Matt James & Rachel Kirkconnell from The Bachelor

The Bachelor has confirmed Matt James, 28, as its next leading man, making him the franchise's first-ever Black male lead. Rachel Lindsay made history as the first Black female lead of the ABC franchise for season 13 of The Bachelorette in 2017.

On Friday morning, Good Morning America announced James' new history-making role with a statement from ABC saying they are "privileged to have Matt" as the first Black Bachelor.

"We know we have a responsibility to make sure the love stories we’re seeing onscreen are representative of the world we live in, and we are proudly in service to our audience," the statement read. "This is just the beginning, and we will continue to take action with regard to diversity issues on this franchise. We feel so privileged to have Matt as our first Black Bachelor and we cannot wait to embark on this journey with him.”

James' new role comes after Bachelor Nation called for more diversity in the franchise — rallying around a new petition that called on ABC and executive producer Mike Fleiss to cast more people of color.

The petition, which has garnered more than 84,000 signatures as of Friday morning, called the franchise's lack of diversity "unacceptable" and noted that in 40 seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, Lindsay has been the only Black lead. (Mike Johnson was a contender to become the first-ever Black Bachelor last season, but Peter Weber, who is half-Cuban, got the gig.)


Read the full article here.

 

Only took 18 years
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/enter...s-first-black-mens-franchise-star/3174179001/
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/enter...s-first-black-mens-franchise-star/3174179001/

 

It'll be interesting to see if competitors will also include more black and/or minorities. I'm not big on reality shows, but the Bachelor is great for seeing lots of hot ww. Some are even curvy which always catches these eyes

 

We have a thread on this by Silversmith

 

Fantastic!!!
I just saw it in the news-blogs!!
How exciting!!

 

Now I gotta see the women who he has to choose from

 

He was supposed to be on the upcoming season of The Bachelorette but after some drama with Clare Crawley they decided to put him on The Bachelor instead
https://www.etonline.com/bacheloret...emingly-reacts-to-clare-crawleys-shade-145490



I don't usually watch the main shows of this franchise, but this caught my interest because I never thought they would actually do it. lol.

 

ooooh eye candy!!! good for some mindless entertainment.


baaaaaaaahaaaaaaa not so much

 

I have no faith in this type of programming.

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/abc-names-matt-james-as-first-black-bachelor-1297996


Matt James is making history as ABC's first Black Bachelor.

The 28-year-old real estate broker, entrepreneur and community organization founder has been tapped as the season 25 lead following days of renewed pressure about the franchise's lack of diversity. James was previously set to be a contestant on Clare Crawley's forthcoming season of The Bachelorette before production was shutdown in March and postponed indefinitely amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Bachelor Nation also knows James as the best friend, roommate and business partner to fan-favorite Tyler Cameron; the two have spent the majority of the pandemic quarantined together in Florida, along with former Bachelorette Hannah Brown.

“Matt has been on our radar since February, when producers first approached him to join Bachelor Nation, as part of Clare’s season. When filming couldn’t move forward as planned, we were given the benefit of time to get to know Matt and all agreed he would make a perfect Bachelor," ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke said in a statement announcing the casting Friday. "We know we have a responsibility to make sure the love stories we’re seeing onscreen are representative of the world we live in and we are proudly in service to our audience. This is just the beginning and we will continue to take action with regard to diversity issues on this franchise. We feel so privileged to have Matt as our first Black Bachelor and we cannot wait to embark on this journey with

James, a North Carolina native who played football at Wake Forest, had a short run in the NFL and now lives in New York City where he and Cameron run ABC Food Tours, an organization that offers kids from underserved communities the opportunity to explore the city through food, exercise and mental and physical wellness. He is the first Bachelor since 2008's Matt Grant to be cast as the lead without having appeared as a contestant on The Bachelorette.

The Bachelor's executive producers also put out a joint statement, saying, "We are excited to move forward with both Matt James as the new Bachelor and Clare Crawley as our next Bachelorette. We acknowledge our responsibility for the lack of representation of people of color on our franchise and pledge to make significant changes to address this issue moving forward. We are taking positive steps to expand diversity in our cast, in our staff, and most importantly, in the relationships that we show on television. We can and will do better to reflect the world around us and show all of its beautiful love stories."

The announcement follows vocal criticism from Rachel Lindsay, who until now, had been the franchise's lone black lead since the dating competition series first debuted in 2002. Lindsay earlier this week penned an emotional blog post in which she called for the franchise's "systemic racism" to be addressed. In the wake of George Floyd's death and subsequent calls for police reform amid the Black Lives Matter movement, Lindsay — who previously criticized the show's lack of diversity — said she would "disassociate" herself from the beloved franchise unless the network and producers Warner Bros. took action.

"Yes, more diverse contestants do appear on the show now, but is the lead truly interested and open to dating outside of their race? I think that is evident by how far their 'journey' takes them during each season," Lindsay wrote. She is now married to Bryan Abasolo, whom she met during her 2017 run as star of The Bachelorette. "It is a naive expectation to believe that leads will authentically start an interracial relationship for the first time on national television. The sad reality is that people of color become placeholders as the token person of color to add some flavor to the second half of the season."


In its 40 seasons and 18 years on the air, The Bachelor has never had a Black or person of color lead; Lindsay remains the only non-white Bachelorette. The franchise has had the opportunity to cast diverse leads before James, most recently with Mike Johnson from Hannah Brown's season, but has opted against it. As Lindsay noted in her post, creator Mike Fleiss previously said that her season saw a dip in ratings that suggested the franchise's audience did not want to watch a Black woman, or people of color in general, find love. As for the 30 or so contestants every cycle, there are a handful of Black and people of color in the mix, but they rarely crack the top four each season.

Lindsay, who hosts the franchise's official Bachelor Happy Hour podcast and frequently makes guest appearances on the series, said she would cut those ties if it did not undergo a "diversity makeover." Her improvement suggestions included casting "leads that are truly interested in dating outside of their race"; to "stop making excuses for the lack of diversity and take action to rectify the problem"; diversify the show's producers in order to make contestants of color feel more comfortable; and to stop creating "problematic story lines for people of color."

She also requested that the franchise speak up in solidarity with the Black community and "make a statement acknowledging their systemic racism," noting that "if the National Football League, an organization notoriously known for not standing behind their athletes of color, can come out to make a statement to condemn racism and their systemic oppression and admit they were wrong for not listening in the past, then the Bachelor franchise can most certainly follow suit."

Lindsay — along with other notable Bachelor and Bachelorette alums, including Nick Viall, Onyeka Ehie, Diggy Moreland, Seinne Fleming, Marquel Martin, Sydney Lotuaco and Desiree Siegfried, and thousands of fans — also signed a Change.org petition titled "A Campaign For Anti-Racism in the Bachelor Franchise," demanding that a Black man be cast as the next Bachelor lead for season 25.

ABC is currently airing clip show The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever! as a filler for Crawley's forthcoming season of The Bachelorette. A return date for the series has not been determined as the franchise faces a number of logistical and safety questions when it comes to how production can resume amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Bachelor is scheduled to return in 2021.

 

Never watched the show but I think I will watch now.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/06/16/matt-james-first-black-bachelor-rachel-lindsay/?outputType

 

him and his mother as a kid.

 

Full disclosure I never watched this series, never had any interest. I got enough of a rundown by people on this site and it pretty much confirmed to me what this whole show was about. So obviously a black male was picked for the first time to be The Bachelor and that peaks my interest. Not enough to watch but enough to care about updates in a way I hadn't been in the past. Then curious things started to happen.


https://deadline.com/2020/06/the-ba...all-diverse-cast-production-teams-1202959494/


A former casting producer for The Bachelor/The Bachelorette franchise named Jazzy Collins chimed in when Matt James was cast. She claimed she was happy about his selection but also had this to say in a latter she sent to TPTB of the show and to the ABC network:

Your show has white-washed for decades, inside and out. Your head of post-production is white. Your Casting Director is white. Your Executive in Charge is white. You only cast the token Black person, Asian person or Latinx person to satisfy what you believe to be the needs of the viewers. Many called for a Black bachelor for years — but you ignored it. I am happy to see you’ve chosen Matt James as your first Black Bachelor in 25 seasons. It took a pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement to take a moment and reassess the issue at hand, which I’ve called on for years.

I am calling on you to select a diverse cast and production team for season 25 of The Bachelor and moving forward.

Not only is it important to have a diverse cast reflect what the rest of America looks like, it’s important for the production and casting teams to be able to share the same experiences as the cast members. You’re expecting a white team to be able to intimately produce people of color on an emotional level that they’re truly unable to relate to. A Black, Asian, Latinx, Indigenous man or woman should not have to walk on a set for up to eight weeks and stare at a crowd of white faces while they pour their heart out on national TV without also having a diverse, understanding team to guide them through the process.


Now what she wrote here and throughout the rest of her letter in general seems pretty reasonable. However I do wish such a call for more inclusion had happened earlier and it didn’t only get around to being addressed when a black male, Matt James, would finally be given the opportunity to hand out the rose. Am I being too cynical to think ABC quickly agreed to this because it would mean a room with far less white female contestants than normal? Was American society NOT ready for a reality show in which an attractive black male is flirting, dating, kissing a number of pretty women, of which most of whom could be white? That’s rhetorical btw.


Next came this bit of news:


https://deadline.com/2020/08/the-ba...crawley-tayshia-adams-replacement-1203002503/








Turns out there would be two Bachelorettes for the upcoming season because the one who was to have the season to herself, Clare Crawley, either stepped down or was removed for reasons I’ll get into later. So what does TPTB do to replace her? They pick Tayshia Adams, an African American woman. No offense to Ms. Adams but In my estimation that will have the effect of taking away the spotlight from the first black The Bachelor, especially considering that The Bachelorette airs first. A black Bachelorette is still rare enough that such an occurrence will still generate plenty of media attention and public/social media discussion. It would have been preferable in my opinion if Matt James had had this “racial spotlight” to himself. Any woman of color being cast as the Bachelorette in the same year, whether she be black, Asian, non-white Hispanic, could very well undermine the uniqueness and impact of his placement.


And then there is this:


https://nypost.com/2020/10/01/bachelorette-allegedly-kept-clare-crawley-for-big-twist-exit/


This next part will go under spoiler tags

Spoiler

Getting back to Clare Crawley, more revelations from behind the scenes seem to lean towards her being pushed out rather than her stepping down. This occurred because allegedly it was clear to TPTB that she had fallen hard immediately for one of the contestants and they felt it meant there was to be little drama or competition under those circumstances. Oh and by the way that guy she had become extremely smitten with so happens to be a black man named Dale Moss.









Check out this video below when they first meet.


https://people.com/tv/bachelorette-premiere-clare-crawley-meets-dale-moss-sneak-peek/


The Sun gets a little more explicit with its title grabbing headline:


BACH OFF The Bachelorette’s producers ‘told Clare Crawley and Dale Moss to leave’ after it was ‘made clear she would pick him’


https://www.the-sun.com/entertainme...ette-producers-clare-crawley-dale-moss-leave/


Being The Sun this does have a more tabloid feel to it but it also includes other older sources of Crawley forcing the decision because she was in love with Moss. Its hard to figure out who to believe, there may be truth in both rumors. But my question is has this happened before? For those of you who have ever watched the show have there been final results that were anti-climatic because it was a forgone conclusion whom The Bachelorette or The Bachelor was going to choose? Because I’m suspicious. I’m suspicious that the American Media is insecure about real-life coupling of beautiful people who happen to be a black man and a white woman. Could you imagine having a season of a show in which in the end the white female chooses a black male over eligible white men? The collective egos of white dudes may have had a really hard time with something like that. So possibly the best solution for TPTB to fall back on may have been ensuring such a conclusion did not happen in the first place. Having this type of narrative played out over the course of a season, this open courting, may have made some people in high places panic.

Lastly there are the rumors mentioned on this site that the first Black Bachelor, Matt James, may be secretly gay. What's up with that? If so this is something TPTB must have known of, at least the rumors of it. And if so they went ahead anyway because a gay black man pretending to be straight isn’t threatening to the status quo, even if he picks a white chick. Am I being paranoid? Too conspiratorial ?



All in all it appears that in both shows TPTB did or are doing their best to spare the audience from showcasing the courting between black men and white women.

 

https://nypost.com/article/who-is-dale-moss-meet-clare-crawleys-bachelorette-contestant/
https://www.usmagazine.com/entertai...ley-on-breathtaking-moment-she-met-dale-moss/

She's still the bachelorette... they are apparently still going to air her episodes. But I found these stories peculiar about folks on set about her and Dale's interactions

I think it's funny and kind of awesome that a show synonomous with their (at times)blatant anti bm/ww coupling on their main shows that a strong LOVE CONNECTION developes between the bachelorette and one of the black suitors!

Not to mention there spin offs features IR heavily including their singing spin off had a IR(bm/ww) couple win it all.

The show is already airing and I'm going to watch this episode because apparently by social media's engagement to the show Clare and Dale seem to hit it off as soon as they met!
https://twitter.com/BachPartyPod/status/1316185154872893441
https://twitter.com/BrettSVergara/status/1316184332244004864
https://twitter.com/sumsumdel/status/1316181774083387392
https://twitter.com/mleighlam/status/1316170306030051329
https://twitter.com/RealitySteve/status/1316181657829900296

But this is real love though which is what they are so called trying to go for so they should've been prepared for a love connection to happen.

As far as Jazzy Collins comments go on diversity... I agree but did she make the same comments about having a diverse cast when it was announced that they were going with their first black bachelorette. Even though Rachel Lindsey kind of did have a diverse cast if she didn't say anything then don't say anything now.

 

Claire has NEVER even given any Black man the time of day on any of her prior tours of the Bachelor franchise so I am very, very skeptical that she was "falling in love" with a Black man. Claire Crawley has never once used her date card for example on a Black man.

She is 39 years old from Sacramento, CA (who can really cook by the way) with a naturally curvy Latina physique and very pretty face . . . so it is very hard for me to accept that she was starved for qualified male suitors of African ancestry for over 22 years. I witnessed how she treated the Black men of the series . . . she has been on MULTIPLE franchises and has always given them all the "Alexis Texas" treatment. Her white, creamy, fat cheeks would have been married to a brother many YEARS ago if she was open to dating us . . . and you know it lol.

 

You seem to be arguing something totally diferent.

First of all this is her FIRST time as the lead, the one doing the choosing. So how would she had been in position in previous seasons to be wooed by other men, including black men? I know enough about the show to be aware the leads on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have been runner-ups of previous seasons who were doing the wooing but didn't get the rose. That would mean in previous appearances Claire would have been trying to be picked by The Bachelor, not doing the picking.

Secondly if I am off about this or some atypical show had her doing the choosing in previous runs, perhaps she simply wasn't attracted to the black male contestants those times. Just as she may not feel drawn to some of the white guys on a show, she also mail fail to feel a connection to the token black guys presented to her.

Next you seem to know a few things about her, but can you truly know whether or not all her life she has rejected black men, which is what you are pretty much saying. Did she provide ABC a list of all the men she has dated, slept with and been attracted to which the network then made public for anyone to see? Also you say she could have had a black man before if she wanted one? What does that even mean? Couldn't a pretty gal like her have had all sorts of men by now if she so wanted, regardless of race or ethnicity? Are you trying to say something about black men? Are we THAT easy or something? And by the way isn't she trying to find true love, a soul mate a possible husband? If so I'll ask again....couldn't she have possibly found one by now regardless of race? And yet here she is....still looking.

Lastly all indications are that she fell instantly for Dale Moss and only seemed interested in him.

Spoiler

Not only that but engagement and pregnancy rumors abound all over the net.

. Moss is a black man. If she wasn't open to the idea of being involved with a black man, any type of black man, she could have always chosen one of the million white suitors who were readily available. The power is in her hands after all because she holds the rose. This time she isn't hoping to be chosen, this time she is doing the choosing.

By the way what Latina physique are you referring to? Are you saying that's the body type she has? Really?

 

I have been familar with Claire Crawley since her initial appearance on the Juan Pablo season of "The Bachelor" in 2014 or so. I'm just stating my observations as Claire has always been the cynosure of each & every franchise she has appeared . . . the camera and showrunners gravitated to Claire and her bachelor experience! The Black men would even call out to her "Claire! Claire!! Claire!!" as she gave them not a care in her world!!! "I would like a date " one brotha would say as Claire approached . . . then kept right on walking. She did this repeatedly on Bachelor in Paridise to different Black men. Claire was NEVER caught on camera even flirting or otherwise getting to know us . . . and she had SEVERAL date cards over the course of her MULTIPLE appearances throughout the bachelor franchise understand?? Not one time did she elect to give a Black contestant a chance at romance . . . not once lol

 

^^ She distinctly gave me "Alexis Texas White Latina No No Negro No No" vibes from her behavior & decisions on the secondary bachelor shows.

 

YH, I'll take your word for what you saw/what went down. That still doesn't prove anything other than she wasn't particularly interested in THOSE black men of THAT particular show. That doesn't mean she was against dating a black man per se. I mean if a viewer watches this show for the first time and had no prior knowledge of her beforehand and then sees her become smitten immediately with a black dude to the point that she doesn't seem to have interest in the white contestants, that viewer could come away with the impression that she has no time for white boys. But that would be a wrong assumption based upon an incomplete picture.