Imagine that you are the producer of a network reality TV show about finding love.<\/p>\n
A spinoff, your program has been chugging along for 23 long years over 21 seasons. But ratings have been slipping and you need to spice things up.<\/p>\n
Then it hits you: That TikToker from that other reality TV show about mormons! She has 6.1 million followers, and she\u2019s a mess. Let\u2019s hire her!<\/p>\n
Taylor Frankie Paul\u2019s season of \u201cThe Bachelorette\u201d was scrapped by ABC. Disney<\/p>\n
Who cares that she pleaded guilty in August to felony aggravated assault against her former boyfriend in 2023 and is on probation? That\u2019s interesting!\u00a0<\/p>\n
So what that the police report plainly says one of the two pieces of metal furniture she hurled at him hit her five-year-old child? Cops said the little girl had a \u201cgoose egg\u201d on her head. Meh. That was three years ago. Nobody died.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another show already put this obviously troubled woman on TV. And so will you. You are desperate, soulless and disgusting. That\u2019s what makes you so good at your job.<\/p>\n
Then, just three days before the big premiere, the shocking video footage drops on TMZ.<\/p>\n
And the backlash is ferocious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Everything that happens on the grisly three-and-a-half-minute clip, you and the world already knew about. The altercation was even a plotline on the other reality TV show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But now its true repulsiveness is clearly visible and out there for everyone to see. The horrible optics are impossible to overcome. You\u2019re forced to scrap the entire season, perhaps indefinitely, losing your struggling network a reported $30 million.<\/p>\n
TMZ released a video showing Paul hurling metal chairs at her ex-boyfriend. Jordan Strauss\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n
Most of you would probably not be so stupid and reckless.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s exactly what happened this week to the Imbeciles of the Year over at ABC who brought on ticking time bomb Taylor Frankie Paul<\/a> for Season 22 of \u201cThe Bachelorette.\u201d They knew exactly what they were getting into, and the morons did it anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n Season 22\u00a0 was supposed to premiere on Sunday night. Instead, adding to the bleakness, ABC will air a rerun of \u201cAmerican Idol.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n