New Choice for ‘Bachelor’ Show gets Backlash for not Choosing Black Man

Posted on by Natalia Barreau, DI

The Bachelor’s announcement of Peter Weber as the new Bachelor has received an enormous amount of backlash.  

What We Know:

  • On September 17, ABC‘s “The Bachelor” announced its next season’s Bachelor as Peter Weber during the season finale of “Bachelor in Paradise.” Many people are seeing this choice as a missed opportunity.
  • Fans have spoken out and said that they feel Peter Weber is the safe choice. Mike Johnson from the past bachelorette, who would have been both the first veteran Bachelor and the first African-American Bachelor. Fans believe he would’ve been a perfect choice.  
  • “The Bachelorette” currently stands as the top-rated broadcast series of the summer so far. Since the franchise’s debut in 2002, there has been no black “Bachelor” and one black “Bachelorette” of color with Season 13 leading lady Rachel Lindsay. Fans have spoken out saying Johnson is the representation the world needs right now.
  • Rachel Lindsay spoke out about her feelings on entertainment tonight saying, “For the first time, I was very confident that we were going to see our first black Bachelor…I want to be hopeful, but when you have a contestant like Mike Johnson, who seems to check all the boxes, how is he not the Bachelor?… The system isn’t working in giving us a Bachelor who is a person of color. So we need to change the system. Something has to be done. Break the rules, step outside the box, give the people what they want!”

With all the backlash the show is receiving fans can only hope for change to come in the future and for networks to make a conscious effort to include all types of representation in their casting.

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