Ten CEO flags changes to Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises

Ten’s CEO Paul Anderson has admitted the Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises will have to evolve if they are to continue to bring in the big audiences drawn by this year’s star Sophie Monk.

Paul Anderson with the AFR’s Max Mason at Screen Forever 2017

Anderson said Monk – who is “real, if not slightly unusual” – had taught the network a lesson on who to cast, and the learnings needed to be applied in order to move on from simply having “head-boy types” fronting the program.

“At the end of the day I think what we’ve proved over the past couple of years is that it’s all about the casting of that main role, and we’ve learnt some lessons and Sophie Monk I think was a good lesson for all of us, in terms of actually, you know – one, having someone in that role that is real, if not, slightly unusual. And I think without getting in too much trouble from my programming team, there needs to be some real colour and variation in the shows – picking the nice Bachelor, the ex head-boy is not going to sort of drive those shows into the future,” he said at Screen Producers Australia’s Screen Forever conference this afternoon.