Disney Pulls Completed Season of The Bachelorette

ABC's long-running dating franchise has hit an unwanted reality TV milestone: an entire finished season shelved days before launch. Disney says it is pulling the new season of The Bachelorette after the release of a video showing star Taylor Frankie Paul in a 2023 altercation with boyfriend Dakota Mortenson. In the footage published by TMZ on Thursday, she repeatedly appears to lunge at Mortenson and hurl metal barstools while a child is nearby. She was arrested in 2023 and charged with aggravated assault and domestic violence in the presence of a child, among other charges, the AP reports. She ended up pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of aggravated assault.

• Draper, Utah, police say there is an ongoing domestic violence investigation involving both Paul and Mortenson, the father of one of her three children, with accusations "made in both directions." Police say the incident currently being investigated happened after filming of The Bachelorette was completed, the New York Times reports.
• The move leaves Season 22 of The Bachelorette—shot, edited, and scheduled to premiere Sunday—locked away with no airdate in sight. Deadline reports that Disney quietly removed the first episode from its press screening site Thursday as executives decided to freeze the rollout. It's not clear whether the season will ever air.
• "In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family," Disney said in a statement.

The franchise had billed Paul's casting as a reboot moment after a rough year that included shelving The Bachelorette last cycle and ousting two top showrunners over a reported "toxic" workplace. Paul, the first person to star in the franchise who hadn't previously been a contestant on The Bachelor, is already a familiar face to Disney-owned Hulu viewers from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, where her volatile relationship with Mortenson has been a central storyline. Production on that show's fifth season is also on hold amid the investigation. Paul was promoting the new season of The Bachelorette as recently as Wednesday, when she appeared on Good Morning America, the AP reports.

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