Australia's Bachelorette: Racism claims 'a shock'

Sam Frost has denied claims Australia's version of The Bachelorette is racist, despite its all-white cast.

Australia's Bachelorette Sam Frost says she's shocked and disappointed at claims the new reality dating series is racist.

It comes after an image of the 14 bachelors competing for her affections on the reality dating show was released last week by Network Ten, prompting claims the show lacked cultural diversity, given the nationwide search involved thousands of men.

The men vying for Sam Frost's heart on The Bachelorette Australia.

"It's a bit disappointing it's even an issue in the first place," Frost told AAP.

"Say for example, there was an African American guy in there, then of course people would say, 'the token black guy' or 'the token Asian'.

"I don't think you can win in these situations and I certainly don't think they're racist whatsoever.

"It's actually quite a shock to all of us actually. The guys are diverse, they're so different, it's ridiculous. I don't think race ever came into it."

Last year's season of The Bachelor Australia was similarly accused, with Ten proving the show's diversity by releasing a number of the contestants' ancestral history.

Frost says she never imagined she would take a second public shot at love, after being heartbroken last season by Bachelor Blake Garvey who asked her to marry him, only to dump her for fellow contestant Louise Pillidge, who came third.

But she has no regrets about putting her heart on the line again.

"I feel like last year was a blessing in disguise and I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be," she says.

"Back then, I wouldn't have ever imagined this as even an option."

Despite previously admitting she is sick of dating idiots, Frost is full of praise for the new bachelors.

"The guys are so incredible. They are intelligent, they are diverse.

"They have so much to offer, not only a woman but to life.

"I'm absolutely genuinely blown away with the calibre of men and the fact these incredible guys not only exist but that they are willing to be emotionally vulnerable on such a platform."

The series will also offer an insight to their emotional sides and tissues may prove handy.

"In fact, sometimes I think some of them are even more sensitive than women my girlfriends and I know, including myself," she says.

The image immediately prompted criticism over the show's lack of cultural diversity, given the wide search for contestants.

"I don't think they [the producers] even thought about it," Frost said on the Kyle and Jackie O show. "I don't think it was a thing until the media made it a thing."

Last year's season of The Bachelor Australia was similarly accused, with Ten proving the show's diversity by releasing a number of the contestants' ancestral history.

But Sandilands believed the controversy was just a coincidence, and said when it comes to race today's younger generations are colourblind.

"I think a lot of young people don't think like that. They don't think 'Oh we better have a black, we better have a brown'," he said.

"We just think people are people and whoever is on the show is on the show."

Frost agreed: "I think even if you had a black person on there they would think, 'Oh, token' so you can't win."

In 2012, producers of the US version of The Bachelor, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), were unsuccessfully sued by two African American men claiming their exclusion from the show was racial discrimination.

The ABC successfully argued that not casting non-white contestants was protected under the First Amendment as a form of creative expression, although they denied ever having done so.

- AAP