On Monday night Network Ten announced there would be not one but three Bachelors on the 2022 season of The Bachelor and fan reactions were… mixed, to say the least.
WATCH: Meet the three men on The Bachelors 2022
While some Bachie diehards were thrilled by the idea of a fresh new format with more eligible men on their TVs, others were disappointed with the casting.
This year’s Bachelors are Felix Von Hofe, Thomas Philbin-Malucelli and Jedidiah “Jed” McIntosh, three seemingly straight, white Aussie men.
Though they come from different industries and walks of life, the newly released promo photos suggest that diversity may not have been front of mind when Ten were casting this season.
Former Bachie contestant Abbie Chatfield weighed in on her radio show, Hot Nights with Abbie Chatfield, saying: “Why isn’t there not one person of colour? I’m hoping at least one of them is bisexual.”
“The jokes are funny, but real talk — what does the #TheBachelorsAU franchise have against putting POCs [people of colour] as leads?” journalise Isha Bassi tweeted.
“Would it kill them to have some more diversity that’s actually representative of Australia instead of casting not one, not two, but THREE white males in the series?”
Fans of the show flooded the snaps shared to the official Bachelor Instagram page with comments like “great diversity” and “three white men? Groundbreaking”.
So Dramatic’s Megan Pustetto wrote: “Three Bachelors and yet not one is a POC? Ugh”
“They’ve got 3 of them and they’re all white?? The math ain’t math-ing,” another viewer wrote, a third adding: “White man. White man. White man. The diversity is next level!”
Some fans wondered if all three of the men were straight or if the 2022 season of The Bachelor would cast men and women to date the new Bachelors, if one or more of them identify as LGBTQIA+.
Osher Gunsberg remained tight-lipped about the show’s format when the Bachies were announced on Monday night, but so far the men have only been spotted on dates with women so our hopes for a queer Bachelor in the mix aren’t high.
“We are doing a world first! No one in the world has ever had three Bachelors. The way it works, the way everyone gets to know everyone will be very different,” Osher said on The Project on Monday.
But, as some fans noted on social media, just because it’s never been done before doesn’t make it a good idea.
“I just don’t get why we’ve got three Bachelors, if the structure is completely different, if there are no fairy lights and if there are no candles this isn’t The Bachelor,” Abbie Chatfield added on radio.
WATCH: Welcome to Country on The Bachelorette
With the franchise’s ratings plummeting in 2021, reaching record lows with Jimmy Nicholson and Brooke Burton’s seasons, it’s not hard to see why Ten would want to shake things up.
But if fan reactions are anything to go by, this new triple-Bachelor format may not be enough to save the Bachie franchise here in Australia.
We’ll just have to watch and see.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
