Brett Cooper — WTF Is Wrong With The Bachelorette Producers? | Episode 153

Guys, do you ever have one of those days where just everything makes you angry? Like my mom and I call it the I hate everyone days. It's like every single little thing that goes wrong could go wrong. You're just in a bad mood. You open up apps and you see everybody fighting and yelling at each other. You're like, "Ugh, this is just making everything worse." That was me today. And I had an idea of what I wanted to talk about and I was like, "Okay, I mean, I get it.

It's fine." But like I wasn't bought into it yet until I found the thread of hypocrisy. There's always something hypocritical with these like pop culture stories, but I mean, this one it just really started to grind my gears. And I might be able to chalk it up to the fact that I was just having one of those moods, but I also think it's just so indicative to so many parts of our culture. It's just so disgusting and ridiculous.

And so that, my friends, is why we need to talk about the latest season of The Bachelor. Now, before we dive into that, I know you're like, "Brett, how did we get here?" I want to thank you guys for subscribing to the channel. If you enjoy this video, if you're like, "Why am I sitting here listening to a girl talk about The Bachelor?" then leave us a like and make sure to ring that notification bell so that you always stay up to date on our very fun ridiculous videos all over the map from culture to politics.

Make sure you stay up to date by ringing that notification bell. All right, so guys, what we are needing to talk about today are the absolutely insane lengths that these networks, these reality TV shows, the reality TV show stars are going to to keep their shows relevant. It is just getting out of hand. And like I said before we did the little transition there, it is the perfect analogy for how ridiculously hypocritical and just just completely out of whack our society has gotten.

And yes, that means that we are talking about Taylor Frankie Paul and the latest season of The Bachelorette. If you do not know, Taylor Frankie Paul, she is a social media famous woman with multiple baby daddies, a history of swinging multiple domestic violence disputes, including one from just 48 hours ago, which we are going to talk about. And yet this week, she is premiering as the lead in The Bachelorette, which is just so ironic because a few years ago, after a series of racial transgressions, The Bachelor franchise at large, ABC, they committed to making this franchise the upstanding reality TV show.

They were holding themselves to high standards when it came to their contestants and who they cast on the show. They wanted to be the better reality television. Obviously, considering she is the new star of the show, they changed their mind. Because here is where we are as a society. Allegations, just fake allegations of past racism are apparently more problematic than somebody with a history of domestic abuse. That?

Well, guys, obviously in 2026, that's just good content. All right, so let's just dive into this here. So, if you are not plugged in to the world of The Bachelor, Bachelorette reality TV, this is what you need to know about this woman, Taylor Frankie Paul. So, in order to understand her, we need to take it back to 2021. This was like TikTok heyday, when all the big stars of today were first blowing up on TikTok. It was pandemic BLM time.

Everybody was doing the Renegade. They were making their fluffy coffee. And Taylor Frankie Paul started something called Mom Talk, which was essentially just her and her friends who were also young Mormon moms in Utah like her. It was just them all making TikToks and they would collaborate, but they all kind of blew up at time. And this entire coalition, this little group, blew up. And these girls were like 23, 24 years old.

They already had a few kids. And it just went crazy. So, that was in 2021. Then, oh boy, scandal rocked Mom Talk. The world shifted ON ITS AXIS. BECAUSE IN 2022, Taylor went live on TikTok and she detailed how she and her husband and two other unnamed couples from Mom Talk had been swinging. They had a little bit of a swinger situation. But apparently, the whole thing had gone south. And while that could just be another day in Hollywood with all of these celebrities in Mormon Utah, this was a big deal.

Now, with all of this came the obvious breakdown and divorce of two of the marriages involved, including Taylor's and her husband's. And there were so many rumors about who was involved in the swinging and who wasn't and who they had crossed boundaries with. Like, the whole thing was like they had agreed to swing, but there were people that were off limits. And then they crossed those boundaries. And then they sort of had an affair, but it was like messy because it was swinging.

The whole thing was just like ridiculous and absurd and so toxic, so unhealthy, but it did result in two different divorces. And so, at this point in 2022, and I promise we're getting to the bachelor, but this is important context. But, by 2022, Taylor Frankie Paul, she is at the height of her fame thanks to Mom Tok and the scandal. She's getting a divorce, and then she announces that she has started dating a new man named Dakota.

And Hulu around the same time announces that they are turning Mom Tok into a reality show, which you may know, you might have heard of, called The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. And this is really where things get crazy. Because in that first season is when we learn that Taylor and this new boyfriend Dakota were involved in a domestic violence dispute. Now, Taylor, at the time she was arrested, she was charged with domestic violence and child abuse after allegedly throwing a chair that hit her boyfriend Dakota and then hit her daughter from her previous marriage.

So, insane, insane, insane, insane. And you would think that this would be the end of this woman, that her relationship would fall apart, her show would fall apart, she would have no career after that. But, that is not how the modern world works. And obviously, bad behavior is rewarded. in the case of Taylor and Dakota, love conquers all. Because just a couple of months later, she announced that they were having a baby together.

And so now, years later, we're in season five of The Secret Lives show, she and Dakota's toxic relationship has been the main story line of the show for the last three seasons. So now, that's all the backstory you need to know. Jump forward to present day, and while she and Dakota have apparently split, they've moved on from this toxic relationship, she is announced as the next Bachelorette back in September, which will be now premiering next week.

And my first thought when I saw that was obviously trash. Like, I have not watched The Bachelor franchise in years, but this just grossed me out for all of the reasons that I just laid out. to mooch off of the Tik Tok audience and the Secret Lives audience that, you know, Hulu has dominated. ABC wants to pull that over. They want to use her. And I have not watched The Bachelor franchise in years, and you're going to see why.

But, the whole thing, it just grossed me out. Also, I saw this tweet this morning and it cracked me up because it is so true. Harrison Cranks posted this and he said, "If you want want get a glimpse into how bad modern dating culture has gotten? 22 men are about to compete on national television for the chance to marry a single mom of three who cheated on her previous husband and has an open domestic assault case against her.

That's where we're at. And all these men are lining up hoping for a chance. But also, we know because of how The Bachelor works in the modern era, it's not actually about trying to find love. That is so 2008 whenever it launched. Like now, you go on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette to try to become a social media influencer. So, it makes sense that they are hiring social media influencer to be the star. Anyway, that is a rant for another day.

Anyway, moving on. Well, I guess this is kind of jumping off of that point, but obviously The Bachelor did this for a reason. Their viewership has been dwindling for years as it has with basically all network television. They needed the help of social media to boost them. And to be fair, Secret Lives has a major following. And when this was first announced, you know, that fan base, and Taylor Frankie Paul's fan base, was so excited.

They were like, "Oh my gosh, I haven't watched The Bachelor in years. I'm so excited. You know, I'm diving back in. You've got me." And coming off of the last season of Secret Lives, like Taylor was the fan favorite. People thought that she was done with Dakota. She had turned a new leaf. She had this amazing story arc. So, people were ready to rally behind her. Until, guys, until things turned south. Until this week, when season 4 of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives came out, which showed people that actually, even though she had turned a new leaf, even though she had broken up with him, and she was going on The Bachelorette to find true love, actually, Taylor Frankie Paul was sleeping with her toxic ex Dakota until the night before she left for The Bachelorette to find true love, to find the man that she was going to marry.

Throughout that season 4, Taylor also continued to lose her mind over Dakota sleeping with other women and dating around, including some of her friends, which had happened previously. She also continuously told everyone around her that she needed help and that she was not mentally okay. And you can love her or hate her, but I don't think you can dispute the statement, but clearly this is not a woman that is doing okay.

We have watched her break down on social media, on reality TV, time and time again. She's been in these toxic situations. She's dealt with substance abuse. She's always, you know, getting way too drunk. She's breaking down in front of the entire world. And despite all of that, she went on to film The Bachelorette. They were like, "This is the perfect person to put on even more reality TV. She's in the best spot of her life to be The Bachelorette."

Like, this woman is not well. She is certainly not well done. Like, I like my good Ranchers steaks. Now, I will say, since giving birth, I'm less interested in well-done steak. I think that was just a pregnancy weirdness. But regardless, what has not changed is that I still love good Ranchers. Now, as America turns 250 years old this year, everyone is going to be talking about our country's amazing, greatest milestones.

But I want to take it a step further. I want to honor the people behind the scenes, the American ranchers who work so hard to keep us fed so that we could achieve all of these amazing things. And good Ranchers exist to protect that legacy. Now, unlike other competitors in this space, Good Ranchers is a meat company that is 100% committed to America. Every cut they offer that comes to your house is raised on local American farms and ranches.

From the pasture to the final seal on every box, their entire operation, packaging and fulfillment included, takes place locally. So, to support a company that honors America's past, present, and future, visit goodranchers.com today. And when you subscribe and start your plan, you will get to pick a free meat that will be included in every order for life. And you will get $100 off your first three orders by using my exclusive code Brett at checkout.

Again, that is code Brett at checkout for $100 off your first three orders at goodranchers.com. It's American meat delivered. Now, Good Ranchers is out there delivering meat while Angel Studios is delivering amazing films. And they have a new documentary that is a must-see, especially for parents or if you think you're going to be a parent soon. If you're interested in the education system, you need to watch this. It is called The Death of Recess, and it breaks down how the modern education system didn't just fail.

It was actually intentionally built this way, centralized and standardized and protected by powerful institutions who do not have children's best interests at heart. And once you see who shaped it and who benefits from keeping the system broken, everything clicks. I mean, we are talking about collapsing test scores and billions of dollars flowing through educational organizations, zero accountability. And somehow, per usual with government, the answer is always give us more money and give us more control.

Meanwhile, things like recess disappear, parents get pushed out, and as we all know, ideology keeps creeping further and further into classrooms. It is all about a system that protects itself, not your kids. And the fact that this documentary even exists is because Angel Studios is willing to put out films that mainstream platforms will not touch. So, if this sounds like something you need to watch, go to angel.com/cooper and watch The Death of Recess on Angel right now.

If you are a parent or care about the future of kids, this film will change how you see the education system forever. Again, that is angel.com/ Cooper to watch The Death of Recess now. All right, now back to the point and why the Bachelor franchise chose to hire Taylor Frankie Paul. I understand that it is giving them views. I understand that they are probably desperate to compete with the shows on streaming services.

They need to spice things up because the other reality TV shows are so crazy. But like this is insanity. And here is what really gets me. This is what made me want to sit down and do this episode. This is what really just amped up my triggered on this nice Tuesday morning. Now, I don't know if you guys remember or don't know if you've ever been a part of Bachelor Nation, if you've watched the show, but back in the height of BLM, 2020, 2021, Bachelor Nation, the Bachelor franchise faced a scandal when the internet dug up racially unflattering, I guess you could say, photos of one of the contestants.

And it resulted in a broken relationship. It resulted in the beloved Chris Harrison being fired or like kind of pushing him out. I still have not forgiven them for that because I love him. It resulted in the entire franchise, Bachelor Nation itself, dedicating themselves to doing better, to being more upstanding, to have more integrity. And so now knowing all of that, you might be thinking, okay, what was this racist atrocity that created all of these waves throughout reality TV?

Well, the atrocity was that one of the contestants, a girl from the South, went to her sorority's antebellum-themed formal. Can you even imagine? I mean, how racist did she have to be to dress up in an old South style dress and go to a party? Oh my god, it's the worst. Here's one of the posts back from 2021. "Photos have now emerged of Rachael Kirkconnell at an antebellum plantation-themed fraternity formal in 2018.

Guys, they picked her out of a lineup of like 25 girls wearing big poofy southern dresses and they used this to cancel her. Like, oh my god, give me a freaking break. She wore an antebellum style dress. LIKE, GO GET HER, TAR AND FEATHER HER. LIKE, SERIOUSLY, LIKE, I cannot believe that we survived 2021. Like, that was such an era of mass psychosis. It was truly insane that these two photos resulted in the breakdown of an entire reality TV show franchise and it threatened to ruin this girl's life.

Like, this will follow her forever because of a party that she and hundreds of other people went to while she was in college. Anyway, moving on from my little rant there. Because of this obvious, you know, crime against the black community and white saviors at large, The Bachelor franchise decided to reform and they took this opportunity to apologize to their audience and they said, you know, moving forward, we are going to work diligently, we're going to work so hard to vet all of the contestants, everybody on the show and we're going to hold them to such high standards.

We're never going to let this happen again. We only want the best of the best on our show. We are going to vet everyone. They even had an article in The Hollywood Reporter which said that the franchise had evolved its vetting process by improving the show's background checks and more closely monitoring the contestants' social media. In the past few cycles, and this involved Rachel Bo Cornel, the franchise has even released the names of the contestants early in hopes of bringing any offensive or questionable candidates to light early on.

Which also, as a side they are saying here is that they are releasing everybody's name online for the express purpose of letting internet trolls and an angry mob tear these innocent people apart before they even get onto television to let the internet do its dirty work for them. It's like, here they are, we're going to be mad about and we will adjust accordingly. Instead of actually casting based on good values and any kind of set standards, they just want to be careful about what the internet is going to pick apart.

Now, do you see where I'm going with this? Do you see how ridiculous and hypocritical this is? Because you could be a woman, a nice, sweet, great woman in her early 20s who went to a party with 100 other people 4 years ago and have a major network publicly back your cancellation. Now, if ABC and Disney all stand behind the angry woke mob, they will turn the show upside down. They will fire the beloved host for being empathetic to you.

They will then get the black fiance that you met on the show to distance himself from you because of racism. They will do all of that. And yet, they're now telling us that it is totally fine to be a woman on the show when you have previous domestic assault charges against you. To be a woman who broke up her marriage because she broke boundaries in her soft swinging arrangement to have alleged substance abuse problems.

Like that's okay. Like I'm sorry, spare me the ridiculous virtue signaling. You never cared about integrity or morality in the first place. Like how insane is that? To me, at least, it is so obvious that these, you know, high standards, these vetting processes were not to make sure that the contestants were actually morally sound, but to make sure that they didn't do something superficially offensive to the woke mob.

Like that's why they were releasing the names in the first place. They weren't actually doing their due diligence. They just wanted to know what people online would think about it. And this is why you should care about it, even if you've never watched your life in Mormon wives, even if you hate The Bachelor, even if you've never even heard of Mom Tok, because it's apparently okay for Taylor Frankie Paul to have multiple domestic abuse charges against her, to be mentally unwell, to be a swinger, because that is what is acceptable in today's society.

But a sorority girl at a party at a plantation, oh, let's ruin her life. Like that, apparently, is the line in the sand, but everything else with Taylor Frankie Paul, that's totally fine. And you might come back at me and say, "Brett, it's not that deep. It doesn't matter. Like The Bachelor franchise is struggling. Business Insider even called it a relic a few years ago. They just want the views." And I think that that is very true.

I agree. But let's be real here. This Taylor Frankie Paul is not the singular exception. In fact, she is not the only one whose history of domestic violence has gotten past the so-called extensive vetting process since the show was revamped post that racist scandal. For example, back in 2024, it came out that one of the contestants on The Bachelorette was actually previously arrested on allegations that he burglarized his ex's home and that she had a petition protection against him.

And then, literally later that month, it came out that one of the contestants on The Golden Bachelorette, which is like the senior citizen version of The Bachelor, it came out that one of those contestants even had a temporary restraining order against him from one of his exes. And obviously, I'm not trying to say that I know everything about these stories. I don't I don't know the ins and outs, who was in the right, if any of this was, you know, actually serious.

But the point that I am making here is that this is not some ironclad upstanding vetting process, and that they've just made some exemption for Taylor. No, there is no excuse with her. I mean, this entire story, it was all over season 1 of her own reality TV show. And also, the reason why I am talking about this in the first place today is that within the last 48 hours, the news broke that she is involved yet again with another domestic violence incident, which you can see right here.

We'll put it up on screen. TMZ broke the story, and it has now been confirmed by her local police office that yes, this is happening. Now, sources close to the story, and who knows how real this is, but sources are saying that they were fighting over Dakota, once again, the woman that he's seeing, even though of course she's done with him. She's turned into at least She's done with him, but they're still fighting over the woman that he's sleeping with.

She was at his house, she ripped off his necklace, allegedly grabbed his throat in front of the child that they share together. Dakota then called the cops saying that she was fighting him, but Taylor was begging him, you know, please turn them away, say that nothing happened. So, he did. Now, literally the next night, allegedly, Taylor came over to Dakota's house again to try to smooth things over, but that also did not go well, and it escalated into yet another fight where she scratched him in his face, allegedly, and smashed his phone against the wall, allegedly, and that is when Dakota then actually called the cops.

Looked at him, they recorded the scratches, they took a statement, and now there is an active and open investigation. And now, it is also important to note that both Dakota and Taylor are pointing the finger at each other. They're both accusing each other of domestic abuse, and sources on the show say that this is not a new thing. Obviously, they've been dealing with this since season 1, but it is a long-standing issue between the two of them, and that none of the other stars of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, none of the other Mom Tokers, want to be associated with her anymore, and that the show has stopped filming.

So, they are currently on season 5, that is what they're filming right now, and they have halted all production while they are trying to figure out what the F is going on with this insane couple. So, I mean, this happened 48 hours ago. Perfect timing for the holier-than-thou, better high standards, wonderful reality TV show, The Bachelor, to air her season starting this week. Like, thank god it's not problematic at all.

Thank god it's not offensive that she has no skeletons in the closet. Cuz obviously we all know about all of them. Now, as I was scrolling this morning seeing all of the commentary on this story, I came across this post made by a former Bachelorette star who took the words out of my mouth. Now, this is what she posted on her Instagram story and she wrote this. She said, "The Bachelor is one of the most iconic shows of all time and was so highly respected because they held the contestants to such a high standard.

It was such an honor to be on the cast, let alone to be cast as the lead. That was life-changing. To watch this and see the soon-to-be lead completely disrespect the stage that she has been given, the men who put their entire lives on hold to come and meet her even though I will say they knew what they were getting into because her entire life has been public. Just saying. Anyway, she goes on and she continues and she says, "This is the most important part.

What has happened to morals and values? Clearly this person is not mentally well and for them to cast somebody like this just to get views is beyond me. I know that this is a dying franchise, but why not let the show die out with class and dignity and not stoop down and claw and scrape just to get views. I feel so bad for those guys. Seriously, this is hard to watch somebody completely not care about something so prestigious that so many girls would do anything to be given."

And I know you might roll your eyes and scoff and say, "Ha, The Bachelor being seen as prestigious." But in the grand scheme of that type of television, that was The Bachelor franchise. It was classier. That had a little more prestige than say, you know, Love Island or Love is Blind, whatever the new streaming shows are. It was in a category of its own. And at the beginning of the show it turned out a lot of great couples.

It turned out a lot of really wonderful people and huge celebrities. And now it has just been boiled down to trash, honestly. Because apparently, and this goes for a lot of media and a lot of entertainment, morals and values just simply go out the window when ratings are at play. But if you want to know more about the values and morals behind the scenes of the show, here is what some former contestants said. I pulled this from an article.

They said, quote, "They chopped up pieces of conversation and did voice over. So, they would show a flash of my face, and then they'd flash to something else, but I'd still be talking. So, they chopped up different parts of conversations to string them along to make it sound like a sentence, but that's nothing that I would ever say." And then of the confessional, she said there was nothing real about it. It is scripted.

They basically will call you names, berate you, curse at you until they get you to say what they want you to say. It was really hurtful. After I watched the first episode, I literally wanted to swallow me. They made me feel like they were going to make me out to be America's sweetheart. I went into the experience completely naive and trusting and vulnerable. I let myself get completely manipulated. And if you're like, "Okay, well, this is just one contestant saying that."

Here's a former producer confirming that. Now, this article reads, "For 3 years, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro worked as a producer on the reality TV show The Bachelor. Her task, she recalls it, was to get the contestants to open up and to give them a terrible advice and to deprive them of sleep. She sees it now as complicated manipulation through friendship. To ensure that intense emotions were captured on camera, she sometimes misled the contestants who were about to be rejected.

The night they were going to get dumped, I would go to the hotel room where they were staying and say, 'I'm going to lose my job for telling you this, but he's going to pick you. He's going to propose.'" Like that is insane. It is straight-up manipulation, and apparently this is what happens behind the scenes. Now, if you're looking for a TV show to watch, one of my favorite TV shows from the last, gosh, I don't know, decade or so, is a show called UnREAL.

It only had a few seasons, but it is about the behind the scenes of a show like The Bachelor. And the lead character is a producer like this. It is so dark and so sinister because you see the underbelly of a show that again was held in such high regard and the people loved and it turned out all these amazing people, and then you really see what happens behind the scenes. It's like, "Oh my gosh, all the rumors were true."

Anyway, I think it's on Hulu. It's definitely worth a watch. Maybe I'll go rewatch it after that. It's only a couple of seasons, but it is really really good. But that this is the truth. Like they don't give a crap about morals or good character or actually finding love even or doing the right thing because that at the end of the day doesn't get them views. It is is not popular, unfortunately, in our modern culture.

And honestly, with increased competition with all of these other romantic reality TV shows, The Bachelor, I'm sure, has had to up all of the drama to compete with shows like Too Hot to Handle and Love Island, all of those things. They have to move faster and get crazier and look cheaper. Let me tell you, like it does look cheap. This newest season, it looks ghetto AF. The ads are terrible. They're on awful green screens.

Taylor Frankie Paul looks so cheap, like she doesn't even want to be there. It's just like the entire thing is just terrible. Meanwhile, they've been parading around trying to pretend like they're the good guys and that they have these high standards and good values and that after 2021, they were changing everything to really have integrity. When really, all they have ever cared about was staying in the good graces of social justice warriors and internet trolls.

Like, I'm sorry, ABC and Bachelor franchise, that is not integrity. That is opportunism. And honestly, in my opinion, having Taylor Frankie Paul as the star of the show is such a slap in the face to people like Rachel Kirkconnell and Chris Harrison who almost had their lives destroyed, who did have their lives destroyed for a period of time due to your fake virtue signaling and your toxic empathy. Cuz you didn't just turn a blind eye, you leaned into all of it.

You fed into their cancellations because you wanted to seem so virtuous, like you had so much integrity. And now you turn around and you cast this person as your star. It is so unbelievably hypocritical, but also so unbelievably par for the course. Now, people are obviously going to watch this season because of the scandal, because of how popular Taylor Frankie Paul is and her just crazy messy life. But if you are going to, at the bare minimum, you should at least know the dark truth about the people who are putting on this puppet show.

All right, goals for today. Swap the bull and the heifer because the bull is going in with the other cows that are in this pasture because they need to be bred. She's too young to be bred. So, we're doing little switch swap. Also, need to give the heifer a shot. Um so, Alex is going to do some roping. That's what we're doing. And the baby's talking.