Rachel Lindsay — the hero Bachelor Nation needs but not the one it deserves.

The Bachelor franchise is a hot mess. How did this happen and who’s gonna fix it?

It is totally fair to say that right now, March 1, 2021, ABC’s Bachelor franchise is in shambles. Where do we even start?? Recently, fans have been vocally disappointed for several reasons:

1.Many contestants seem very young and totally uninterested in getting engaged — much less married.

• 79% of female contestants are 28 or younger, but only 48% of male contestants are 28 or younger.
• On average, women on The Bachelor are 4.8 years younger than the male lead, but men on The Bachelorette are 1.3 years older than the female lead.
• The most recent stats show that the average man gets married at age 30 and the average women gets married at 28. This is four years later than in 1987, when our parents were getting married.

2.Boring storylines that rely too much on fabricated drama. You’re not really a Bachelor fan until you’ve been disgusted and disappointed by an episode about an annoying contestant that has ZERO chance of winning. Two hours of your life you can’t get back (*cough* Queen Victoria *cough*)

3.When will a lead actually marry the winner? Since 2015, the leads who married the winner of their season can be counted on one finger: Rachel Lindsay married Bryan Abasolo, season 13 winner. [To be fair, season 12 lead JoJo Fletcher postponed her wedding to Jordan Rodgers because of Covid-19.] Zac Clark is still dating season 16 lead Tayshia Adams, but she admitted they aren’t getting married any time soon. Season 16 dropouts Clare and Dale are together at this second, but they weren’t last week this time, so we’ll see…

• If The Bachelor is just gonna become a dating game, then ABC should change the messaging and Neil Lane — who has provided the engagement rings since 2009 — may want to increase his marketing budget.

4.Where are the real people? The body types of the contestants do not reflect the 18–49 year-old demo that the Bachelor franchise is targeting. As such it is also becoming harder to believe in that the contestants are really interested in love. Fans are starting to believe that Bachelor contestants and leads just wanna be Insta-Famous. A perfect example is Cynthia Rowley’s only daughter, who was a contestant this season and has her own closing line. She admitted that she has no interest in marriage in the near future. So..we now believe Bachelor execs only cast her to benefit from the name association (and we believe she only appeared on the show to help her *brand*).

5.Again, where are the real people? The Bachelor producers handpick the contestants and the contests never reflect the racial diversity of the fanbase. That’s it. That’s the full sentence.

Re: this last point, the franchise has been riding the Struggle Bus.

— Fans found Lee Garret’s racist and sexist tweets in 2017. Lee was a contestant when Rachel Lindsay became the first Black lead of any Bachelor/Bachelorette show.

— Season 14 winner Garrett Yrigoyen admitted to “liking” a series of offensive social media posts.

— Season 15 lead Hannah Brown used the N-word on Instagram Live (she’s since issued a sincere apology and vowed to be “part of the solution”).

Most recently, pictures surfaced of current Bachelor contestant (and front runner) Rachael Kirkconnell attending a Kappa Alpha Order “Old South” party in 2018 while attending Georgia College & State University. Kirkconnell is dating current Bachelor Matt James, the first Black male lead.

Old South parties are celebrations of the pre-Civil War South. As one Kappa Alpha chapter’s website still says, the Old South weekend concludes with “the Dixie Ball where we all celebrate the glory of the Old South.”

• Although the national Kappa Alpha org banned functions with the name “Old South” in 2016, it looks like the memo didn’t reach the fellas at Kirkconnell’s college.

Longtime Bachelor/Bachelorette host Chris Harrison gave an interview about these pictures to Rachel Lindsay. It was as bad as possible for Harrison.

Harrison downplayed the pictures, suggesting that Old South parties were not that bad in 2018 (spoiler: they’ve been bad for a while). Lindsay asked Harrison why Kirkconnell was silent about the photos despite her currently dating a Black man. Harrison replied, “Who is whatever woke police person out there…to demand that?”

The problems are obvious here.

It’s a problem that Harrison thinks a racist party is okay as long as we look through a 2018 lens. It’s a problem that Harrison said he knows that “50 million people” attended Old South parties in 2018. (If that’s true, maybe there’s a bigger issue about who Harrison is hanging with?) It’s a problem that this guy who’s supposed to guide young women and men would invoke a derogatory term like “woke police” to describe his fans who are calling for inclusivity and accountability. It’s a problem that the Bachelor producers — who we know do deep social media dives on all contestants — failed to spot a potential racist minefield. Are we to believe that a person is prepared for an interracial relationship just two years after having a blast at an Old South party?

Predictably, Harrison issued an apology (two, actually) and is taking a break from The Bachelor. Kirkconnell issued an apology (rather good, tbh). Matt James also issued a statement, noting that Harrison and ABC have fallen short on these issues for years.

What should the Bachelor franchise do?

Upgrade Chris Harrison. While some fans are calling for Harrison to quit, nobody really thinks Harrison is done. No one wants Harrison to shut up on controversial issues or get locked into groupthink. I’m a fairly big Bachelor fan and –while I haven’t watched or read everything Chris has done or said — I think he’s done a good job on the show. It’s like when your friends mess up. You don’t throw them away — you just want them to learn and do better in the future. My advice to Chris? Learn about the history of racism and how it affects Black people today. He should learn how to listen and validate people’s feelings. Might I suggest the books Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi and Begin Again by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.?

• To be clear, no one is asking for complete uniformity on political ideas. Most people could not care less about your political ideology. However, racism is a human issue. It’s not politics. So, it is not too much to expect everyone to agree that racism is bad. And because we agree that racism is bad, we should also agree that any of the leftovers from slavery (including racism) should be renounced. This — and not the “woke police” — is the problem with Chris Harrison’s interview, Lee Garrett’s tweets, and Garrett Yrigoyen’s obtuse Instagram posts.

Stop running from reality. The Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons are filmed well before the episodes air. For a show that heavily relies on fan interaction, this approach is antiquated. They should film and air the show closer together and use the real-world feedback to impact the show.

Take a Google lesson. Bachelor producers have been so good at finding contestants’ ex-boyfriends and estranged parents. We’ve all heard the saying, “The devil works hard but the Bachelor producers work harder.” How are Bachelor producers repeatedly incapable of finding racist tweets and college photos? Seems like they need to update their Google skills.

• One disappointing thought is that Bachelor producers are in fact finding these controversial pictures and tweets but are looking the other way in the hopes that the sexism and racism will resurface during air time, leading to more controversy (and more articles like this one) about the show. All press is good press, right?

Push the average age of contestants closer to 30. They must find slightly older cast members. When the show premiered, the first Bachelor was 32 and the first Bachelorette was 31. Now, just 19 later, cast members are getting younger. The show was better, and contestants actually seemed serious about getting engaged. In the real world, millennials are waiting longer to get married and have kids than our parents did (tysm, student debt and wages that haven’t really increased since the ‘60s). It makes sense that the uber-young contestants are only serious about going to Stagecoach.

Ink Lindsay to a long-term contract. Most fans of the show are huge fans of Lindsay, an attorney and one of the most recognizable members of the franchise. She’s parlayed Bachelor success into appearances on Extra, ESPN, and various podcasts. Later this year, she’ll have her own syndicated tv show — Judge Rachel’s Court. Even when they disagree with her, Bachelor fans like having Lindsay around and it would be a shame for ABC to let that go to waste. They should hire Lindsay as a consultant and part-time host.

• Sadly, the Bachelor (and the media) has treated Lindsay like the show’s de-factor diversity officer. This is not at all what I’m suggesting and frankly, that’s kind of insulting. Nobody is asking Peter Weber or Arie Luyendyk or Colton Underwood, or Wells Adams about the pervasive racism and sexism on the show. Instead, they’re allowed to be themselves. ABC should give Lindsay the same respect. They should ask her to help them put a fresh spin on the show. Harrison, as the host, should be asked to deal with those hard topics as they come up.
• Unfortunately, Lindsay recently announced that she’s “done” with the franchise and honestly, who can blame her? Still, ABC should try to use Lindsay — and Kaitlyn Bristowe, another popular lead — in substantive ways.

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It’s easy to write off any criticism of Harrison as “cancel culture” or being too sensitive. Genuinely, I’ve not seen anybody doing that. I’m certainly not doing that. People are huge fans of Harrison, so much so that they bought his romance novel! People are saying they love Harrison, and they just want him to give his fans the same love and respect. In this instance, showing people that you love them means understanding that racism — especially modern day displays or racism — can hurt.