ABC just announced its upcoming summer and fall lineup, and there's one big show missing: The Bachelorette.
Reality Steve reported that ABC was lining up the new The Bachelorette season with Taylor Frankie Paul as the lead to be released sometime this summer or fall. Well, it doesn't appear that's true.
ABC dropped its summer and fall schedule prior to its Upfronts presentation on Tuesday, May 12, and there's no season of The Bachelorette on the schedule. In fact, there's no season of any Bachelor show, not The Bachelor or Bachelor in Paradise. It's the first time in a long time that we could, in theory, go a full calendar year without a new season of the Bachelor franchise. What is Bachelor Nation going to do now?
Originally, Paul's season of The Bachelorette was supposed to air in March 2026 on ABC, but days before the season, TMZ shared a video of the new lead assaulting her then-partner, Dakota Mortensen, in 2023. ABC pulled the season from the schedule.
Since then, there have been a lot of rumors about what ABC would do with the season. There are reports that not airing the season is going to cost upwards of $30 million. The Bachelor franchise usually includes contestants from previous seasons in its search for the next lead or in the other spinoff shows like Bachelor in Paradise.
The big question now is what happens to The Bachelorette season at all. Will ABC shelve it for good, essentially canceling the season? It looked like that was a possibility back in March, and I think it's still an option for ABC, though it does present some problems, financial and otherwise.
There's also been a lot of talk of Disney dropping the series on Hulu or Disney+ instead of airing it on ABC. That's something to consider, but I don't think it necessarily fixes all of the financial issues with the season. It does put the series out there and allow the participants of the season to be part of Bachelor Nation for future seasons after fans get to know them a little bit.
I don't know how likely that situation is. Honestly, I was expecting to see the season in the ABC lineup, but now, we'll just have to wait and see what happens with the future of the franchise as time goes on. I don't think this the end of this story yet.
Stay tuned for more news about the future of The Bachelorette on ABC.
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