Chris Harrison will reportedly receive a hefty settlement to exit The Bachelor franchise

Deadline

Hours after the premiere of the first Bachelorette season without Harrison, Deadline's Dominic Patten reports that the longtime host won't be back to The Bachelor franchise following his racism controversy earlier this year. "Having fronted the Mike Fleiss-created The Bachelor and all its lucrative ABC spinoffs since 2002, Harrison will receive a rose of his own in the form of mid-range eight-figure payoff and promise to keep his mouth shut, I hear," reports Patten. "The usual platitudes are expected to be exchanged for public consumption when the agreement is made public later this week, but there is certainly no romance in the air behind the scenes. While whispers over Harrison’s permanent break-up with the Bachelorverse were all over town after it was revealed last week that Fleiss pal David Spade and others would be guest hosting the next season of Bachelor in Paradise this summer, the form of the final split itself was uncertain until early this morning. Pencilling in the Bachelorette premiere as their event horizon, Harrison’s reps have been in increasingly intense negotiations over the past few days with WBTV and, to a lesser extent, the Disney-owned ABC. After that deadline of sorts came and passed last night with the money issue resolved, it was the legal stray ends that remained. The confidential settlement with franchise producers and distributor Warner Horizon was finally reached after one more flurry of back and forth between the parties and Bachelor broadcaster ABC on Monday night." Patten adds that Harrison's lawyer promised to air The Bachelor franchise's "alleged dirty laundry" if his exit led to a lawsuit and there wasn't a hefty financial settlement. ABC and Warner Bros. TV have yet to make Harrison's exit official.