‘The Bachelor’ Creator Mike Fleiss Exits Reality TV Franchise After 20 Years

“The Bachelor” creator Mike Fleiss is exiting the reality TV franchise after 20 years, TheWrap has learned.

Following Fleiss’ exit, two former showrunners of “The Bachelor,” Claire Freeland, who previously served as showrunner of Canada’s “The Bachelor” franchise, and Jason Ehrlich, who previously showran several seasons of “The Bachelor,” as well as longtime executive producer Bennett Graebner will step in as executive producers and showrunners for “The Bachelor” franchise. The team has already been working on new season of “The Bachelorette,” led by Charity Lawson.

Monday’s finale of “The Bachelor” Season 27, headed by leading man Zach Shallcross, marked Fleiss’ last season with Bachelor Nation.

“First and foremost, congratulations are in order for Zach and Kaity. I wish them a long and happy life together,” Fleiss said in a statement, provided to TheWrap on Tuesday. “I want to thank WBTV and ABC for 21 extraordinary years. They’ve found the perfect creative team for me to entrust The Bachelor franchise and keep this lightening in a bottle bold and moving forward. Let the journey continue.”

Also Read:
Charity Lawson Crowned ‘The Bachelorette’ for Franchise’s 20th Season

Graebner has worked on “The Bachelor” franchise for over 15 years, serving as executive producer on “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise.” Prior producing credits include “Bachelor Pad” and “Love at First Kiss.”

Other producing credits for Freeland include “Employable Me Canada” and “Storage Wars Canada.” She has also produced unscripted originals like “Cheer Squad” for Freeform, “#CATS_THE_MEWVIE” for Netflix and “Mind Control” for CityTV.

Freeland oversaw the creative for “The Property Brothers,” “Love It or List It,” “Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan,” “Murdoch Mysteries,” “Meet the Parents Canada” and “The Liquidator” among other projects while she served as an executive in development and original programming at Rogers Media and Corus Entertainment. She also served as a post production supervisor on series, documentaries and feature films such as “The Walter Gretzky Story,” Philip Pullman’s “I Was a Rats,” “Comeback Season” and “Captive” as well as others.

Also Read:
‘The Bachelor’ Zach Shallcross Explains Why He Infamously Nicknamed Fantasy Suites ‘Sex Week’

Ehrlich executive produced shows like “Better Late Than Never,” “Love Connection,” and “The Proposal.” Most recently, he created and executive produced “The Bradshaw Bunch” for E! and “Shatner in Space” for Amazon.

Season 19 ended with Bachelor Zach Shallcross proposing to Kaity Biggar. The couple have left the show engaged after Monday’s finale.