While
the show can't force 25 to 30 singles to fall for the same guy or girl, it does
do a fantastic job of eliminating distractions and creating an emotional
pressure cooker where feelings are blown out of proportion. Contestants can't
have cell phones, use the internet, watch movies, or even read books, so they
have no choice but to talk to each other, and to stew about their feelings for
their Bachelor or Bachelorette, the object of their competitive affection.
Getting rid of all outside distractions, contestants say, can speed up the
process of developing real feelings.
Read it here.
Original Post:
Issue dated March 23, 2015
Well, rosebuds, here we are. We've survived another season of The Bachelor, and at least for the moment, there's a happy couple who can finally go public and begin planning their wedding. Maybe. Of the 18 men who have served as the Bach, only one, Sean Lowe, is currently married to the women he picked at the end of the show. Will Prince Farming be number two? Maybe, but common sense and the real reality of living in the real world say the odds are against them.
Anyway, the real news in Bachelor Nation is the trauma and drama surrounding the next Bachelorette. In what turned out to be an actual surprise (yes, a lot of people are eating crow, including me,) not one but two (potential) Bachelorettes were announced, Britt and Kaitlyn. The official story from producers is that enthusiasm and support for both women was split right down the middle and they were unable to decide between two great options so they decided to pick both and let the 25 men on the show decide. Maybe.
It's also possible that for the 30th season (19 previous Bachelors and 10 previous Bachelorettes) they just decided to shake up the process a little bit. Thoughts:
So how's this going to work? There almost certainly won't be "two bachelorettes" throughout the whole show. Bach fans with long memories remember that this was done once before, during what became Byron's season in the fall of 2004. They started with two potential Bachelors, Byron and Jay. At the end of the first episode, the 25 women voted, with roses of course, on which man they wanted to continue on as the Bachelor. Byron won the vote and Jay was never seen or heard from again.
That's almost certainly how it will work this time around as well. There are two key differences, however, between then and now. First, before that first episode aired back in 2004, no one had heard of either Byron or Jay. The show hadn't started the tradition of selecting Bachelors from among contestants who had previously appeared on The Bachelorette, and second, strange as it sounds, social media as we know it today almost didn't exist. These days, viewers already know Britt and Kaitlyn from watching The Bachelor and passionate fans of both women have been bombarding Twitter, Instagram and Facebook with support for their preferred candidate. I think it's safe to say that one side or the other is going to be really pissed off when the choice is revealed.
And when exactly will the choice be revealed? My bet is that ABC will announce the name of the "real" Bachelorette sooner rather than later. My understanding is that the first episode is being filmed either tonight or tomorrow, meaning that by Friday morning either Britt or Kaitlyn will be The Bachelorette and the other one will be sent home in tears. Unlike in 2004 it will be almost impossible to keep which is which a secret.
Finally, and pardon my French, but did Kaitlyn get screwed? Maybe. Prior to Monday night's show the belief in Bachelor Nation was that Kaitlyn got the job. Reality Steve announced definitively a couple of weeks ago that Kaitlyn had been selected and she posted a couple of pictures that sure made it seem as if she had been. (Note on Wednesday morning: the picture above, of Kaitlyn holding a rose, has been deleted from her Instagram account. Did she jump the gun by posting it?) By contrast, Britt had gone silent on social media, or at least she didn't post any pictures of herself holding a red rose. Then all of a sudden, Chris Harrison started tweeting about a big surprise and for once there really was one. So how did this all go down for Kaitlyn? For Britt? Did Kaitlyn think the job was hers? Did Britt think, or had she been told, that she didn't get it? Details may trickle out over the next few weeks, but on the After The Final Rose show, and on Jimmy Kimmel later Monday night, Kaitlyn did seem be to rather annoyed, as if she had been screwed out of something, and Britt appeared to be relieved or pleasantly surprised to find herself somewhere that she didn't expect to be.
So stay tuned, rosebuds, things are going to get interesting! The premiere episode of The Bachelorette is just 10 weeks away. Meet me back here soon, same Bach time, same Bach channel!
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