After much speculation, it has now been confirmed that we won’t be seeing a new season of The Bachelorette anytime in the near future.
WATCH: The Bachelorette Finale | Brooke and Darvid exchange rings
After whispers that last year’s low ratings could spell the end of The Bachelorette in Australia, Network 10 have confirmed that the series will not go ahead in 2022.
Speaking to TV Tonight, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, Paramount Australia and New Zealand, Beverley McGarvey revealed, “We probably won’t have an iteration of Bachelorette that is on air this year.
“But actually we haven’t always had an iteration of Bachelorette on-air every year. If you think way back to the beginning, we had two or three years that we didn’t, and then we introduced Bachelorette.”
However, she didn’t rule out the series returning in the future, saying, “I think given the environment that we’re in, the audience is telling us they want to see some of those legacy formats move forward a bit, which we really want to do with that show, because we really respect the brand and the audience loves it. So I think a little bit of scarcity this year, is probably going to help us move forward.”
It comes following last year’s season, which featured proud Noongar-Yamatji woman Brooke Blurton, pulled the smallest audience on record with just 439,000 metro viewers for the final 15 minutes of the much-hyped finale.
Despite the lack of viewers, Brooke later explained to news.com.au that she wasn’t bothered by the low audience numbers, considering it was the first time that an Indigenous and a bisexual woman featured on the series.
“I don’t like to think that I was just focused on the ratings, I was more focused on the progression and what that season meant for mainstream television,” Brooke said.
“We don’t see this type of representation happen for one, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people and two, minority groups like the LGBTQI+ community. I was really just focused on providing the right representation for both with integrity and the utmost respect, and I feel like I did that.
“I feel so proud of the ground we made on this season. It was a real step forward. The network had a lot of trust in me, I had a lot of trust in the network. We wanted to produce something that (was) all about getting the love back into the brand.”
Meanwhile, The Bachelor is still going ahead, with the series currently shooting in Queensland with its three leading men, Felix Von Hofe, Thomas Malucelli and Jed McIntosh.
While the shake-up of the show’s usual format hopes to draw more viewers, The Bachelorhas not gone without criticism, with many calling out the show’s lack of diversity for enlisting three Anglo men as this year’s suitors.
Despite the vocal criticism, Network 10 has since backed its choice to cast the trio.
Speaking to TV Tonight recently, Beverley McGarvey said, “Diversity looks at many things, and even to cast the way that it’s been cast, those guys don’t necessarily all print like your typical Bachelor of years gone by.
“There’s a whole significant portion of that cast still to come, which will make people probably slightly rethink their position.”
She continued, “It’s about cast and crew in representation and we do feel that it matters, and we’ve demonstrated that clearly with all of our casting choices.”
