Taylor Frankie Pauls’ horrible video should be the final nail in the bachelor’s degree

In a sneak peek at the end of the season 22 premiere episode of “The Bachelorette,” the only screening ABC provided media outlets to watch before the series was canceled Thursday, Taylor Frankie Paul tells one of her 22 suitors about a domestic violence incident she was involved in years earlier.

“I was very lost in every way, and one night I came home angry and we got into a fight. I’ve never had a drink since that night. I managed. I started major therapy and I’ve been at it ever since. I cleaned up my life,” she says through tears.

Her past came back to haunt her days before the season began.

Season 22 seemed to be an intentional update of “The Bachelorette”: The network had paused production. after its 21st season aired in 2024. That season introduced Jenn Tran as the franchise’s first Asian-American lead. Tran proposed to Devin Strader, but the relationship had ended by the time the finale aired. The season’s ratings had started promisingly, but plummeted in its finale (it competed with the Olympics) and reached the lowest ratings in the 18-49 demographic in franchise history, according to Bachelor’s Degree Dataan account dedicated to the statistics of “The Bachelor” and its spin-offs.

So when the franchise turned to Paul, it seemed like the network was making one last effort to breathe new life into the series. Paul is one of the founders of MomTok, a group of Mormon mom influencers in Utah who had gone viral for their dance TikToks and a swing scandal. Their lives are chronicled in the hit Hulu series “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.”

Paul, a mother of three, had made headlines for engaging in sexual acts with other partners while married to Tate Paul. They divorced in 2022. She also became known as someone who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind with her friends and family, and especially her on-again, off-again partner Dakota Mortensen, even if it meant going back on a repeated promise that their thing was over.

“I realized, ‘Oh my God, this girl is one of the most honest reality TV stars I’ve ever seen,'” said Scott Teti, the showrunner of “The Bachelorette.” Rebecca Jennings Vulture about watching Paul on “Mormon Wives.” “As we talked more, I realized that she doesn’t have the ability to really lie. Everything is really authentic; the whole truth just comes out.”

Mike Coppola via Getty Images

But then, on Thursday, shit hit the fan.

ABC announced that season 22 of “The Bachelorette,” which was supposed to premiere Sunday, had been canceled after TMZ published a horrifying video from 2023 that showed Paul assaulting Mortensen in front of one of their children. The aftermath of the incident had been documented on “Mormon Wives” in the pilot of its first season.

Paul was charged with aggravated assault, two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, child abuse with injury and criminal mischief after the incident, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in August 2025. The other charges were dismissed. He was ordered to undergo a substance and domestic violence evaluation and complete any recommended treatment.

Separately, reports emerged that Hulu had halted production on “Mormon Wives” season 5 due to more recent allegations about the former couple. Cast members said they did not feel comfortable filming with Paul, according to a Zoom call obtained by NBC News. A spokesperson for the Draper City Police Department confirmed to People that there is an open “domestic assault investigation” involving Paul and Mortensen since February. The most recent season of “Mormon Wives” showcased much of the drama between the couple, which Paul and other cast members have referred to as a “toxic cycle.”

The “Bachelor” franchise is no stranger to drama. Matt James, the first Black Bachelor, told News in 2021 that the franchise had “fallen short” when it came to its handling of race. That season exploded with the discovery of several images on social media of contestant Rachael Kirkconnell at an antebellum plantation-themed dance while in college. James chose Kirkconnell at the end of the season, although he didn’t propose. They separated amid the scandal but later got back together. They separated again in January 2025.

Host Chris Harrison was fired from the series for defending Kirkconnell and asking viewers for “a little grace, a little understanding, a little compassion” for her. Jesse Palmer has been the host since then.

The production had also been criticized over the years for not thoroughly investigating its contestants: from Lee Garrett’s offensive tweets to a restraining order against Gil Ramirez and sexual assault accusations against Uzoma “Eazy” Nwachukwu. In 2017, “Bachelor in Paradise” shut down production following allegations of sexual assault.

Fred Hayes/Disney

All of these incidents have led fans to debates over the years about whether the “Bachelor” franchise had run its course. But this latest scandal has the potential to further change perspectives on the series. Once a date show for audiences rooting for couples to fall in love and commit, “The Bachelor” and its spinoffs are now a franchise rife with controversies, breakups and the kind of messy drama that isn’t even funny. There is a long list of reasons why the franchise should end right now.

Paul would have been the first Bachelorette not associated with Bachelor Nation, the nickname for the franchise’s fan base and contestants. For some, there was excitement over Paul’s casting, as evidenced by the Instagram comments section of the announcement on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast.

But in the wake of the video and allegations of domestic violence, many questions are being raised about the state of the franchise. Why did ABC choose Paul, whose domestic violence incident had been partially documented on Hulu, which, like ABC, is owned by Disney? How can Disney and Warner Bros. Unscripted TV, which produces the franchise, recoup the millions of dollars lost by canceling the season? And perhaps most importantly: What does this mean for the “Bachelor” franchise, which already seemed to be limping after nearly 25 years since its debut?

Paul always seemed like a stunt casting move: He had amassed millions of followers on social media, including TikTok and Instagram. She was an influencer well-known for her dance videos, her participation in MomTok, and her simple and sometimes sassy personality that she had shown on “Mormon Wives.” She was entertaining and maddening as she constantly dumped, met up with, and dumped Mortensen, who is also the father of one of her children.

Previously, it was frowned upon for contestants to attend the show in hopes of becoming influencers. People who seemed to simply seek to become famous were unwanted people among the show’s biggest fans. “Bachelor” star Grant Ellis was criticized for apparently wanting to advance his music career; Ellis told News that he was simply “doing things that make me happy.”

But frankly, Paul never seemed ready to date on national television. Her “Mormon Lives” castmates desperately tried to groom her for dating multiple men at once in Season 4, taking her to a speed dating event, which she left because she felt uncomfortable. Paul showed that she was much more prepared to rinse and repeat a cycle of toxic love with Mortensen. She had sex with him the night before leaving to film “The Bachelorette.”

Once again, ABC needed a change on “The Bachelorette” and likely saw red flags in the ratings. It had a built-in audience through “Mormon Wives,” and ABC needed it: Like all networks, it is competing for the attention of that coveted 18- to 49-year-old demographic.

Fred Hayes/Disney

In recent seasons, the “Bachelor” franchise has experienced several drops in ratings. Season 29 of “The Bachelor,” with Ellis, lost nearly a million viewers from its previous season with Joey Graziadei. “The Golden Bachelorette,” a spinoff featuring older women looking for love, had one of the lowest-rated premieres in franchise history in September 2024. Tran’s season seemingly prompted a reassessment of “The Bachelorette” and its time slot; It usually airs during the summer, but skipped its 2025 airtime and was delayed to spring 2026.

Schedules have been more fluid in recent years. With the addition of “The Golden Bachelor” and “The Golden Bachelorette,” ABC does not have enough slots to air all the spin-offs during the year’s television schedule.

Weather can also make or break a season. Tran’s season coincided with the 2024 Summer Olympics and another reality dating show that has gained popularity in recent years: Peacock’s “Love Island USA,” which dominated social media conversations in the summers of 2024 and 2025. Seasons 6 and 7 were a big hit for that streamer, especially given its ability to bombard viewers with multiple episodes per week over the course of the summer.

The “Bachelor” franchise has stayed true to its show format, perhaps to its detriment, as new shows from popular streamers dominate the conversation. Audiences love watching the drama of reality dating shows like “Love Island,” “Love Is Blind” and “Married At First Sight” because, at times, they feel less produced and formulaic than something like “The Bachelorette.”

In recent years, there has also been a desire for a “reckoning” within the historic franchise. The show has never quite grasped the nuances and multitude of what it means to show people of color falling in love. Not to mention people who are not thin, healthy and straight. In 2020, former News reporters Claire Fallon and Emma Gray, who host the “Love To See It” podcast about reality TV and romantic comedies, spoke with a dozen former contestants about the work the franchise needs to do regarding casting and producing a better show starring people of color.

But in the grand scheme of showing love in an unscripted reality show format, the “Bachelor” franchise simply comes with too many deal-breakers, especially when there’s an influencer at the center, someone who’s used to keeping an audience for every inch of his life.

For “Bachelorette” fans, it might have seemed like this season had already been ruined — not because it didn’t air, but because Paul h He had been out in public in Los Angeles with the “winner” of the show last week. (They apparently got engaged, but it didn’t work out, according to Reality Steve, who regularly ruins the outcome of the “Bachelor” franchise.) Since the season is not airing, it seems unlikely that they chose the next Bachelor from that group of contestants, as is often the case when a new lead is chosen.

As for the premiere episode with Paul, it was very clear that he quickly fell in love with the winning contestant from the first night. Pretty much everything else was typical of a bachelorette party: limo arrivals, awkward introductions, and the promise that Paul was there to find her husband.

Perhaps the rest of the season could have convinced us that “The Bachelorette” still had something to offer its audience. On the other hand, its cancellation would be the perfect closure for this tired story.