“The Bachelor” creator Mike Fleiss is leaving his franchise following a racial discrimination investigation.
Variety reported that after 21 years, Fleiss announced his departure from the popular reality TV competition series earlier this week. An internal investigation took place before his exit, which was reportedly the result of multiple complaints to human resources about the show creator.
Many of the anonymous complainants were producers and production staff from the franchise, which includes “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise.”
During the investigation, producers reportedly complained about Fleiss’ resistance to diversity in his casting, a common critique of the franchise as a whole. A source close to the situation told Variety that others have said “he would retaliate against people for having minorities and Black people on the show. He favored certain people over other people … he would say, ‘Minorities don’t get ratings’.”
In a statement to the Variety, Fleiss said, “I am proud of the work we’ve done over the past five years to make the show substantially more diverse, but I do believe I could have done more. Hopefully, the franchise will continue to move in the right direction.”
As theGrio previously reported, “The Bachelor” franchise has lately featured more diversity in its casting. Charity Lawson was recently named the series’ next Bachelorette, making history as the fourth-ever Black female Bachelorette and fifth Black lead overall.
Rachel Lindsay, Tayshia Adams and Michelle Young were each Bachelorettes, while Matt James made history as the first Black Bachelor in 2021.
TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!