For the first time, the reality television show “The Bachelor” will have a black lead.
ABC announced on Friday that Matt James, who had originally been cast as a contestant on “The Bachelorette,” has gotten a significant promotion to the star of the next season, airing in 2021. The show, which kicked off in 2002, has long received criticism for its lack of diversity. Calls for change mounted in recent days as previous participants on the show made statements pushing ABC to address the problem and an online petition argued that the franchise “should reflect and honor the racial diversity of our country.”
In an interview with “Good Morning America,” James, a 28-year-old real estate broker from North Carolina, said that it was an honor to receive the role. As for the controversy over the diversity of the stars and contestants, he said, “I don’t think it’s ever the wrong time to do the right thing.”
The 40 seasons of the franchise have been overwhelmingly white, and there has only been one black lead before James: Rachel L. Lindsay, a lawyer from Texas who at 31 was cast as the first black star of “The Bachelorette” in a season that aired in 2017. Speaking to “Good Morning America,” Lindsay, who is now married to the winner of her “Bachelorette” season, noted the lack of progress since her casting.
“I was hoping when I came on to be a trailblazer for that and to increase diversity in the audience that watches it,” she said, “but in the last three years there really haven’t been changes made.”
James, who played wide receiver for Wake Forest University’s football team and then had a short stint in the N.F.L., was first introduced to fans of the romance reality show as a contestant vying for the affections of the “Bachelorette” Clare Crawley, but production on the season was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Karey Burke, president of ABC Entertainment, said in a statement that the hiatus in the show’s production gave them “the benefit of time to get to know” James and determine that he would be a “perfect 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,” the statement said.
According to the book “Bachelor Nation” by the journalist Amy Kaufman, the show’s poor diversity track record did not gain much traction in the mainstream until a racial discrimination lawsuit was filed against “The Bachelor” in 2012. The lawsuit, brought by two black men who had applied to be on the show, argued that the lack of diversity on the show was a “conscious attempt to minimize the risk of alienating their majority-white viewership.” (The case was ultimately dismissed.)
Fans of the franchise rejoiced in the news on Friday, but demands for diversity went further than casting a black lead. The online petition asked ABC to cast black, Indigenous and people of color as at least 35 percent of contestants for the seasons to come.
And Lindsay called for new producers of color and show leads who are genuinely interested in dating outside their own race (and not just getting their first interracial dating experience on national television, she said).
"first" - Google News
June 12, 2020 at 09:45PM
https://ift.tt/3e8JMjb
First Black ‘Bachelor,’ Matt James, Cast by ABC - The New York Times
"first" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2QqCv4E
https://ift.tt/3bWWEYd
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "First Black ‘Bachelor,’ Matt James, Cast by ABC - The New York Times"
Post a Comment