ABC/Craig Sjodin Ivan Hall is a contestant on season 16 of 'The Bachelorette.'
Ivan Hall finished third on season 16 of The Bachelorette and established himself as a fan favorite well positioned to make future appearances with the Bachelor franchise. But Hall says that won’t happen if Chris Harrison is reinstated as the host.
“If they have future shows and if they were to ask me to be on Bachelor in Paradise or something like that — and I’m sure a lot of the other contestants feel this way as well — I wouldn’t feel comfortable if Chris is there, to be quite frank,” Hall said on an episode of E! News’ Daily Pop. “[I’m] not saying he can’t make a recovery, he can’t learn from this, but it just would be too soon, really. So I think he needs to take some time, really look into himself and really have a lot of tough conversations and understand why he believes the things he believes at this point in his life.”
Harrison, 49, announced earlier in February that he would be “stepping aside for a period of time” which will include the “After the Final Rose” special on The Bachelor. His decision to take a leave of absence came after he defended contestant Rachael Kirkconnell in an interview, drawing a firestorm of criticism from viewers and Bachelor Nation stars.
Hall was one of the many Bachelor Nation alumni to speak out about Harrison’s comments, and released a joint statement with the rest of the cast of season 16 of The Bachelorette denouncing “any defense” of racism. Hall also tweeted, “There’s power in numbers“ a day after Harrison’s interview.
Ivan Hall Also Spoke of Lackluster Fan Support for Contestants of Color
In November, Tayshia Adams became the first Black alumni of Bachelor Nation to cross a million followers on Instagram and she’s now approaching two million. But Adams is a rare outlier for a franchise where white contestants consistently get more fan support.
While three of the final four contestants on season 25 of The Bachelor are women of color, the only women to eclipse 250,000 Instagram followers are Rachael Kirkconnell, Abigail Heringer, Kit Keenan, and Heather Martin. The rest of the cast — including Bri Springs, Michelle Young, and Serena Pitt — are all well under 200,000.
The same phenomenon is mostly true of the men who comprised the cast of season 16 of The Bachelorette. While Zac Clark, Ben Smith, and Brendan Morais all soared past 300,000 followers each, Hall hasn’t cracked 200,000.
“I made it to the final three in my season, but like I definitely have the least amount of Instagram followers out of a lot of guys on my show just because of the color of my skin,” Hall said. “On paper, comparatively speaking, I stack up pretty well.
“As far as the actual show and how my experience went, I will say it was great. The producers took care of me, they showed my [Black Lives Matter] talk, they showed my brother who was a felon with teardrops and they made my family and my story look amazing for America. So I’m very appreciative of all that, but I must say that I can’t ignore what people who have gone on the show in the past have experience and what the girls of Matt [James]’ season are experiencing now where they feel like they are being wronged and aren’t getting the fair amount of screen time compared to their white counterparts.”
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