Warner Bros. Takes Legal Aim at Chris Harrison's New Dating Show The Vow
Warner Bros. says a teaser for Chris Harrison's new dating show, The Vow, borrows too heavily from The Bachelor, and its lawyers have said so in writing. The show is set to premiere on Fox Nation, the streaming service run by Fox News Media, on November 11.
The dispute started with a teaser released in September 2026. Warner Bros. Television sent a cease-and-desist letter, a formal demand to stop using material the sender says it owns, to Fox News Media and Fox Nation. The claim was that the show infringed copyright and trademark. A trademark protects a brand name, logo or catchphrase, and copyright protects creative material such as images and footage. Deadline reported the letter in early October, and Fox denied that the show infringes.
Warner Bros. owns The Bachelor franchise. In the letter, its intellectual property counsel, Ahassim Rashid, objected to three elements of the teaser: red rose petals falling in the background, the words "The Bachelor" followed by a man in a tux holding a rose, and an image of a mansion meant to evoke the Bachelor Mansion, where the original show is filmed. The letter said the teaser was a "plain attempt to capitalize on" the older series and to "ride on the coattails" of it. Deadline has the details of the letter.
Fox News Media's executive vice president and general counsel, Katherine Moran Meeks, replied that Warner Bros. "wrongly assume" it holds rights in a falling-roses motif. She also disputed any claim over the words "The Bachelor" when they are used in ordinary speech to describe a single man.
Chris Harrison hosted The Bachelor for years, and he parted ways with the franchise in June 2021. He now hosts The Vow, and he has been openly direct about the new legal action. He told USA Today that the legal action feels "personal." He also said, "I don't see them going after the 50, 60, 70 other relationship dating shows," adding, "There's been one show that they've gone after."
Dating shows are a crowded part of television, and many use roses, mansions and reality-show lingo. Harrison's comments point to that crowd, and the letter names one show. Fox has said it does not accept Warner Bros.' reading of its rights. Whether the dispute goes further has not been announced.
For now, both sides have given their positions. The premiere date, November 11, is the next fixed point on the calendar.
