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[Spoilers for The Bachelor ahead, Bachelor Nation!]
The day we never thought would come has finally come. ABC announced that the next Bachelorette will be black.
Rachel Lindsay — currently a contestant on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor — was revealed Monday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live as the star of the next cycle of The Bachelorette. It’s history in the making as Lindsay is the first African-American person chosen to hand out roses from either The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, which have a combined 33 seasons of television between them.
The franchise has been criticized for keeping its centerpieces lily white, with both series heavily favoring caucasian leads. However, The Bachelor previously featured Venezuelan man meat Juan Pablo Galavis as its bachelor in 2014, the only clear exception to the rule. The Bachelorette reportedly nearly chose half-Filipino contestant Caila Quinn in 2016 for Season 12, but went with half-Persian JoJo Fletcher after Quinn dropped out.
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Lindsay also made history as the first lead in the franchise to be announced while one of the flagship seasons is still airing. (Viall was announced as this season’s bachelor while Bachelor in Paradise was still airing and he was on it, however.) It also means the obvious: Viall doesn’t pick Lindsay to be his co-winner this season. For what it’s worth, Lindsay also became the first black contestant to receive the “first impression rose” this season when Viall chose her as the first contestant to avoid elimination.
The move comes after ABC promoted Channing Dungey — who herself is black — to president and Dungey promised to address the lack of diversity in the series, specifically with its leads. Recent seasons have improved the spectrum of color in the contestant pool, and Viall’s season as of last week still had three non-white contestants in the running, though two were eliminated that night.
The Bachelorette airs Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.
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