One day after ABC pulled The Bachelorette premiere of Taylor Frankie Paul's season of the series from the schedule, we finally know the show that will air in place of the reality TV series.
ABC announced that a re-airing of American Idol will take the place of The Bachelorette's coveted Sunday night timeslot (8-10 p.m. ET) on the network. It will not be a new episode of American Idol. For now, American Idol's new episodes will continue to air on Monday nights on ABC.
Disney officially canceled The Bachelorette season 22's premiere after TMZ published a video from a 2023 fight between Frankie Paul and her ex, Dakota Mortensen. Frankie Paul pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, but she was allowed to continue appearing on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and was cast on The Bachelorette despite the charges and guilty plea.
The cancellation of the season leaves a massive void in ABC's spring lineup. Sunday nights are typically a good night for the network's reality shows, and it definitely feels quite disappointing that an old American Idol episode will air at that time.
Honestly, I think a lot of viewers will be disappointed with an American Idol episode. While it's a no-brainer that ABC should never, ever, ever air this season, ABC needs to come up with something better than American Idol re-runs in the meantime.
I can't imagine that continues throughout the next few months, though. Potentially, we could see a shift in ABC's schedule to move a scripted series or another reality series into The Bachelorette's normal timeslot throughout the spring.
This is also a problem of Disney's own making. The allegations and details have been available. I can't imagine that Disney didn't know the full scope of that 2023 case.
Disney has a lot of shows and movies in the works. There are reality shows and scripted shows, including one I will get to in a minute, that are going to be released on Hulu or ABC later this year that could fill The Bachelorette's timeslot. That's probably the move ABC should go with to cut its losses, and then backfill the schedule later this year.
Disney should move Love Overboard from Hulu to ABC
According to a report from TheWrap, Love Overboard, a new Hulu reality series from Gabby Windey, was supposed to air after The Bachelorette season 22 premiere on ABC at 10 p.m. ET. We still have not heard if ABC will keep that in the current timeslot or if they will replace it with another re-run.
It made a lot of sense to air Love Overboard after The Bachelorette. Windey competed on The Bachelor before she starred in The Bachelorette along with Rachel Recchia in season 19. The weird thing is that Love Overboard isn't an ABC series. It was getting a special premiere on ABC before its actual premiere on Hulu on Thursday, March 26. So, it's going to be very interesting to see what decision ABC makes regarding that series.
Personally, I think it makes a lot more sense to move Love Overboard's premiere into The Bachelorette timeslot on Sunday night with a re-run of American Idol after. I think fans who were planning on tuning in would definitely be more interested in watching something new rather than something they could have already watched if they wanted to.
I could see Disney moving Love Overboard from Hulu to ABC to fill the Sunday night slot in The Bachelorette's place, but there are probably many hoops that need to be jumped through to make that happen. It's probably something that will take longer than a few days to sort out if it's in the cards.
We'll share more information about ABC's schedule as we find out. Stay tuned for more news about what happens now that this season of The Bachelorette has been canceled.