After revealing recently that the second season of Everlasting, the reality television show featured on UnREAL, would star a black man in the Bachelor-esque leading role, the producers of the show have now announced that B.J. Britt has been cast.
Most recently you may have spotted Britt on Being Mary Jane and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; you also might know him from One Tree Hill, where he played Nathan’s basketball rival. He seems, naturally, excited about his turn on UnReal.
From Variety:
Darius is described as a drop-dead gorgeous professional quarterback with a million-dollar smile, sweetness and swagger. With him being cast, Quinn (Constance Zimmer) and Rachel (Shiri Appleby) land a huge win, being the first African-American on the show. Hoping to find his way out of a PR scandal, Darius has no idea that the ride he’s about to take on ‘Everlasting’ will change his life forever.
“There are few things more pressing than this conversation,” executive producer Sarah Gertrude Shapiro said when the decision was announced. “We don’t want to fall asleep at the wheel.”
That’s more than those responsible for the show Everlasting is based on will cop to. ABC executive Paul Lee recently said he’d “be very surprised if The Bachelorette in the summer wasn’t diverse,” essentially removing himself from the equation that makes those decisions happen. It was also an acknowledgment of exactly how the franchise works, which is that the new Bachelor or Bachelorette lead is always farmed from the past season’s contestants, and always is someone who makes it to the final four—so he was essentially admitting that a “diverse” lead would make it to the final four, thus somewhat spoiling his own show.
Anyway, this news makes it clear that UnREAL will continue to skewer the reality television system and The Bachelor specifically: Season 2 will reportedly also “delve into masculinity and the men’s right movement.”
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