During a short segment during Jimmy Kimmel Live! Monday night, ABC confirmed reports that they had cast the first black lead of a Bachelor show: Rachel Lindsay, who is currently wrapping up Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor, will be the next Bachelorette.
ABC only hinted at the news during Monday night’s episode of The Bachelor, with a brief preview that said Kimmel would reveal the next Bachelorette on his show. But it had already been reported by Reality Steve Monday (after being reported by Amy Kaufman of the LA Times last week), and was then picked up by numerous publications; The Hollywood Reporter, EW, and Variety were among those claiming to have confirmed the report with their own sources—some citing Kaufman and/or Reality Steve, some not—indicating that there are still few who will actually report on this show, despite the influence of reality television on our real lives.
Given that Jimmy Kimmel is not actually taped live (it’s live to tape, though takes place on the West Coast, which delays things a bit), the news was bound to leak, but perhaps executives didn’t want it to leak so early. Or they knew it would and thought the leak(s) would hype things even more—whatever the case, it worked. By the time Kimmel aired, Rachel as the new Bachelorette was such a sure thing that Ellen had Instagrammed a photo all but confirming her.
As he’s been working The Bachelor into his show more and more, Kimmel found a way to incorporate the show into his monologue, combining it into some thing about Valentine’s Day and Trump Valentines that weren’t anywhere near as good as ours.