The First Bachelor Controversy Is Here & Of Course Is Involves Bad Tweets

The Bachelor always rides atop a wave of controversy, courtesy of poor casting choices, and this year is no different. The season premieres Monday, January 7, and there's already a snafu: Tracy Shapoff, a contestant, apologized for offensive tweets in December. Fans discovered that Shapoff, a stylist in Los Angeles, had a series of tweets (all now deleted) denigrating people for being "fat" and "lazy." In one instance, Shapoff used the r-word to say that she believes people who get liposuction are too lazy to go to the gym. She apologized, and now Colton Underwood, her Bachelor, has addressed the controversy.

During a press conference call on Thursday, Underwood was asked if he believed casting directors should be more careful when casting the show. Underwood replied that, essentially, it wasn't his problem.

"While I don’t believe in whatever Tracy liked and tweeted at the time, I think that it’s a growing thing,” Underwood said. “And as far as the process goes, social media is making it a challenge for every workplace. I mean, you’re seeing it all over the world and in our society, things coming up. Everybody has differences in this world. But the bottom line is, that’s not up to me, that’s not my department or anything I need to have an opinion on."

Alright, next question!

This is far from the first time The Bachelor has faced such controversy. In 2018, Becca Kufrin's winner, and now fiancé was revealed to have liked several alt-right memes on Instagram. The same year, Arie Luyendyk's contestant Macquel Cooper apologized for a racist brownface costume she'd posted on Instagram. In 2017, fans discovered that contestant Lee Garrett had tweeted racist language and opinions. It all comes back to casting and social media — can someone hire a good Twitter investigator for the Bachelor casting team?

Meanwhile, in less enraging news, another Bachelor contestant faked an Australian accent on the first night. Now, that's a fun controversy.