Rachel Lindsay Expresses Frustration That Mike Johnson Was Not Cast As ‘The Bachelor’

Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay spoke to Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday, June 9, to express her frustration regarding the fact that former Bachelorette contestant Mike Johnson was not cast as the lead in the most recent season of The Bachelor. Lindsay felt that Johnson would have made an ideal lead and that fans would have rather had him take on the role than Peter Weber.

There has never been an African American Bachelor and Lindsay was greatly disappointed to find out that Johnson would not get to be the first one. She explained that the charming and respectful portfolio manager and Air Force veteran seemed to be the perfect choice. She even reached out to production in an effort to figure out what their reasoning was for not casting him.

“I definitely asked. I was extremely vocal about Mike Johnson and how he checked all the boxes and it doesn’t make sense why he is not the lead. And it even seemed as if the audience wanted him. The audience was not into Peter,” she began.

She went on to say that she was not given a specific reason as to why production passed on Johnson. She did note, however, that she does not believe it was because he is African American.

“Maybe they can’t specifically tell me why they didn’t choose him. And I think if they could tell us, they would, because it just looks so bad that they didn’t pick him. I mean, Michael Johnson was a gift. To me, it was an easy decision, but I’m not in the decision room,” she said.

She pointed out that production does do a lot of research on an individual before casting them as a lead, even requiring them to pass a background check. Thus, there must be something they determined during this process that made them feel Weber was the better choice. Production never revealed why they chose Weber. After the announcement was made, Johnson also expressed his confusion regarding the decision, saying that he did not know why they had felt the need to go with someone else.

Lindsay was the first and only African American Bachelorette the franchise has ever seen. In recent weeks, she has been very vocal about her feelings that the franchise needs to be more diverse. As The Inquisitr previously reported, she even said that if she does not see the franchise take steps to implement change she will no longer want to be affiliated with it.