When The Golden Bachelor received a casting Emmy nomination in 2024, a major dry spell was broken. That was the first-ever Emmy bid for the ABC franchise (which also includes The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor in Paradise) after being a part of American culture for more than two decades.
Fast-forward to today, and Taylor Frankie Paul could be the key for The Bachelorette to finally earn some Emmy roses.
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The just-announced star of Season 22 hails from the uber-popular The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which received a Best Unstructured Reality Program nomination this year in its first at-bat. The Emmy nomination proves voters already know her and love her… so will they follow the now-single Mormon to The Bachelorette?
Paul doesn’t just appear on Hulu’s sultry reality TV show — she’s arguably the only reason it exists. After she blew up her “MomTok” TikTok channel in 2022 by revealing that many of the mothers had been “swinging” with each other sexually, producers Jeff Jenkins and Russell Jay-Staglik sought out Paul and the other influencers to create their own religious version of The Real Housewives.
“She’s an absolute unscripted superstar,” Jenkins told Gold Derby about Paul. “When you meet her in person, she’s delightful, interesting, engaging, witty. But when that camera is on her, that thing happens that is indescribable that doesn’t happen to everyone. I can watch Taylor opening her mail.”
Paul’s 2023 domestic violence arrest against her ex, Dakota Mortensen, chronicled in the debut episode of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, helped the viewers to “understand the depths of complication that Taylor was going through,” the producer added. That started a “rebuilding” phase for the Salt Lake City native, which has now culminated in her being cast as The Bachelorette.
The program has never been led by a woman who was not previously part of the franchise, so Paul has already made history just by being cast. Some of the most recent Bachelorettes have included Jenn Tran, Charity Lawson, Rachel Recchia, and Gabby Windey, the latter of whom won Season 3 of The Traitors.
‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’Hulu
While it remains to be seen if Paul can bring some Emmy Awards attention to the franchise, The Golden Bachelor proved that voters are willing to at least give it a second look. With the right concept and leading star (in that case, it was 72-year-old Gerry Turner dating female senior citizens), they will even honor it with a nomination.
Other unscripted programs about the search for love to receive bids or even wins from the Television Academy include Love on the Spectrum, Love Is Blind, and Indian Matchmaking. So, why not The Bachelor?
There’s a log of baggage the franchise would need to overcome first.
The Bachelor franchise has never been a favorite of critics, who view its contrived setting as less authentic than other reality fare, and the series’ producers have been accused of manufacturing drama. Some critics and viewers also believe the franchise is misogynistic and undermines women.
In addition, the creator of The Bachelor, Mike Fleiss, has faced criminal charges for alleged harassment and assault, which Fleiss denied. He left the franchise in 2023 after Warner Bros. TV reportedly launched an investigation into racial discrimination and bullying behavior by the producer.
And the original host, Chris Harrison, departed The Bachelor in 2021 after facing intense backlash for defending a contestant’s past participation in an antebellum-themed party, which some people took to be associated with slavery and racial segregation.
Disney is going all-in on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives this year. Two of the show’s most talked-about personalities, Jennifer Affleck and Whitney Leavitt, have been cast on Dancing With the Stars Season 34, debuting Sept. 16 on ABC and Disney+. Mormon Wives Season 3 drops Nov. 13 on Hulu. There is no premiere date yet for The Bachelorette Season 22.
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