{"id":532002,"date":"2026-03-19T02:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/532002\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T02:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:53:12","slug":"ex-bachelorette-producer-says-taylor-frankie-pauls-drama-was-no-surprise-to-abc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/532002\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-‘Bachelorette’ Producer Says Taylor Frankie Paul’s Drama Was No Surprise to ABC"},"content":{"rendered":"

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TMZ.com<\/p>\n

A former ‘Bachelorette’ producer is calling BS on the idea that ABC was blindsided by Taylor Frankie Paul<\/a>\u2019s physical violence allegations involving her ex, Dakota Mortensen<\/a> … telling us there\u2019s just no way that slipped through the cracks.<\/p>\n

We spoke with Michael Carroll on “TMZ Live” Wednesday … and he says back in his day, casting was unbelievably strict — with deep background, medical, and psychological checks on every contestant … adding that anyone with charges like that against her would\u2019ve been an automatic no.<\/p>\n

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Catch the full clip … ’cause Michael doubles down, telling us current producers were fully aware of who the ‘Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ star was. In his view, this wasn\u2019t a surprise — it was a setup … calling it a publicity grab.<\/p>\n

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And LBR, with “The Bachelorette” now 24 years in and losing steam against hotter dating shows, Michael says the franchise has been feeling a little stale. So, a shake-up like this? He admits it\u2019s the kind of drama that might actually pull viewers back in — even himself.<\/p>\n


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As for Taylor, Michael tells us producers will likely try to spin the narrative … making it seem like she needed the show to turn her life around.<\/p>\n

As we first reported … Taylor and Dakota Mortensen have been ordered<\/a> to undergo psychological evaluations following allegations<\/a> of physical violence — with concerns from the ‘Mormon Wives’ cast already halting production<\/a> on Season 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Play video content TMZ.com A former ‘Bachelorette’ producer is calling BS on the idea that ABC was blindsided…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-532002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}