Unpacking ‘The Bachelorette’ Cancellation

(Trigger Warning: Domestic violence) If you or someone you know has been impacted by domestic violence, you can call 800-799-7233, or text BEGIN to 88788. Please listen to this episode with care. On Thursday afternoon, in the wake of some pretty horrifying video footage of a 2023 domestic incident between Taylor Frankie Paul and Dakota Mortensen, Disney announced that it would not be moving forward with the 22nd season of “The Bachelorette.” In this episode, we talk through the lead-up to the cancellation and the fallout, the era of “messy” women on reality TV, the network’s culpability in all of this, and our own. We tried to be as thoughtful, nuanced and responsible as possible in this discussion, and hold a lot of hard truths at once.