Taylor Frankie Paul’s Bachelorette Season Skips Summer

Taylor Frankie Paul’s season of The Bachelorette will not be hitting your TV this summer — at least not according to ABC’s official plans. The network rolled out its summer premiere slate and the season was nowhere on it, despite weeks of speculation that a warm-weather debut was in the cards.

The absence stings a little for Bachelor Nation, which has been holding its breath since March 19, when ABC pulled the plug on the season 22 premiere just days before it was set to air. The trigger was a video posted by TMZ showing Paul in a 2023 altercation with ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen, during which she threw a barstool that struck her then-7-year-old daughter, Indy. Paul had previously pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault over the incident in exchange for other charges being dropped, but the footage itself had never been seen publicly — and once it was, two networks had to rethink their relationship with her almost overnight.

“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of The Bachelorette at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” Disney Entertainment Television said in a statement at the time.

Reality Steve’s Summer Prediction Didn’t Pan Out

Earlier this month, Bachelor Nation’s go-to spoiler source Reality Steve posted an Instagram Reel claiming ABC was planning to air the season this summer — and not on a streamer. “It’s gonna air on ABC this summer,” he said, predicting the network would make an official announcement at its upfronts. He even reasoned that ABC’s careful wording in its March cancellation — “at this time” — was intentional wiggle room. “You would have just said we’re done and this show is never airing,” he noted.

That upfronts announcement never came. And while the summer slate does include new unscripted programming — Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro debuts July 13 — there’s no Bachelorette slot to be found.

Still, the show’s absence from the schedule isn’t the same as a cancellation. Walt Disney Television’s EVP of unscripted and alternative entertainment Rob Mills has been notably careful not to slam the door shut. Speaking at Deadline’s Reality TV Summit in late April, he said the network was still open to finding ways to air the footage as long as Paul was doing well. Then, in an interview with TheWrap, he put it plainly: “We take everything a day at a time. We’re sort of really still processing everything and figuring out planning for the next cycles of The Bachelor franchise, and really just kind of looking at everything, and first and foremost, honestly, just making sure that Taylor, her family, everyone is being taken care of, just on a personal and human front.”

He’s also made clear he believes in the season itself. “I love the season, and if people who enjoy the show — Bachelor Nation — get to see it, I think they will love it as well,” Mills told Vulture. “Obviously, I would love for people to experience it.”

What Mills Saw When He Met Taylor Before Casting

In a candid Vulture profile, Mills recalled flying to Utah to meet with Paul before she was formally offered the lead role. What he found wasn’t a ratings-hungry influencer looking to stir up drama — it was a single mom being honest about her life.

“It was not, ‘Oh, this is somebody who’s going to be absolutely crazy,’ or, ‘This is going to be the wildest season of The Bachelorette ever,’” Mills said. “[She] very honestly spelled out, ‘I have three children by two different men, it’s hard and I need a partner.’”

Paul, 31, shares daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 5, with ex-husband Tate Paul, and son Ever, 2, with Mortensen. She was named the season 22 lead in fall 2025, with her premiere originally set for March 22 — a departure from the show’s traditional summer window that was announced with considerable fanfare on Call Her Daddy.

“It does raise the stakes when we have a single parent,” Mills added. “They are thinking of children as well as themselves.”

Paul has said she was open with her contestants throughout filming. “I really told everyone as a whole if there’s anything you want to know, please let me know,” she told Us Weekly in March. “I wasn’t trying to shove everything down their throat… I wanted to tell them what they wanted to know. Please ask anything. I am [a] very open book.”

Where Things Stand for Taylor Now

The timeline of the past few months has been a lot. In February, a new domestic violence investigation involving Paul and Mortensen was opened by Utah’s Draper City Police Department. Production on The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 5 paused. Then in mid-April, authorities confirmed Paul would not be charged, and filming on Mormon Wives resumed.

Through it all, people close to Paul say she’s been doing the quiet work. “She has been doing the work behind the scenes, taken accountability and is focused on moving forward in a more positive way,” an insider told Us Weekly. “The hope is that viewers would connect with that growth and see a different side of her, making this season feel like a true redemption moment rather than just a return to TV, but right now her priority is her family and her mental health.”

Taylor herself has said she’s hopeful the season eventually airs. And the financial stakes for ABC are real — Page Six previously reported the network is out tens of millions of dollars on a season that’s already been fully produced. An industry source told the outlet back in March that “ABC left a window in their statement to bring [the show] back. They haven’t canceled it — they simply paused it.”

For now, ABC has renewed The Bachelor, Bachelor in Paradise, and Dancing with the Stars for the 2026-27 season. The Bachelorette isn’t on that list either — but Mills’s words keep echoing. “If it gets seen,” he told Variety, “I’m sure people will absolutely enjoy it.”