Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette” is reportedly set to air on ABC in mid-July, according to an exclusive report from TMZ on Wednesday.
Final plans for the previously canceled season have not been confirmed, with the outlet reporting that the network has been conducting audience testing to gauge viewer response to Paul.
ABC announced in March, just three days before the scheduled premiere, that it would not air the show amid a now-closed police investigation into an alleged domestic abuse incident involving Paul’s former boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen.
In the days leading to the cancellation, TMZ published leaked footage of a separate physical altercation from 2023 in which Paul is seen kicking Mortensen and throwing metal barstools at him.
“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,” a Disney spokesperson said at the time.
In a March statement obtained by People magazine, a spokesperson for Paul said, “Taylor is very grateful for ABC’s support as she prioritizes her family’s safety and security. After years of silently suffering extensive mental and physical abuse as well as threats of retaliation, Taylor is finally gaining the strength to face her accuser and taking steps to ensure that she and her children are protected from any further harm.”
Paul built a career as a leading influencer in the viral #MomTok community on TikTok, a group of Utah women who share clips of their lives online.
She has also starred in four seasons of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which has chronicled her on-again, off-again relationship with Mortensen.
In the wake of the fallout, Paul also chose not to resume filming “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Season 5, and took a step back from the spotlight for her mental heath, which included briefly deactivating her social media accounts.
A source close to the project said in April that ABC remained undecided on whether to air Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette” following the dismissal of her charges.
Rob Mills, the executive vice president of unscripted for Walt Disney TV, said that the network was “still processing everything and figuring out” as it weighed options for the still-unaired season.
“We take everything a day at a time,” Mills told The Wrap. “And really just kind of looking at everything, and first and foremost, honestly, just making sure that Taylor, her family, everyone is being taken care of, just on a personal and human front.”
Canceling Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette” would cost ABC tens of millions in production expenses and millions more in potential revenue.
Each episode of the series costs an estimated $2 million to produce, and a typical season of “The Bachelorette” runs nine to 13 episodes. At that rate, the network is projected to lose between $18 million and $26 million in production costs.
“They have already lost a lot of money,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in March. “They face losing $40 to $50 million now that they’ve canceled.”