ABC's reality dating shows "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" have reportedly been slapped with a class action racial discrimination lawsuit. The suit comes after two aspiring NFL football players reportedly attended a casting call for the show and were rejected in favor of white candidates.
The two shows have run for a combined 23 seasons and thus far there has yet to be a single contestant of color. The two plaintiffs, Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Jones, will reportedly file charges against ABC, three different production companies and executive producer Mike Fleiss, says ew.com.
Fleiss has previously been asked about the show's conspicuously all-white cast and told ew.com that there has been a lack of candidates from different ethnic backgrounds:
"We really tried [for a diverse cast], but sometimes we feel guilty of tokenism," he said. "'Oh, we have to wedge African-American chicks in there!' We always want to cast for ethnic diversity, it's just that for whatever reason, they don't come forward. I wish they would."
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