Why Bachelor in Paradise broke its own rules for its first same-sex romance

The Hollywood Reporter

Chris Harrison says the producers' decision to break the show's rules by allowing a Bachelor franchise outsider to romance sexually fluid contestant Demi Burnett was thanks to a more "modern, evolved version" of the reality show. "I’m not exactly sure how we would have embraced Demi’s situation in year's past. But with the way we do the show now, we let it come to us," Harrison tells The Hollywood Reporter. "When this situation presented itself to us with somebody we really love and care about in Demi, I think our initial instinct was the right one: 'Let’s lean into it. Let’s go there. Let’s explore this.'"