‘The Bachelorette’: What the JoJo Fletcher – Caila Quinn decision really means
On the season finale of “The Bachelor” on Monday night, ABC definitely made a move that shocked many people out there when they chose JoJo Fletcher over Caila Quinn to be the next star of the show. Caila had been spotted filming an intro package, and there were numerous reports stating that she had the gig.
So what happened to cause ABC to change their mind at the last minute ? Let’s start this article by saying that we strongly believe this happened. While the network has intentionally tried to mislead viewers in the past with some of their picks, and even used Nick Viall at one point to throw off suspicion of Ben Higgins becoming the Bachelor, we don’t really think that was the case here. Caila was given the edit of a typical Bachelorette contestant, with us getting a sense almost constantly that she was someone the producers really wanted.
What we imagine they did not anticipate was America having a somewhat-polarizing reaction to her as a contestant. We’re not going to get into why the viewing public was divided on her, but the reality remained that they were. If you looked at some “who should be the Bachelorette?” polls that were floating around out there, JoJo had an overwhelming majority of support over Caila. Even Becca Tilley, who had a small percentage of screen time this season compared to the two of them, was getting more attention than Caila.
Most of the negative headlines coming out of the JoJo reveal are that this goes against previous comments from then-ABC head Paul Lee that the show was going in a more diverse direction with its upcoming lead. Well, JoJo’s mother is Persian, and if the show wants to explore that further there could be opportunities to show more of a unique background and story. They really haven’t done that at all so far with her, but maybe that changes with her as a lead. It’s hard to say. We do understand the diversity argument as a whole, since everyone does want to see people out there who bring in different points of view. The reality here, when the chips were down, was that the producers and the network wanted the person who was universally well-liked to guarantee viewers watched the show. That seems to be it. It doesn’t really have to deal with racism or otherwise.
If we do want to look back at an infuriating example of the show snubbing a minority candidate, then think of them snubbing Marquel for Bachelor in favor of Chris Soules, whose season led to a fairly-brief engagement and that’s it.
What do you think: Was JoJo’s casting the right move, and should ABC try harder to find more diverse candidates? Share below, and head over here to get some more coverage from the “Bachelor” finale right now! Also, sign up over here to get some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)