'The Bachelorette' Season 13 News: ABC Announces Rachel Lindsay As Show's First Black Lead

By Jee Ann Guibone | Feb 14, 2017 02:32 AM EST

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After years of handing the red rose, ABC's "The Bachelor" will end its Season 23 and give way to The "Bachelorette" Season 13, which will, according to its producers, make history. The new Bachelorette will be the franchise's first ever black female lead.

One of the ladies from "The Bachelor" Season 23 will become the new Bachelorette and this time, it's Rachel Lindsay, an attorney from Dallas. It's the first time that ABC has announced the next lead for "The Bachelorette" before the elimination has been shown on air. It's also the first time that the series has had an African-American Bachelorette.

ABC told Us Weekly about the ground-breaking news, which was first announced officially on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" yesterday. The 31-year-old lawyer had landed a date with the main man in "The Bachelor", Nick Viall. The series has suffered several criticisms in the past. Lacking in diversity was one of them. "The Bachelorette" Season 13 aims to address that.

The studio's president, Channing Dungey, said that she wanted the series to start moving beyond their cookie-cutter reputation and embrace the ethnic diversity of the United States. Lindsay received a "first impression" rose after her date with Viall. After many years, "The Bachelorette" had slowly included diverse contestants in the show.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show has been slowly opening its doors to non-white contestants and leads. Caila Quinn, who was half-white and half-Filipino was considered for "The Bachelorette". Even though she didn't get the role, it did go to Persian-American JoJo Fletcher. In Fletcher's season, the viewers saw six non-white contestants.

The previous season had only four. Similarly, the 2015 "The Bachelor" had only one non-white contestant. In the year after, the show featured five non-white ladies. The current season with Viall as the leading man is presently the most diverse season, with eight non-white contestants. Fans are hoping that "The Bachelorette" Season 13 will be much more diverse.

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