The fallout can serve as a cautionary tale for the industry, experts who spoke to the BBC say.
There’s a perpetual conflict between entertainment and responsibility in reality TV shows, because conflict drives the story, said Hemmings, author of Familiar Strangers: The Psychology of our Relationship with Fame in the Age of Visibility.
ABC as a broadcast network is held to higher standard than it’s streaming partner Hulu due to oversight by the federal regulator and advertisers, who may be skittish when it comes to racy programming.
Her troubling history – a criminal conviction, alcohol use and mental health issues – was either neglected or ignored, and certainly didn’t make her worth the risk to cast, said Hemmings.
“They just got it wrong,” Hemmings said.
It has left many fans and media experts wondering how ABC could have dropped the ball.
“This is a very expensive blunder,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and head of West Coast Trial Lawyers, who used to represent Disney.
He estimates that there will be an eight-figure fallout, and said while he expects the company to survive, it’s “embarrassing and it is costly”.
It’s unclear whether The Bachelorette, which was already filmed, is simply being preempted for a period of time or if it will never see the light of day. Season five of SLOMW has also been put on pause.
But pulling out was “probably the right move” for the family-friendly Disney, which likely had “an out” in its contract to cover breaches of its morality clause, Rahmani said.
“This was a clear risk that they underestimated. She was either not properly vetted or vetted poorly, and these red flags were ignored,” he added.
“If you’re asking me, there’s absolutely no way I would cast someone who has… a felony hanging over her head, no matter how popular she is.”
Disney has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.
“They’re keeping what they do close to the vest right now,” said Jeff Schneider, an entertainment attorney who is the executive director of the Center for Sports, Entertainment, Media & Technology Law at the University of Southern California.
He suspects Warner Bros Television – the studio that produces The Bachelorette – and ABC are already negotiating a new deal, as well as how to recoup any losses with advertisers.
