‘The Bachelorette’ may have minority lead; are Caila Quinn, Jubilee Sharpe sudden contenders?

Every time that producers of “The Bachelor” are forced to be in front of an audience of critics, one question comes up time and time again: When are you going to have a minority as the lead of one of your shows? Technically, they had one of course with Juan Pablo Galavis, but since everyone hated him, most people try to pretend that never happened and look to some other possibilities instead.

Based on some of the comments that ABC programming head Paul Lee made at the TCA Winter Press tour earlier this weekend (per TheWrap), it seems as though the odds of us having a minority star of “The Bachelorette” for the first time to date are increasing exponentially:

“I’d be very surprised if [the bachelorette] in the summer isn’t diverse … Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but I think that’s likely to happen.”

Granted, it is possible that you could take this comment as a sign that Lee is talking about the show itself rather than the bachelorette as a lead, but most from the event are inferring more of the latter and that the show is going to make an effort to really shake things up.

With this being said, this does not necessarily mean that there is all of a sudden one favorite for the part. Given that there has never been a black Bachelor or Bachelorette, Jubilee Sharpe feels like an instant candidate. We liked her a lot in the premiere, she’s a veteran, she’s beautiful and she still has plenty of time to impress the rest of the season. However, there’s still so much more time for things to either work out both for and against her this season. You also have some other notable candidates; JoJo Fletcher is half-Persian, while Caila Quinn has a Filipino background. Any of these backgrounds would be new for the franchise in the leading role.

Our sole requirement is that you find someone who will make great television, and give viewers a new story and perspective. So far, any of them will fit the bill.

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