ABC's Entertainment President is hoping to see a more diverse pool of contestants on "The Bachelor" franchise.
Channing Dungey, in her first session before critics and reporters at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour, was asked about the lack of diversity within the franchise, and if there may be changes down the road during her tenure at the company.
"I would very much like to see some changes there," she said during the session. "I think one of the biggest changes that we need to do is we need to increase the pool of diverse candidates... in the beginning because part of what ends up happening as we go along is that there just aren't as many candidates to end up in the role of the next 'Bachelor' or 'Bachelorette.' So that is something we really want to put some effort and energy towards."
Most of the men and women selected as "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" were on previous seasons of the franchise, so it seems unlikely someone unknown to Bachelor Nation could be chosen. But a wider pool of contestants could lead to more diversity in those title roles.
"The show has been very much in the cycle where… the first runner up in one cycle becomes the person who leads the next cycle and it's worked very well for us because the audience feels really engaged in helping to choose that candidate, so we think what we would like to try to do is just widen the pool of choices," she said.
In a scrum following her executive session at TCAs, Dungey was also asked about who the next "Bachelor" frontrunner is.
"I'm not going to announce that yet," she replied. "That announcement will be forthcoming."
