THE BACHELORETTE
Rachel Lindsay may be most likable reality star ever
ABC, 9 ET/PT In what could be seen either as an advance for inclusion or as an example of equal-opportunity offense, The Bachelor franchise gets it first AfricanAmerican “star,” Rachel Lindsay. Well, fine: It remains a terrible show, but if the networks are going to build a playing field, they need to let everybody play. I’d rather watch CW’s much prouder example of diversity, the season finale of Jane the Virgin (9 ET/PT), but to each his or her own rose.
It’s easy to see why Rachel Lindsay was chosen as ABC’s new Bachelorette.
The 32-year-old Dallas attorney is an appealing reality-TV personality, and the long-running
Bachelor franchise’s first-ever African-American star.
“First black Bachelorette, say it again!” Lindsay cheered during a chat in Los Angeles in March, where she spent the day on a date. “I’m honored to be chosen to be the one to do it. I just don’t want (race) to be something that’s my recurring theme of my entire journey,” she says.
“I’m a black woman and I’m so happy to represent myself in that respect, but I don’t want it to be something that defines me and my journey for love,” she says. “I definitely don’t mind talking about it and addressing it.”
Lindsay doesn’t seem to mind much at all — it seems nothing can faze the good-natured romantic. She didn’t appear to mind when, before Nick Viall dumped her on The Bachelor, she had to endure his feeble joke — “I might be white, but I’m still a minority.” She appeared not to mind when host Chris Harrison told her during the live Women Tell
All show at the end of Viall’s season, that she’d be starting her
Bachelorette journey early — surprise! — right then and there. And she wasn’t bothered when, on that same show, a suitor told her, “I’m ready to go black and I’m never going back.”
In fact, she giggled, because she “loved that he was confident enough to do it,” she says.
Is this woman a politician? (No. Though she’s flattered to be asked, she has “no interest in politics,” she said in a later interview.)
Because Lindsay is among the oldest bachelorettes, she says ABC made her dating pool slightly older than average (there are some men older than 30) and with professional backgrounds — a couple of doctors and lawyers are mixed in with the typical models and personal trainers.
Also, after Lindsay told producers that her dating history is “not particular to a certain race,” she found that her 31 suitors are more racially diverse than usual.
So, will the likable Lindsay, a self-described career woman and dating-show skeptic, find a husband on the ABC series known for drama, drinking and fantasy suites ( but not many lasting marriages)?
She says yes. In fact, she announced that she is happily engaged to one of her suitors. “It was not an easy decision,” she says. “It was a lot harder than I thought (and) exhausting physically and emotionally.”
Of course, Lindsay won’t reveal any details about the groom-tobe, but viewers can start playing the guessing game Monday (9 ET/ PT) as more than two dozen men appear at the front of the Bache
lor mansion hoping to receive a rose.
Many of the out-there entrances, and one obnoxious guy yelling, “Whaboom!” will solicit eye-rolls from viewers. But no rude remarks will come from Lindsay. And soon all of America may fall in love with her.