The announcement that pilot Peter Weber would be the next Bachelor was met with an onset of fury from fans, including former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay.
In an interview with ET, Rachel said,
“I think Peter seems like a very nice guy. He seems lovely. This is absolutely nothing against him, but how many Peters have we seen before? What season are we on? 24. So, we’ve seen 24 Peters. I’m bored. And it’s nothing personal against him.”
We’re all bored, girl!
Perhaps Pilot Pete as the Bachelor wouldn’t sting as much if we didn’t have fan-favorite Mike Johnson waiting in the wings. Mike was ridiculously charming, handsome, respectful, and was a military veteran to boot. In other words, pure perfection. Meanwhile, the only thing Pilot Pete had going for him was the windmill sex session with Hannah Brown. And Rachel agrees. She said,
“I want to be hopeful, but when you have a contestant like Mike Johnson, who seems to check all the boxes, how is he not the Bachelor? I don’t understand. I’m sure they have some reason for not picking him, and I’m going to trust in that, but at the same time, the system isn’t working in giving us a Bachelor who is a person of color. So we need to change the system. Something has to be done. Break the rules, step outside the box, give the people what they want!”
In an interview with Business Insider, she proposed a solution and said,
“I think the system has to change, I think they’re just going to have to go back and do what they used to do in the beginning where they used to choose people outside of the franchise to be the lead.”
Rachel is, of course, notorious for being the first and only Black lead of the entire Bachelor franchise (which first premiered 17 years ago). As such, Rachel feels a great responsibility to continue to fight for diversity on the show.
“I feel like it’s my duty, having been the first, to continue to fight for other people of color to be the lead in the franchise – particularly in ‘The Bachelor’ franchise where it’s really lacking,” she said. “It’s like, ‘OK, now that I’m the first, let’s get some more people in here and sprinkle some color into this franchise.'”
As for Mike, he wasn’t completely shocked he wasn’t chosen. In an interview with ET, he said,
“ I did [say I thought it was going to be him], but that wasn’t because ABC told me. I just felt that way, and I will always be honest with the way I feel, and I felt that for what they were looking for, that Peter would be a really good fit.”
He also reiterated Rachel’s call for diversity and said,
“I think of diversity more than just black and white. And yes, Peter has a Cuban mom, but let’s just be honest — he’s white, right? And that’s just being completely transparent. I think that there should be an Asian lead, an Indian lead… diversity is not just black and white. It’s not just salt and pepper.”
Luckily, Mike seems to be living the high life and recently went on a date with Demi Lovato. Mike later called Demi “quite astounding and amazing.”
Rachel has also had a lot of romantic success post-Bachelorette and recently married Bryan Abasolo, who proposed to her during her season.
Peter’s season of The Bachelor will premiere in 2020.
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