'The Bachelor' Host Ends 19-Year Reign Over Ridiculous Controversy
Chris Harrison, the longtime host of ABC’s “The Bachelor” franchise, was officially canceled Tuesday, just months after he asked for “grace” and “compassion” for a former contestant who herself had experienced the wrath of cancel culture.
Harrison had been at ABC for 19 years but stepped away earlier this year amid a controversy over contestant Rachael Kirkconnell.
He announced on his Instagram page Tuesday that his breakup with the left-wing network and the show’s creators and distributors has been made permanent.
“I’ve had a truly incredible run as host of The Bachelor franchise and now I’m excited to start a new chapter,” Harrison told his followers. “I’m so grateful to Bachelor Nation for all of the memories we’ve made together. While my two-decade journey is wrapping up, the friendships I’ve made will last a lifetime.”
Certainly, Harrison’s walking papers won’t leave him struggling financially. According to entertainment industry insider Dominic Patten, Harrison is believed to have received a multimillion-dollar payout to walk away.
“Having fronted the Mike Fleiss-created ‘The Bachelor’ and all its lucrative ABC spinoffs since 2002, Harrison will receive a rose of his own in the form of mid-range eight-figure payoff and promise to keep his mouth shut, I hear,” Patten reported for Deadline.
“The usual platitudes are expected to be exchanged for public consumption when the agreement is made public later today, but there is certainly no romance in the air behind the scenes,” he added.
Patten reported that David Spade and others will fill in for Harrison while the franchise finds a new host.
Even if you never watched “The Bachelor” or its spinoffs, you likely knew Harrison’s face and voice. Wasn’t this guy everything to that show? He was certainly a mainstay at ABC.
[firefly_poll]
It’s tragic what can derail a career these days. Harrison, who never said anything remotely racist, was canceled for defending someone else who was being canceled for wrongly being accused of being racist.
Kirkconnell, who won the show’s 25th season, was attacked over having attended a “plantation-themed fraternity party” at Georgia College & State University in 2018, when she was 19.
Asked about that controversy in February, Harrison stood up for the brunette when asked about the controversy by “Extra.”
“First and foremost, I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Rachael about it. And this is, again, where we all need to have a little grace, a little understanding, a little compassion,” he said. “Because I’ve seen some stuff online — again this judge-jury-executioner thing — where people are just tearing this girl’s life apart and diving into, like, her parents and her parents’ voting record. It’s unbelievably alarming to watch this. I haven’t heard Rachael speak on this yet. And until I actually hear this woman have a chance to speak, who am I to say any of this?”
Harrison didn’t pile on and simply asked for grace for a teen who wore a dress to a party. But America’s racist anti-racism warriors don’t feel compassion, and they don’t care about what’s truly in someone’s heart. They came for Harrison next.
He offered an apology when the online mob targeted him over his comments.
“To my Bachelor Nation family — I will always own a mistake when I make one, so I am here to extend a sincere apology,” he wrote to his followers on Instagram on Feb. 10 “I have this incredible platform to speak about love, and yesterday, I took a stance on topics about which I should have been better informed. While I do not speak for Rachael Kirkconnell, my intentions were simply to ask for grace in offering her an opportunity to speak on her own behalf.”
It didn’t matter. On Feb. 13, Harrison announced he would be “stepping aside for a period of time.”
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh put it best, tweeting, “Insanity on top of insanity. A Bachelor contestant attended an antebellum themed party. Somehow the picture below was deemed racist. Then the host of the show said we should extend her grace and not assume she’s racist, and THAT was deemed racist too.”
Insanity on top of insanity. A Bachelor contestant attended an antebellum themed party. Somehow the picture below was deemed racist. Then the host of the show said we should extend her grace and not assume she’s racist, and THAT was deemed racist too. He is now stepping down. pic.twitter.com/ue9l95ElRb
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 14, 2021
Now Harrison has permanently left “The Bachelor,” providing another scalp for the “woke” mob.
Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey summarized Harrison, the movement that got him canceled and our sick society in a tweet that perfectly summed up where we’re at socially.
“Chris Harrison was ousted from The Bachelor after 20 yrs bc he said we should forgive a girl who wore an antebellum dress in college, while a Yale psychologist is praised for depicting her fantasy of murdering white people. The ‘anti-racist’ movement isn’t making society better,” Stuckey noted.
Chris Harrison was ousted from The Bachelor after 20 yrs bc he said we should forgive a girl who wore an antebellum dress in college, while a Yale psychologist is praised for depicting her fantasy of murdering white people. The “anti-racist” movement isn’t making society better.
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) June 8, 2021
Harrison’s only crime here was apologizing for standing up for Kirkconnell.
It’s common knowledge at this point that you never say you’re sorry to the cancel culture mob.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
