters the villa, catching various contestants’ eyes and spicing up the competition.
“Even if it is about the drama and the entertainment, there’s a sense of camaraderie on the show that you don’t really see in American dating shows,” Edwards said. “During the [COVID-19] pandemic, I binged ‘Love Island.’ You got to really see a glimpse of the friendships that came out of it. Even if people did have tense moments, they hugged it out and went back to being friends. It kind of blew my mind. In American reality TV, we think there always needs to be drama, fighting and tension.”
“It always ends up being that you have to be a Christian, and being gay is ‘terrible,’” Monique said. “Black people can be from other religions as well, aside from Christianity. I will say that if you are casting a show with Black people, especially with Black queer people, you want to be vetting [contestants].”
This content was originally published here.