Grant Ellis is not making a big deal about being only the second Black star of “The Bachelor.” His focus is on finding true love.
“My experience has been great,” the former pro basketball player and current day trader said last week during a video call. “It’s been a whirlwind — a lot of emotion, a lot of decision-making. But overall, it’s been great. I have no complaints.”
Though Ellis is focused on romance, the 29th season of the show, launching Monday, will be scrutinized as perhaps the most crucial test yet for the popular ABC franchise, which has continually been accused by critics and previous Black participants of racism and cultural insensitivity since its 2002 premiere. Despite pledges by executive producers to correct past wrongs, troubling misfires in the handling of race in recent seasons of “The Bachelor” and spinoff “The Bachelorette” have cast doubt over those promises to improve, placing added significance on Ellis’ turn in the spotlight.
His quest for love as he dates 25 women competing to be his wife comes four years after the season starring Matt James, the first Black Bachelor, became the most disastrous for the franchise, tainted by an uproar after photographs surfaced of contestant Rachael Kirkconnell at an antebellum South-themed party. Then-host Chris Harrison defended Kirkconnell in a combative interview with former “Bachelorette” star Rachel Lindsay on “Extra,” where she was a correspondent, which stoked the controversy further and eventually led to Harrison’s departure from the franchise after nearly 20 years.
James later charged the all-white producing team of betraying their promise to show him as an accomplished Black man who had overcome many personal and professional challenges. Executive producer Bennett Graebner said in an interview with The Times last year that the show “let Matt down” and that production resources had been established that were not in place during James’ season, “which went wrong on so many levels.”
Ellis sidestepped questions about the past struggles of the franchise and James’ season.
“I think Matt handled himself really well, but the takeaway I have is really about my season,” he said. “The way my season turned out is great. I wish Matt the best at what he does, and I’m sure he’ll do great things.”
(Notably, James announced on Jan. 16 that he and Kirkconnell, who became a couple after departing the franchise, have split up.)
When pressed on whether he had any reaction to James’ complaints, Ellis was tight-lipped. “I watched the season but really didn’t get involved in all the controversy. I saw the love story that unfolded. As far as anything else, I really don’t have a lot to say.”
Graebner and fellow showrunner Claire Freeland were not available for comment.
While the participants on “The Bachelor” and spinoff “The Bachelorette” have become more diverse after years of featuring predominantly white casts, the franchise has not turned the corner on its troubled past. The problems include the bullying of contestants of color by the Bachelor Nation fan base and accusations that producers failed to protect its stars from the harassment, as well as spotty vetting that allowed contestants who had posted racially offensive content on social media to appear on the show.
The backlash escalated during the most recent season of “The Bachelorette” starring Jenn Tran, the first Asian woman to lead the franchise.
While Graebner and Freeland promoted the milestone of Tran’s casting, they acknowledged the forward movement was diminished by the near-absence of Asian suitors.
The season evolved into another debacle in the live finale when a distraught Tran revealed that the man she had chosen as her husband-to-be, Devin Strader, had ended their engagement a month before the broadcast. Strader joined Tran onstage minutes later, and she wept as the footage of her joyous proposal to him was played back. Viewers accused the show of cruelty in making Tran relive her heartbreak on live television.
Reports surfaced following the finale that Strader had been arrested in 2017 on suspicion of burglarizing the house of an ex-girlfriend. He had not informed producers of the arrest when he was interviewed for the show.
Graebner and Freeland declined to comment on why Strader’s arrest was not discovered in the vetting process. They also refused comment on why Jodi Baskerville, who became the franchise’s first Black executive producer in 2021 after the racism scandal that upended James’ season, departed during Tran’s season.
The post Grant Ellis starts his search for love as the second Black lead of ‘The Bachelor’ appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
