Bachelor series turns high-drama

Called out for silence in racial storm

LOS ANGELES • Rachel Lindsay, the first Black star of The Bachelorette, is calling out the ABC franchise for staying silent as the ongoing racial controversy involving host Chris Harrison and The Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell continues to spiral.

On Lindsay's podcast Higher Learning, which she hosts with Van Lathan, she said the show shouldn't begin filming The Bachelorette until the franchise figures out how to handle its problems.

“They're about to go into production for The Bachelorette,” Lindsay, who starred as The Bachelorette in 2017, said on the podcast, posted early Tuesday morning.

“I think they should just stop until ... they get the train back on the tracks.

“You're going to go another season, but you still have all of these issues.”

Earlier this year, when the current season of The Bachelor began airing, Kirkconnell — who remains a front-runner contestant on Matt James's season, which wraps up in two weeks — came under fire as older photos of her resurfaced on social media. In the pictures, she is seen in attendance at an Old South plantation-themed fraternity party. She also liked photos that contain images of the Confederate flag.

After the social media controversy, Lindsay, who is a correspondent on Extra, interviewed Harrison on the entertainment news show and asked him his thoughts about Kirkconnell. Harrison

SHOULD JUST STOP UNTIL ... THEY GET THE TRAIN BACK ON

THE TRACKS.

went to great lengths to defend Kirkconnell, calling out the “woke police” and suggesting the racist behaviour was not as bad in 2018 as it would be today in 2021. Lindsay objected to that argument.

Since the interview aired, the scandal has escalated, with Harrison stepping aside from the series, and numerous Bachelor alums calling

out the franchise for its poor handling of race and diversity.

The Harrison controversy comes as The Bachelor is airing its first season with a

Black lead, since the show debuted in 2002.

While Harrison and Kirkconnell have made their own apologies on their personal social media accounts, neither

ABC nor Warner Bros., which produces The Bachelor, has made any official comments regarding the controversy.

ABC Matt James is the first Black lead on The Bachelor since the show debuted in 2002.