According to the Associated Press, Mike Fleiss—the creator of the lucrative TV franchise “The Bachelor,”—has announced his exit from the reality show after over 20 years of work. The announcement comes on the heels of the show’s season 27 finale.
“I want to thank WBTV and ABC for 21 extraordinary years,” Fleiss said in a statement shared with The Associated Press, which left out the backstory about why he decided to leave the show.
Fleiss went on to say the journey should continue and called the show a “lightning in a bottle” with a creative team that ensures the legacy show will continue to be “bold and moving forward.”
The new executive producers and leaders of the franchise include loyal and experienced heavyweights including Claire Freeland, Jason Ehrlich, and Bennett Graebner, who have all worked on some Bachelor-adjacent production through the years.