Rachel Lindsay, the Texas attorney who is competing on the current season of ABC's The Bachelor, will be the first black person ever to star in the show's spin-off series, The Bachelorette, a source has told The Hollywood Reporter.
Both shows have been criticized for almost casting exclusively white leads since their premieres. The last season of The Bachelorette starred JoJo Fletcher, a woman of Persian descent.
"We need to increase the pool of diverse candidates in the beginning," ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey said last year at the 2016 Television Critics Association's summer press tour. "That is something we really want to put some effort and energy toward."
The FADER has reached out for comment.