In a situation reminiscent of ancient calamities, the headlines are ablaze with controversy.
Taylor Frankie Paul, who gained notoriety through a soft-swinging controversy on TikTok and her role in “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” has found herself at the center of attention once again, but not for favorable reasons.
Hulu has decided to pause the production of Season 5 of “SLOMW,” and ABC has pulled the plug on the premiere of Season 22 of “The Bachelorette.” The new season, which was slated to air this past Sunday featuring Paul, 31, as the lead, has been shelved due to disturbing revelations about her tumultuous relationship with her child’s father, Dakota Mortensen, 33.
In a public statement released last week, Paul disclosed that she has endured “years of silent suffering and extensive mental and physical abuse.”
Paul’s co-stars and fans from “SLOMW” have been urging her to seek professional help for her mental health challenges. She even acknowledged a TikTok user’s comment suggesting she needed therapy.
Now, those calls have reached a fever pitch. A rep for Paul did not respond to a Post request for comment.
The swift and pointed public reaction to Paul’s fall from grace suggests that we’re at a significant turning point in reality TV. Fans and critics are calling on networks to stop prioritizing dramatic ratings over the welfare of cast members visibly in crisis or volatile situations.
Change won’t come easy. Since the early days of reality TV, producers have intentionally leveraged “train wreck” appeal, exploiting participants with obvious mental health troubles for storylines.
“When producers knowingly cast individuals who may be vulnerable, don’t use independent psychological evaluators, don’t provide sufficient mental health support or manipulate situations to elicit distress, it creates a significant potential for harm,” Christine Chapais, an assistant teaching professor who serves as director of Online MSW Programs at Rutgers School of Social Work, told The Post.
The examples are endless — Ruthie Alcaide struggled with alcoholism on 1999’s “The Real World: Hawaii,” Rob Kardashian dealt with deep depression and low self-confidence on the Kardashian reality shows, Taylor Armstrong of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” suffered verbal and physical abuse that she tried to shield from cameras and “Teen Mom 2” star Jenelle Evans was frequently in tears as she battled her “inner demons.”
More recently, several alumni of “America’s Next Top Model” shared the emotional distress, anxiety and trauma they experienced during the show and long after the smizes faded, on a pair of docuseries that premiered this year.
Cycle 2 contestant Shandi Sullivan was filmed having sex with a male model after heavy drinking — producers didn’t intervene and framed her incident as a cheating scandal rather than a safety crisis.
Cycle 8 participant Dionne Walters said she was forced to pose as a gunshot victim, even though she told producers that her mom had been shot and paralyzed, and Cycle 4’s Keenyah Hill lamented that her weight and eating habits were made into a “damaging” storyline.
The social media backlash was extensive, with viewers declaring the modeling competition “toxic,” “hostile,” “negligent” and “wrong AF.”
Since “ANTM” premiered in 2003, the stigma around mental health has eased. People have become more open in discussing it — and more compassionate toward others’ experiences.
And while audiences have long craved “the most dramatic season ever,” there’s growing evidence of fatigue with the sensational exploitation of mental health crises and reality TV’s predictable formula.
Viewers want to be entertained, not unsettled.
Even the most innocuous shows have waded into the fray — on Season 2 of “Top Chef,” cheftestant Marcel Vigneron was physically attacked by his competitors as they tried to shave his head against his will.
“These shows are pressure cookers by design. You’ve got isolation, lack of sleep, alcohol, competition and cameras on you all day,” Dr. D. Ivan Young — behavioral neuroscientist, executive coach and author of “Leading from the Heart,” due out April 28 — told The Post.
“That’s not neutral, that’s engineered stress.”
High-stress, conflict-heavy environments can “easily exceed one’s ability to cope and exacerbate symptoms of a pre-existing mental health issue,” with producers and networks “in some cases” doing harm, said Chapais, who led a study last year on the mental well-being of reality TV participants.
But, as Young pointed out, “drama gets rewarded.”
Paul’s 2023 altercation with Mortensen was a major focus of the 2024 series premiere of “SLOMW.” Despite their continued tumultuous relationship — call it a latter-day love story — Paul was cast as “The Bachelorette” last year.
She handed out all her roses, but the season was shelved after TMZ dropped a video last week that appeared to show, for the first time, Paul throwing metal barstools at Mortensen, with one seemingly hitting her young daughter, in that 2023 incident.
Court records indicate that the mother of three pleaded guilty in abeyance to an aggravated assault charge, with the other charges dropped.
This month, Hulu halted production on Season 5 of “SLOMW” amid a new domestic assault investigation involving Paul and Mortensen.
It took this tipping point for the streamer to take action, though Paul’s obvious and ongoing distress and mood swings on camera have previously been treated as a feature of the show.
“I had a mental breakdown the other day on-camera, and it was just like, ‘Well, we have to be here. We’re contracted’ — no. This is not acting. I’m having a mental breakdown. I’m going home. That’s it, period,” Paul recently told Vulture.
Mental breakdowns are common on reality TV, and sometimes the worst happens. The Post reported in 2016 that 21 reality TV participants had died by suicide within the span of a decade.
The unfortunate trend continued. Caroline Flack, who hosted the British series “Love Island” and “The Xtra Factor,” died by suicide in February 2020 at the age of 40.
Before more harm is done, where does reality TV go from here?
Though contestants often undergo extensive psychological testing — including clinical interviews and personality tests — the results may be used more to identify vulnerabilities than to screen for emotional stability. Chapais said more needs to be done to ensure cast member safety.
“At minimum, participants should be providing informed consent, undergo thorough and objective psychological screenings and have access to safeguards and support before, during and after filming,” she said.
“Informed consent is especially complicated in this context because participants can’t fully anticipate how they’ll be portrayed or how the public will respond to them,” she continued. “Since participants generally have little control over the editing of their portrayal, this increases the risk of exploitation.”
Chapais noted that some production companies have begun implementing safety protocols, but there are no industry-wide standards for the psychological safety of reality participants in the US.
“On the other hand, the UK has taken steps mostly through its regulator, Ofcom, to require stronger protections, like mental health support before, during and after filming, as well as limits against false narratives,” Chapais said.
“However, the US lacks similar enforceable standards, and participants can be heavily edited in ways that misrepresent or even defame them.”
The Post reached out to Hulu and ABC reps for comment on their protocols to keep cast members safe.
As Paul’s drama plays out in the Utah courts and the court of public opinion, her future as a caretaker for her children and reality star is unclear.
While she cleans up yet another scandal, perhaps it’s time for The Book of Exodus from our screens.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
