- Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette was scrapped three days before its premiere back in March.
- The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star was in the thick of a domestic violence dispute with her ex, Dakota Mortensen, at the time.
- Now, Reality Steve reports that ABC may actually air the scrapped season this summer.
Taylor Frankie Paul’s scrapped season of The Bachelorettemay not be lost media, after all. At least, that’s what Bachelor Nation blogger Reality Steve’s latest post suggests. On Tuesday, May 5, Steve dropped an exclusive report on Instagram Reels, where he suggested ABC might air Taylor’s season this summer.
“And not only that, it’s not getting dumped on a streamer,” he elaborated. “It’s gonna air on ABC this summer.”
He then explained that ABC’s upfronts—aka, when the network showcases upcoming programming to advertisers—are set to take place next week.
“My guess is that’s when they will announce they’ve officially moved forward and are going to play Taylor Frankie Paul’s season this summer on ABC,” he continued, adding that he initially didn’t “think it was going anywhere” because of the network’s wording in its cancellation announcement.
Back in March, ABC announced that it canceled the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star’s season after footage leaked from a 2023 domestic violence dispute between Taylor and her ex, Dakota Mortensen.
“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” a Disney Entertainment Television spokesperson said in a statement on March 19.
According to Reality Steve, “You would have just said we’re done and this show is never airing. It’s supposed to air this summer on ABC, which is a little surprising to me, because, remember, when you’re airing on a network, you have to carve out—this show is usually eleven weeks long. You have to carve out eleven different Sundays or Mondays.”
He added, “Considering we now know there’s going to be a Bachelor season that will probably film in September through November and go back to their normal schedule, I would think they’d want Taylor Frankie Paul’s season to be done airing by the time the next Bachelor season starts. That doesn’t mean the next Bachelor is going to be from her season, but just to keep on the schedule that they normally have.”
As for when we could expect a potential announcement from the network? Steve said he’s anticipating that people at ABC will reach out to him “sometime in the next couple of weeks.”
This pretty much lines up with Page Six’s previous report from March, which suggested that “ABC may still air Taylor Frankie Paul’s Bachelorette season” due to being out “tens of millions” of dollars.
An industry source echoed Steve’s sentiment at the time, telling the outlet, “ABC left a window in their statement to bring [the show] back. They haven’t canceled it—they simply paused it.”
Staying tuned to see how this all plays out…
