Bachelorette finale sparks fury as ABC is slammed for ‘cruel’ and ‘inhumane’ treatment of star Jenn Tran
ABC has been criticized for The Bachelorette’s “brutal” finale, which saw lead actress Jenn Tran rewatch her failed proposal while crying uncontrollably.
The network is accused of humiliating the 26-year-old during Tuesday night’s explosive three-hour season finale.
Tran, a medical resident student from Hillsdale, New Jersey, proposed to his love Devin Strader, 28, in Hawaii, but he broke things off over the phone shortly after the show ended and refused to speak to her for months.
Tran was then forced to sit next to Strader and relive the pain of her breakup in front of millions of viewers after host Jesse Palmer asked if they should watch a video of her proposal.
“Do I have a choice?” Tran asked desperately before the clip was shown, causing her to break down in sobs throughout.
ABC has been criticized for a “cruel” finale of The Bachelorette after star Jenn Tran was forced to rewatch her ill-fated proposal while crying uncontrollably
Her treatment, especially as the show’s first Asian-American lead actress, has sparked outrage at ABC, with many fans vowing to boycott the show altogether.
“This makes me sick! Jenn shouldn’t have had to go through all of this – how dare you ABC,” TikTok user Layla Taremi fumed.
Another woman, Allie Renee, posted a tearful video claiming she would never watch the show again.
“What the producers put Jenn through was completely bad,” Renee said.
‘Despite how casting works, so many men assumed they would get another woman. They set it up for failure from the start.’
“I just hated watching the last episode about Rose.”
“We waited so long for an Asian American Bachelorette to end up like this?” Melissa Hong said. “I am absolutely appalled by the way they treated her. […] The set seemed so rejecting, so cruel, so neglected.
“As an Asian American, I think a lot of us felt like they didn’t give Jenn time. They just skipped over her trauma.
“You just saw a woman at the height of her heartbreak, I’m just so disappointed. I know it’s reality TV, but at the end of the day she deserves better.”
Tran was forced to relive the pain of her breakup while sitting next to the man who caused it when the show screened her proposal to Devin Shrader during Tuesday’s finale
Viewers expressed their anger at ABC on social media, with some vowing to never watch the show again.
Even Good Morning America host Lara Spencer admitted she found the finale “hard to watch” during Tran’s first interview since the controversy, which took place Wednesday morning.
During the segment, Tran said she didn’t regret proposing to Shrader, but that he was clearly not the same man she fell in love with.
The segment ended with the revelation that Tran will appear on the next season of Dancing With the Stars and with Spencer saying, “You did an amazing job” at the end of the interview.
The Bachelorette opened its final week in Hawaii with Jenn saying she was in love with both Strader and Marcus Shoberg, 32, an Army Ranger veteran from Cloquet, Minnesota. Her family had flown in to support her.
Tran told her parents that Strader had already told her he loved her, but Marcus hadn’t said it yet.
Ultimately, she chose Strader and proposed to him, after which the Houston freight company owner proposed to her as well.
But during the live finale, Tran said that once they left Hawaii, things were different.
She said Strader was becoming more and more withdrawn from him and that she felt subordinate to his life. She explained through tears that Strader had called her and broken off the engagement.
“It’s obvious I let you down,” Devin said. “Everything I felt for you was real.”
Host Jesse Palmer told Jenn he was sorry it didn’t work out for her
Devin and Jenn kissed after their engagement in Hawaii
“He basically said he didn’t love me anymore and he didn’t feel the same way about me anymore,” Tran said. “He regretted getting engaged.”
Palmer said he was shocked. Tran said she didn’t understand what had changed, and that she had last seen him a month ago.
She also revealed that he had become friends with former Bachelor student Maria Georgas, who starred on the same Bachelor season as Jenn, shortly after their split, and that he had been spotted dating co-star Jeremy Simon despite reportedly being heartbroken.
When Strader came out and joined Jenn on stage, she told him that she could try to understand someone who had a change of heart, but she couldn’t understand him ending the engagement over the phone. She said it was disrespectful that the next day she saw that he was following Maria on Instagram.
“It completely invalidated our whole relationship,” Jenn said.
“It’s clear I let you down,” Strader said. “Everything I felt for you was real.”
Strader said that when filming ended, he had a lot of doubts. Jenn said that he hid all his feelings of doubt.
In her first interview since the controversy, Tran said she doesn’t regret asking Shrader to marry her, but she didn’t address the backlash
But even presenter Lara Spencer admitted the final was ‘hard to watch’, before assuring Tran she had done well
“I was unfortunately too late to report,” Strader said, prompting groans from the audience.
“I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you,” Tran said. “You had one foot out the door the whole time.”
Strader said he felt he couldn’t live up to her expectations and get what she deserved.
It was a far cry from the final scenes of their relationship on the series, when Strader told Tran that she was the most important thing in his life.
“I’m so excited to be with you forever,” he said.