ABC Confirms What’s Replacing The Bachelorette After Season 22 Was Dropped, But I Hope It Changes

Earlier in the 2026 TV schedule, Bachelor Nation fans might have been expecting to spend their Sunday nights following the latest single searching for love in primetime. That would have been before a controversial video featuring The Bachelorette Season 22 star Taylor Frankie Paul went viral, prompting ABC to pull the season from the schedule. Now, the network has revealed what will be taking the show’s place on Sunday nights, and I really hope it doesn’t stick.

Season 22 of The Bachelorette was originally scheduled for Sundays from 8 - 10 p.m. ET on ABC, following the premiere on March 22. The decision to pull it from primetime came just days before that planned premiere, with ABC quickly adding a repeat of American Idol to air instead. That didn’t necessarily seem like a permanent solution, however, and now Deadline reports what the network has planned moving forward.

ABC is set to broadcast reruns of America’s Funniest Home Videos at 8 p.m. ET and The Greatest Average American at 9 p.m. ET to fill the vacancy left by The Bachelorette Season 22 on Sundays. AFHV is an ABC staple as the network’s longest-running primetime entertainment show, with Dancing with the Stars’ Alfonso Ribeiro hosting. The Greatest Average American premiered back in February as a game show testing contestants on how everyday Americans live, with comedian Nate Bargatze as the host.

All in all, the two shows make sense as a duo on Sunday nights. New episodes of America’s Funniest Home Videos are already scheduled on Sundays for 7 p.m. ET, and a game show is a logical pairing for it, especially one as new as The Greatest Average American that may still be looking to build a following.

Episodes of Nate Bargatze's series usually air on Wednesdays, which is a packed night of primetime with heavy-hitters like CBS’ Survivor and NBC’s One Chicago as the network TV competition. If ABC was going to have to scramble to find two hours of television to replace The Bachelorette, these two shows track.

That said, I do hope that ABC comes up with something more exciting as the weeks pass and there’s more time to deal with a missing season of Bachelor Nation. Normally, I might speculate that RJ Decker could be moved to Sundays as a brand new show, or that the network could bring Celebrity Jeopardy over from Fridays, as those two were ABC’s only March premieres other than The Bachelorette. Both have already premiered, however, and there’s no clear answer at the time of writing for how ABC could replace Taylor Frankie Paul's season without leaning on repeats.

Technically, ABC and Disney haven’t yet ruled out the possibility that Paul’s season of The Bachelorette could air in some form or other, with losses reportedly reaching $50 million if the episodes never see the light of day. It didn’t take long for rumblings that some of the men who appeared on The Bachelorette to try and woo the leading lady are taking legal action against ABC and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Despite the sticky situation, vets of Bachelor Nation have spoken up in support of ABC’s move to pull the season, with former Bachelor star Grant Ellis saying that the network “needed to take a stance.” Rachel Lindsay, a former Bachelorette, went even harder, wondering how it would even be possible to “move forward past” Taylor Frankie Paul’s being associated with the franchise.

For now, it’s just a matter of waiting to see if ABC salvages anything from Season 22 of The Bachelorette, as well as whether the network is going to stick with a Sunday night featuring reruns of America’s Funniest Home Videos and The Greatest Average American.