The Bachelor franchise has long been criticized for its intense heteronormativity, but the Australian version may be about to make good.
A casting call went out yesterday looking for single women and men who are “looking for a shot at true love.”
The notice also confirmed that this was for a single season, with a request for availability for up to 12 weeks of filming between May and July of this year.
Australia was already ahead of the curve last year with their inclusion of a bisexual Bachelorette for the spin-off competition, centered around a single woman looking for love. The ratings weren’t great, but they weren’t for the country’s version of The Bachelor last year either, so it looks like the network isn’t blaming inclusiveness for the lessened viewership.
“Often with those legacy formats, there are pivots that you can make, there are things that you can do, and shows like MasterChef and The Block that have been on the air for more than a decade prove that a format can go for a long time when you carefully manage it, and sometimes it’s cyclical,” Beverley McGarvey, ViacomCBS Australia and New Zealand executive president and chief content officer, told Mediaweek last November. “So now we need to go, ‘What do we do with The Bachelor?’”
Whether the answer is actually “get a bisexual hunk for the lead” remains to be seen. Just because the casting is open to both men and women doesn’t necessarily mean that the show is locking itself into progressing with the times just yet — but it is a good sign.
“Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole is so 2020,” a spokesperson told the Daily Mail. “Love is love and we look forward to casting our next Bachelor, whoever they may be.”
American franchise, take note!
