Taylor Frankie Paul’s ‘The Bachelorette’ Season Might End up Occupying a Traditional Timeslot After All
Last week, we reported that ABC was not completely opposed to airing Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette once the dust from her legal troubles had settled. Apparently, the network is willing to bet that any lingering trouble will be completely cleared up by the summer. New reports suggest they are ready to move forward and air the season with a planned summer premiere, which would push the season into a more traditional airing period. Here is everything we know so far.
Taylor Frankie Paul could have a traditional ‘The Bachelorette’ experience?
There has been a lot of big news about Taylor Frankie Paul in the last few weeks. Reality Steve is adding to the news pile. The reality TV content creator just took to his podcast to share that an insider alleges Taylor Frankie Paul’s canceled season of The Bachelorette is not so canceled after all. According to the often-correct creator, Paul’s season will make it to ABC and will fill a summer timeslot.
The rumor comes after Rob Mills indicated that the season wasn’t completely canceled, and that the network was still open to entertaining ways to air the footage, as long as Taylor Frankie Paul is doing well. The admission came at Deadline’s Reality TV Summit. While we expect the season to air, given all of the new information, we seriously doubt fans will see a traditional The Bachelorette journey. Despite that, if the season is greenlit for a summer release, fans will get something traditional out of it. Assuming the rumors are correct, the season will actually air in the show’s traditional slot.
While the first season of The Bachelorette aired in January of 2003, it was moved to a summer slot not long after, and has occupied that slot ever since. Traditionally, The Bachelorette airs in July, while The Bachelor typically dominates ABC’s winter programming. For the last few years, the “golden” iteration of the show has occupied the fall spot. News that Taylor Frankie Paul’s season would air in March 2026 was a massive deviation from the norm and was marketed as a change of plans when the season was announced on Call Her Daddy. In fact, most fans assumed, in the run-up to the announcement, that Alex Cooper would simply be introducing the newest The Bachelor lead.
Why was season 22 shelved?
In March, just days before the season 22 premiere of The Bachelorette, TMZ published a video showing Taylor Frankie Paul assaulting her then partner, Dakota Mortensen, and hurling barstools. The video, taken during a 2023 incident, was leaked shortly after news began circulating that Hulu had paused filming on season 5 of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. The pause was the result of renewed domestic violence allegations involving Paul and Mortensen.
While the world was aware that Taylor Frankie Paul was arrested during a drunken battle with her partner and even accepted a plea deal, video footage had never before surfaced. The footage showed Paul absolutely raging, tossing a stool that hit her young daughter and attacking Mortensen. It was so unsettling that two networks had to rethink their association with the star. Within hours of the release, ABC issued a statement, icing the season premiere. The network, at the time, insisted that they were allowing Paul to address her family issues privately. Contestants who appeared on the series were not particularly thrilled.
