ABC may still air Taylor Frankie Paul’s “Bachelorette” season — as the network faces being out “tens of millions” of dollars from the disastrous fallout of her domestic violence video, Page Six is told.
The Disney-owned network licenses the show from producer Warner Bros. and could owe the studio anywhere between $50-70 million if the show doesn’t air, according to experts.
“ABC left a window in their statement to bring [the show] back. They haven’t canceled it — they simply paused it,” one industry insider told Page Six.
Indeed, in its statement ABC said it had “made the decision not to move ahead” with Paul’s season.
Execs chose “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star as their leading lady even though she was arrested in 2023 and charged with misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief and commission of domestic violence in the presence of a child, following a fight with her ex Dakota Mortensen, with whom she shares son Ever, 2.
While her history was public, “Execs are under pressure to deliver ratings,” said the insider. “The bottom line is money and [stars who have] the ability to make money.”
Another Hollywood source believes the public might be willing to forgive Paul if she can redeem herself.
“I really feel that American loves a comeback story … if Taylor has got the right desire to fix this situation,” said the Hollywood source. “We’ve been reading about toxic relationships all our lives, and this seems to be a very toxic relationship she has to figure out and so does [Mortensen].
“ABC has got to figure out how to get this show on the air, and if you’re [Paul], you’re trying to rehab yourself.”
Page Six has reached out to ABC, Warner Bros. and a representative for Paul.
Mortensen last week won temporary custody of Ever, but we’re told that there will be a court date within the next two weeks during which Paul will fight to get her son back.
Page Six previously revealed that the 31-year-old did find love on her season of the Bachelorette, believed to be California life guard and surfer Doug Mason, 28 — but the fate of that relationship is up in the air.
The divorced mom-of-three made a plea deal on the aggravated assault charge in 2023 and all the other charges were dropped. As long as she meets the conditions of her deal, the charge will be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor after 36 months.
Even though they knew this, ABC went ahead with filming “The Bachelorette.” However, the network then pulled the entire series just three days before it was due to launch, after TMZ published video footage of Paul throwing chairs at Mortensen in front of her daughter, Indy, who was 5 at the time and is shared with her ex-husband Tate Paul.
Weeks before the video surfaced, NBC News reported that “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” cast raised concerns about continuing their hit Hulu reality series with Paul. This happened during a 30-minute Zoom call with three Disney executives including Rob Mills, Executive VP of Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment at Walt Disney Television.
They reportedly voiced their concerns about the future of their show amid a new alleged domestic incident that took place in February between Paul and Mortensen.
NBC reported that, as the cast shared accounts of Paul’s alleged behavior, including “distressing” and “upsetting” video recordings of Paul’s alleged conduct, Mills replied: “I don’t know a lot, nor do I want to know too much. … This is not me putting my head in the sand, but it’s not me — you know, I don’t want to inquire, because I don’t know what that does.”
A cast member called it “concerning” that no one at Disney or Hulu seemed to want to know the content of the videos.
“I think Rob Mills is sink or swim,” one industry figure told Page Six.
A person close to newly promoted Disney TV boss Debra OConnell also speculated that Mills could take the fall for this mess. “I thought the Rob Mills audiotape was unfortunate. No one likes expensive, unforced errors and self-inflicted embarrassments,” said the source. “Rob is well liked and has banked some good will, but this is bad and someone will pay.”
Licensing a show involves paying a license fee, often accompanied by a structured payment schedule linked to key production milestones such as shooting, production and final delivery of the content.
If “The Bachelorette” doesn’t air, then ABC will owe a fortune to Warner Bros.
Season 13 Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay declared “I think it’s over” of the franchise’s future in the wake of the Paul debacle.
Speaking on her podcast she said, “I was trying to think of a scenario where it could be different, because this isn’t just, ‘Oh, we put it all on a person. This person did this.’ This is the system that allowed this to happen.
“The name ‘Bachelorette,’ ‘Bachelor’ is tainted at this point,” Lindsay, 40, said. “How do you move forward past that? You can’t.”
Hollywood expert Matt Belloni wrote on Puck, meanwhile, that both newly upped Disney content chief Dana Walden and OConnell had signed off on Paul.
The “more interesting” question, he wrote, was how the scandal impacts new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro’s tolerance for ABC — posed the question of whether it’s truly worth it for Disney to keep ABC.
“The point is, network television is already failing,” the OConnell source said. “This is like burning the remaining money.”
