ABC is facing backlash for seemingly overlooking live women’s basketball while seeking alternatives to fill the slot left by the canceled season of The Bachelorette.

The network decided to cancel the upcoming season of the popular reality dating show after a controversial video surfaced involving the show’s star, Taylor Frankie Paul. The video, which emerged on Thursday via TMZ, shows the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star aggressively confronting her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen. This footage later played a pivotal role in a 2023 court case where Paul pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

With The Bachelorette scrapped mere days before its anticipated premiere on Sunday, viewers were left wondering how ABC would replace the two-hour programming gap from 8 PM to 10 PM ET.

Fans of basketball and women’s sports were hopeful, anticipating that ABC might opt for coverage of the NCAA Tournament as a fitting substitute.

The excitement centers around Sunday night, which marks the beginning of the second round of the women’s March Madness tournament. ABC’s sister network, ESPN, also owned by Disney, is already set to broadcast one of the games.

Sunday night marks the first day of the second round of the women’s March Madness tournament, and ABC’s sister network, ESPN, which is also owned by Disney, is already scheduled to air a game. 

ABC was left scrambling to fill its Sunday evening slot after axing the latest season of The Bachelorette after a disturbing video of star Taylor Frankie Paul emerged  

The network has come under fire for not choosing to air the women’s NCAA tournament

The matchup, which will be decided by the winners of the first-round clashes, will be shown on ESPN in the 8pm slot. 

ABC has previously shown willingness to give women’s basketball a greater platform in recent years by giving March Madness games more elevated time slots.

The network is already slated to show a doubleheader from 1pm ET on Sunday afternoon and could have chosen to continue the theme and replace The Bachelorette with another women’s showdown at 8pm ET.

It may have even helped the network to – at the very least – maintain its viewership at a steady level, even if it could not reap the same rewards as the reality TV extravaganza. 

Last year, a trio of second-round games brought in over one million viewers to ABC, while the championship game attracted 8.5 million viewers for the network, according to Awful Announcing.

In comparison, the previous season of The Bachelorette reportedly averaged 2.46 million viewers per episode, with the premiere averaging 2.8 million viewers.

However, ABC decided to go in a completely different direction, snubbing women’s basketball altogether. 

A press release from Disney announced on Thursday evening that ABC would be airing a re-run of American Idol.

Paul was seen repeatedly attacking her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen in the video 

ABC will rebroadcast the latest episode of the talent hunt program, which originally aired on March 16. 

The decision left basketball fans furious as they turned on the network for what they viewed to be a betrayal of women’s sports.

‘American Idol rerun feels unnecessary and kinda disappointing,’ one social media user wrote, replying to a post announcing that ABC had selected the reality show over March Madness.

‘Hey ABC put the Women’s NCAA Tournament on instead of “The Bachelorette!” Put the women’s game on Prime Time! Just Do It! These women are far more worthy of being on Prime Time Television than a wanna be reality content creator,’ another furious fan urged. 

‘It makes no sense if they can have a simulcast of MNF on both ESPN and ABC. Why not NCAAW?’ a third questioned, referring to the NFL’s Monday Night Football.

‘ABC resorting to repeats of American Idol, but couldn’t be bothered to move [women’s basketball] games from ESPN over to ABC. Boooooo,’ slammed another.

‘ABC should put the women’s NCAA Tournament on instead,’ one insisted, while another simply urged, ‘@ABC do it cowards.’

ABC has chosen to air a re-run of the latest episode of American Idol in the Sunday slot

Sunday marks the first day of the second-round action of the women’s March Madness

‘It’s crazy that ABC would rather show reruns instead of live sports,’ fumed one social media user.

However, it is currently unclear how ABC intends to fill the Sunday evening slot going forward throughout what would have been the remainder of Paul’s season of The Bachelorette. 

Basketball fans are already guaranteed to have action from the women’s March Madness on their screens the following Sunday, with ESPN and ABC holding the rights to air the Elite Eight round of the tournament on March 29.

However, two of the quarterfinal matchups scheduled for the date will take place at 1pm and 3pm ET, earlier than The Bachelorette’s traditional slot.