EXCLUSIVE: Chris Harrison's New Dating Show Sparks Legal Battle With Warner Bros.
Chris Harrison's latest dating series triggers a legal dispute with WB, raising fresh tensions.
Oct. 26 2026, Published 6:30 a.m. ET
The Bachelor host Chris Harrison's new dating show has sparked a thorny rose brawl, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Warner Bros. Television, which produces The Bachelor, claims the new Fox series The Vow blatantly rips off elements of their long-running show.
Warner Bros. Accuses Fox of Copying 'The Bachelor'
Chris Harrison's new dating show, 'The Vow,' faces accusations from Warner Bros. Television of copying elements from 'The Bachelor.'
The kerfuffle kicked off when a promo for The Vow featured similar elements from The Bachelor, including falling rose petals, a luxury mansion and even the term "The Bachelor."
WBTV has sent a cease and desist letter to Fox accusing The Vow of wrongly using those trademarked elements, while Fox's official response stresses The Vow takes a "different approach."
In their letter, WBTV claims The Vow "improperly capitalizes on WB's intellectual property," while Fox chalks up Warner Bros.' legal spat to an effort to "restrict Fox Nation and Chris Harrison from promoting a competing dating show."
The WBTV letter also claims The Vow teaser "represents a plain attempt to capitalize on and 'ride on the coattails'" of The Bachelor.
Fox Accuses Warner Bros. of 'Malicious' Attack on Chris Harrison
Fox claims Warner Bros. is targeting Harrison in a 'malicious and vindictive manner' amid the dispute over 'The Vow.'
But Fox points out that WBTV does not hold any rights over the "falling roses motif or in the words 'The Bachelor' when used colloquially to describe a single man."
In the Warner Bros. letter, its attorney wrote they have "no objection" to Fox and Lionsgate "releasing a dating show hosted by Chris Harrison in and of itself."
Fox blasted back, claiming WBTV was targeting Harrison – who hosted The Bachelor from 2002 to 2021 – in a "malicious and vindictive manner."
Fox Defends Chris Harrison's Rose Stunt as Fair Use
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Former 'The Bachelor' host Harrison tosses a rose to the ground and nearly steps on it in a promo for 'The Vow.'
The promo ends with Harrison, 55, tossing a rose to the ground and announcing: "Expecting someone else? Roses fade; true love lasts forever." He then nearly steps on the rose before deciding to walk over it.
Fox notes the throw and near destruction of the rose qualifies it as an instance of fair use under copyright law, as it "subverts and parodies typical dating shows."
It also points out that falling rose petals in the teaser are "stock elements long associated with the romance genre that have featured in films from American Beauty to Moulin Rouge to Beauty and the Beast."
The Vow is set to debut in November.
