Every week on The Bachelor, viewers are treated to the MOST EXCITING, CRAZIEST AND UNPREDICTABLE ROSE CEREMONY ON TELEVISION HISTORY.
But here is something to which viewers have yet to be treated:
An African-American star.
As viewers have mentioned and complained about for years, not once in the history of this ABC favorite have you been able to watch The Bachelor online and see a black man or woman at the center of it.
But – The Bachelor Spoilers Alert! – that may soon change.
ABC’s Entertainment Chief Paul Lee was asked about the lack of diversity during his panel at the Television Critics Association Press Tour late last week and responded as follows:
“We’re doing a whole lot of tweaks. We had a Latino Bachelor, obviously. We’re doing a whole lot of tweaks…
“I’d be very surprised if The Bachelorette in the summer wasn’t diverse.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that, but I think that’s likely to happen. I think the tweaks that [creator] Mike Fleiss have put in place will get us where we want to go.”
So that’s not really an explanation for why it hasn’t happened yet.
Nor is it a guarantee that The Bachelor himself or The Bachelorette herself will be African-American.
Still, it’s something, we guess. It’s a sign of some kind of progress.
Because no matter how much we enjoy looking at Ben Higgins (and we really, really enjoy looking at Ben Higgins!), this is getting a tad bit ridiculous.
In this, the 20th version of The Bachelor, there are only three non-white women vying for Ben’s attention.
Come on now. Tweak it up, ABC. Tweak it up good.