transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] This is The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast with IHeartRadio.

Speaker 2:
[00:06] We're back in the Almost Famous Podcast. We're here today because we've got some more breaking news.

Speaker 3:
[00:13] Shocking. We have breaking news around here.

Speaker 2:
[00:15] It's wild. It's like four times a week. We've now gotten some clarity on the fate of The Bachelor franchise, and also some news on Taylor Frankie Paul. Let's start with Taylor Frankie Paul. It just came out, Ashley, that she's deactivated. It looks like all social media.

Speaker 3:
[00:34] I make light of the fact that it's breaking news around here because we have so much of it when it comes to Taylor Frankie Paul, but this is really actually quite serious for her. She's never done anything like this. This is her livelihood, and we were honestly, for lack of a better term, a little bit weirded out when she didn't take a social media break after the postponement or whatever you want to call it of the bachelorette. Here she is completely turning off social, especially strange that it's after a string of posts in which she was like, this is what I've been doing to get better emotionally and mentally, and for you guys on my journey with me. Her sister is the only one who's commented, and she said everybody has a breaking point. That's basically all we got from her. I don't know what happened over the past week where she decided that enough is enough and then this is an interesting tidbit from a TikToker who noticed her last post, her last regram. She didn't actually post it, but it was the last one that she liked and reshared. She said, humble enough to know I am replaceable at work, but confident enough to know it would take three people. This is on the tails of some is she news from ABC. Rob Mills has made comments at the ABC event that they had this week where he did announce, as you said earlier in the podcast, that Bachelor will return, Bachelor in Paradise will also return, but in 2027, but Taylor's involvement in season five that is currently filming now of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is up in the air.

Speaker 2:
[02:28] It's going to be limited, at least. Based on our conversation yesterday, you can go back and listen to breaking down her decision to be on Secret Lives of Mormon Wives or not. Allegedly, she has declined. She was given the decision. She said no, but she is not closing the door to any appearances on the season. But Ashley, that does bring us into kind of our breaking news when it comes to The Bachelor. You've mentioned that Rob Mills did state that in 2027, Bachelor in Paradise and The Bachelor will be returning. He did not, though, clarify anything about The Bachelorette, probably because that's still up in the air. But he does comment on it. The question was asked to him whether season 22 of The Bachelorette, starring Taylor Frankie Paul, will ever air is a different question. Mills says he doesn't know whether it will ever air on ABC or stream on Hulu, and it's taking everything day to day. Ashley, that comment was made based on the recent decision from Salt Lake City, where the county's district attorney's office declined to file charges against Paul.

Speaker 3:
[03:47] My thought is that they're going to do something with it.

Speaker 2:
[03:52] I think so.

Speaker 3:
[03:53] The April 30th thing comes back clear. She gets custody of Ever on April 30th. I think they're going to do something with it because he's not ruling it out. If they are okay with her being on another one of their shows, since they have not let her go, for we know that she will return in some capacity to Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, I'm thinking that they're going to be okay with her going forward with The Bachelor that's already been filmed.

Speaker 2:
[04:21] The interesting thing here, Ashley, obviously the big news is that The Bachelor will be returning in 2027 along with Paradise. It's April of 2026 right now.

Speaker 3:
[04:34] What are we going to talk about for the next nine months, Ben?

Speaker 2:
[04:37] Real Housewives.

Speaker 3:
[04:37] The Taylor News keeps going. We have real Housewives and we have Taylor News.

Speaker 2:
[04:43] But it's interesting. That's a year away that he's saying it will come back.

Speaker 3:
[04:48] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[04:51] I guess my question there is why so long of a hiatus? The Paradise has been so infrequent the way it is. We took a season off, then it came back for a season. Now we're going to take another season off. I'm not an expert in entertainment. I just imagine the, I mean, I've always been told the more you post, the more episodes you can put out there, the more people are going to stay tuned and become loyal to it. I don't know if that's true in TV or not, but it's a long break.

Speaker 3:
[05:29] It's a really long break. I guess it's okay to restart. I haven't noticed that any of our other long breaks, like COVID or whatnot, have helped Bachelor. We need to have a long break with something to boom, be like long break and boom to really reset it.

Speaker 2:
[05:48] Yeah, something like Wild. Our producer is saying that maybe because of this newly announced show at ABC, it's a Dancing with the Stars reality show where people are competing to become the next pro hosted by Robert Irwin who is kind of been rumored to be asked to be a bachelor. He's too young, you think?

Speaker 3:
[06:08] I think he's probably too young. He's like 23 right now. Let me read you this quote.

Speaker 2:
[06:12] Well, if they wait till 2027, he'll be 33.

Speaker 3:
[06:15] Okay, never mind. This quote from Rob Nils, which if you guys don't know Rob Nils by name, he is the head of Unscripted at ABC and Hulu. So he says, I don't think we need to talk about something that is a year off. Hopefully at next year's Get Real, which is like the conference they're at right now, we'll be talking more about it. So it's like totally frozen. So I feel like the only chance we have at anything Bachelor related this year will be if Taylor's season is released and it makes sense why it's going to take so long to get something else out there. Yeah, because like we can't do Paradise without some fresh casts. You know, I said cast. That's silly. We need a fresh Bachelorette and Bachelor season to create a Bachelor in Paradise. Golden, I mean, even if they were to film Golden today and they're not nearly there with casting, it still wouldn't air until July. So that's not going to happen. And then with Bachelor, I mean, they've got a lot of work to do there, too, because they don't have a group of guys to pick from. And if they need to stunt cast it, which they probably do, they have to find the right stunt caster.

Speaker 2:
[07:31] The quote from Rob Mills is interesting. The Bachelor he believes will rise again. It's just, he says it's too good of a format. I would agree. I think there's a lot of opportunities for The Bachelor to rise again, but it's the decisions and the way that it's presented. I mean, I think the Bachelorette was on the verge of rising again. It was two days away from really having some of historic ratings and a lot of interest and intrigue. I think all of this, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Rob was getting these questions, because it's very interesting that they are being asked at Get Real, which is the unscripted conference and announcement, with a very small Bachelor presence at this conference. You had, I think, a picture of four or five former contestants and leads that attended this. If we would have flashback 10 years ago, a conference like this for Disney would have been, the structure of this, the foundation of it would have been Bachelor. But it's not, they like invited people from Los Angeles, locals, and to like ask if they want to come. This was not like a big performance. It was almost like the show didn't exist.

Speaker 3:
[08:51] Right. And just going off topic a bit, but I don't predict that there will be, that there's a real hunger for a Golden Bachelor season. I agree. So I don't even really like count that as part of the franchise right now.

Speaker 2:
[09:16] It's interesting to me, Ashley, as I sit here, and I'm with Rob, I agree. I think the format is good, I think it will rise again. I'm gonna believe that, I wanna believe it. The franchise has done so much for you and I personally, and so many of our friends, but it is interesting to sit in a place, and I think everybody would have to admit to this. Right now, that show is dead. Now, it could, it's not like, you know, I guess dead would be like done. It's on its last breath. It will have to rise again to get back on television. The Golden was massive. It's done. And it all happened in one season. I don't want to blame Mel for that, but that show's done. And then our producer goes, I do. Yeah. Taylor, I mean, The Bachelorette, done. Right? And now we have this place where we have this hiatus of saying we're going to wait another year to air television. I do believe the franchise is strong, but how does it come back? And that's my question for you, Ashley. How does it come back?

Speaker 3:
[10:22] Okay. It comes back to me, and this is maybe way too personal, too personal of a feeling. But I feel like The Bachelor is one of the most wholesome reality TV shows out there. And I think that's how people just like getting a little too tired of the raunch of Temptation Island and Love Island.

Speaker 2:
[10:46] Like the pendulum comes back.

Speaker 3:
[10:48] Yeah. The only thing that I have to say that's hilarious is who is the host of the show that's actually trying to bring wholesome back? Chris Harrison. Their Fox Nation show is all about like...

Speaker 2:
[11:03] Yeah, I forgot about that.

Speaker 3:
[11:03] Well, this is probably going a little bit more back in time than back to wholesome, but it's like people who want an additional stay at home mom. I know from what I've heard from casting over there, they've said that they feel like it's going to feel like old school bachelor.

Speaker 2:
[11:20] Yeah, I don't think they set a traditional values things to get people talking. I mean, this isn't a, hey mom, you can't work, be at home all the time.

Speaker 3:
[11:30] You don't think so? No. Oh, okay.

Speaker 2:
[11:34] I think it's like...

Speaker 3:
[11:35] I thought it was trad wives.

Speaker 2:
[11:37] Yeah, I think that's what they kind of wanted people to, and then they'll watch and be like, oh no, this is old school bachelor.

Speaker 3:
[11:42] Okay.

Speaker 2:
[11:44] I think.

Speaker 3:
[11:44] We'll see. We'll see. Anyway, when I watch reality TV, because everybody's always like, do you watch this? Do you watch that? Like, how do you be? How can you be on reality TV? And then like, you don't watch a ton. And I'm like, because a lot of the stuff makes me feel uncomfortable. I will say what watching our show back, Housewives of Rhode Island doesn't make me feel uncomfortable. There is like something like more grounded feeling and like more familially oriented than like a lot of the like love, quote, quote, love shows, which is really just hook up shows.

Speaker 2:
[12:21] Yeah, you're right. There's very few like love shows. It's hook up shows. It's hot people shows.

Speaker 3:
[12:28] Exactly. And that makes me so uncomfortable. You and I.

Speaker 2:
[12:31] Yeah, I guess I don't have any concept for them. I mean, I've heard rumors about these shows and that they have live cameras in the in the bedrooms and there's like sounds and noises. I'm like, I don't want to see that.

Speaker 3:
[12:45] Like the night camera vision, like with the cameras launched in the corner of the room, that pushes my moral envelope. I know that it happens sometimes with fantasy suites in paradise, but that like for some reason it just feels fine. It feels like it's within the bounds of love because those people are always in serious relationships and these other shows, it's just like you're hot tonight and I'm drunk and I'm like, no.

Speaker 2:
[13:10] Yeah. It's going to be interesting, Ashley. I'm glad that Rob Mills was answering these questions that he said it would come back. That does give me confidence. He is the one that could speak to it and say it, I think, and I hope Rob listens. I feel for him and the team. They have a massive job in front of them and I don't think that's understating it, overstating it. I don't think that's anything they don't know. There is going to have to be a lot of intention, geniusness, wisdom to pull this off. So I'm glad I'm hearing him say it. I think they have a good team there. Do I believe it's actually going to happen? I can't say I do. I'm not confident that they can think like that sounds like I'm going against them. I just don't know how it comes back after a year hiatus is pretty much what I'm saying.

Speaker 3:
[14:05] It comes back with a really good famous bachelor.

Speaker 2:
[14:08] Maybe that could be it.

Speaker 3:
[14:08] Who's like wholesome and grounded like oh like I would love like an NFL player who is well known but not. No such thing Ashley. What are you talking about? My sister is here to join in for her podcast with Ben about the Real Housewives of Rhode Island.

Speaker 2:
[14:27] She is a thing.

Speaker 3:
[14:28] I'll leave you guys to it. Lauren, can you think of one bachelor off the top of your head? No, but I was just going to say thank goodness for Farmer Wants a Wife though.

Speaker 2:
[14:36] You guys are forgetting all about that.

Speaker 3:
[14:38] Do you like Farmer Wants a Wife?

Speaker 2:
[14:39] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[14:40] I don't know how they find these hot cowboys everywhere. All right. Well, guys, I'm sure we'll be back later this week with an update on Taylor Frankie Paul's socials because, I mean, they're active, left with no departure, no departure warning.

Speaker 2:
[14:56] Let's say thanks to ABC and Hulu for commenting publicly that this show will come back. We both want to come back.

Speaker 3:
[15:01] Yeah, I know. We're so happy about that. That is truly like such good news for us. I would be so sad if we were living in a bachelor free world.

Speaker 2:
[15:09] Maybe we can get Rob on. Let's see if we can get Rob on.

Speaker 3:
[15:12] Will he?

Speaker 2:
[15:13] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[15:15] He's so sweet to us. He's always been good to me.

Speaker 2:
[15:17] Yeah, he's open to talk. Let's get him on to really dive in to maybe where his mind's at. I think that would be good for us, the show, the listeners. Hey, where do you see this going? I think would be a big conversation and a really good one for everybody to hear. If he was put on the hot seat to say, hey, I'm so glad you said this, but how are you going to do it would be fun and get people excited for 2027. Well, hey, that's the breaking news for the day. We'll be back breaking down the Real Housewives of Rhode Island. We also on the Almost Famous Podcast are breaking down Farmer Wants a Wife because of Heather Martin's appearance on the show. We have breaking news all the time. We're going to keep going because Bachelor Nation is everywhere and you, the listener, want to hear it and we want to talk about it. Until next time, I've been Ben.

Speaker 3:
[16:04] I've been Ashley.

Speaker 1:
[16:05] Bye. Follow The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcasts on IHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.