Since its series premiere in 2002, The Bachelor has seen hundreds of people pursue love, fame, and lucrative influencer careers on its various seasons. No one journey has been identical, with some playing out in the show’s standard format while others are mixed in with intense sports matches (Bachelor Winter Games) and more recently, singing competitions (Listen to Your Heart). Though fans are still reeling from the utter chaos of the latest installment of the dating show, the minds behind The Bachelor are already thinking of new ways to expand the Bachelor Nation universe even further.
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It’s been several weeks since the cringeworthy finale of Matt James’ season, and it wouldn’t be a reach to say that even the most loyal viewers of The Bachelor are glad to be taking a break from the show. However, even amidst the ongoing discussions about all of the internal changes that need to be made to the production in light of last season’s perpetual mayhem, the executives are actively planning to take the series in a totally new direction.
New EVP of Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment at Walt Disney Television Rob Mills gave Deadline a glimpse into the show’s latest brainstorm, revealing that The Bachelor could potentially be traveling somewhere new very soon: Hulu.
“Hulu is an exciting possibility,” Mills told Deadline. “You can certainly experiment with all sorts of different long form Bachelor programming. You’re not hamstrung by running time or even standards. It’s definitely exciting. I think it’s early, but it’s certainly not something that we’re not thinking of.”
The Bachelor is already available for streaming on Hulu, but as an original Hulu production, the series could lead a completely different type of show. Most obvious is the fact that a purely digital show could bypass the typical censorship of network television, lending to more...adult programming — for better or worse.
While The Bachelor works out the kinks of a possible streaming contract, fans can rest assured that fresh new programming is down the pipeline. In addition to the double feature seasons of The Bachelorette that no one asked for (because why?), Bachelor Nation can also look forward to that senior citizens edition of the dating series. What executives are hoping to do with the back to back seasons is keep its audiences talking about the show even in its off seasons until there is no offseason; one day, we’ll just have Bachelor content year round.
“It is 100% a franchise,” Mills explained. “To me, I would put this at least on the television side as important a franchise to the Disney company as any of the other ones that we have that are full-time jobs, whether it’s Marvel or Lucasfilm. In the same way that Lucasfilm is not just Star Wars anymore, it’s The Mandalorian…it’s the same thing with The Bachelor. You have to take care of this and there’s quality control. That’s really important.”