Really. The first season, starring Alex Michel, premiered on March 25, 2002. To put it another way, when the show started, this season's youngest contestants, Hailey, Taylor, Alexis and Ida Marie, who are currently 23, were 8 years old. They probably can't remember a world without The Bachelor, bless their (much too young for 36 year old Nick) hearts.
First, a quiz. Can you name all the previous Bachelors? I asked this question in a post a couple of years ago, and after doing some googling, I put together the entire list. Because I like lists, I'm keeping it up-to-date:
- Alex Michel
- Aaron Buerge
- Andrew Firestone
- Bob Guiney
- Jesse Palmer
- Byron Velvick
- Charlie O'Connell
- Travis Stork
- Lorenzo Borghese
- Andrew Baldwin
- Brad Womack (the first time around)
- Matt Grant
- Jason Mesnick
- Jake Pavelka
- Brad Womack (second try)
- Ben Flajnik
- Sean Lowe
- Juan Pablo Galavais
- Chris Soules
- Ben Higgins
- Nick Viall
Have things changed much in 15 years? Yes, oh my Yes. First of all, by today's standards, there wasn't much show in 2002. The first season consisted of just six *one hour* episodes plus the Women Tell All episode, and things moved really fast. (For comparison, the current season will have 11 *two hour* episodes, plus the Women Tell All and After The Final Rose.) The women went from 25 to 15 to 8 to 4 in three weeks, with Hometown Dates happening in week four, and one of the 4 women hadn't even had a one-on-one date at that point. The dates were more pedestrian than what we expect now, and there were no roses given out on dates, no two-on-one date and and no First Impression Rose.
The cast didn't travel, either, except for Hometown dates and the Fantasy Suite dates, which took place in three separate locations (Amanda in New York City, Shannon at Lake Tahoe and Trista in Kona, Hawaii.) Alex and the final two women (Trista Rehn and Amanda Marsh) then returned to the house in California for the final rose ceremony. Overall there was much less drama in the house (no one got drunk the first night... ) and things just seemed flat compared to what we see on the screen today. How do I know all this? Not from memory, ABC recently posted Alex's complete season online and I admit I watched (most of) it over the week-end. Check it out here.
The biggest difference, however is not what we see on screen but what happens off screen: Social Media. Strange as it sounds now, Social Media almost didn't exist in 2002. No Twitter, no Facebook, no cell phone cameras and no Instagram, etc. It was a lot easier to keep the outcome secret in those days, and the participants didn't become nearly as famous as they do today. In fact, I've come to believe that "gaining enough Instagram followers to make money with #ads" is now the prime reason for going on the show.
The most recent Bachelorette, JoJo, has 2 million followers, and Ben Higgins has 1.5 million. Even such also-rans as Ashley Iaconetti, Caila Quinn, Amanda Stanton and Jade Roper Tolbert have several hundred thousand followers each. Do they run ads? Oh you bet they do, for such stellar products as vitamins that make your hair shiny, tea that helps you lose weight, and Ponds Cold Cream. (Both JoJo and Kaitlyn want us to believe that they've been using Ponds for years, which is, to put it mildly, not credible.) JoJo's runner up Robby Hayes (current Insta followers: 333,000,) got himself in hot water when it came out that he had reached out to previous Bach alums and asked them to help him get more followers. Even with all the evidence to the contrary, it's still important to pretend that everyone is there for the "right reasons."
Just out of curiosity, I've been keeping an eye on the Instagram accounts of some of this season's "stars." On January 3, the morning after the premiere episode, Nick had 795,000 I followers, bad girl Corinne had 11,800, Jade's maid of honor Liz had 12,200 and good girl Vanessa had 21,400. Now? (I'm writing this on Monday afternoon, right before the start of episode 3.) Nick: 868,000; Corinne: 56,100; Liz 24,800; and Vanessa: 73,200. (Corinne's already running an ad, check it out here.)
Who will be the next Bachelor? It's way, way too early to know, of course, but now that producers have broken the pattern of picking the new Bachelor from the most recent season of The Bachelorette, are all the wanna-be Bachs out there frantically trying to position themselves for a redeeming turn on Bachelor In Paradise this summer? Ummmm, yes. Robby, Chase, Jared, Grant, Josh and who knows who else are all probably hoping they can "pull a Nick" and be the star of the show next year.
In particular, I'm guessing that Chase and Luke, who came in 3rd and 4th respectively on JoJo's season, are hoping for another shot at the job. Both men have said in interviews that they thought they would be the Bachelor this time around, with contracts signed and in Luke's case, bags packed, until that fateful moment when producers called and said they were "going in a different direction." Ouch. It can't be easy to watch Nick's turn in the spotlight, which to me seems brighter than ever before. I'm not sure if ABC is promoting this season more vigorously than in past seasons or if I'm just more tuned into it this time around, but Nick is everywhere. He'll be over 1 million Insta followers in no time, possibly with a turn on Dancing With The Stars as icing on the cake.
And finally, have you ever wondered what Nick's real job is, when he's not in Bachelorland? When he first appeared on Andi's season he was described as a software salesman who lived in Chicago, but now that he's famous, those days are so over. Glamour magazine sat down with Nick recently and asked the question for all of us:
Nick: [Laughs] No, it’s fine! I had a great
career selling software. I was living in Chicago, and after Kaitlyn’s season I
was lucky to have the option to go back. They always gave me their blessing to
take risks out here. Since then, and recently, a few months before I was asked
to be the Bachelor, I actually started a small business with a couple partners.
It’s online and for men’s grooming products, so I’ve been focusing a lot of
time on that. Before The Bachelor, I was out in L.A. kind of
dabbling in modeling a little bit. Right now, my focus career-wise is on that
[men’s grooming] business. I’m very lucky that being in the Bachelor world
gives you a platform. I’ve used my business acumen that I’ve learned in
corporate America and the platform that I’ve been fortunate to gain in the Bachelor world
to kind of see if those two can work together. Read the article here.
That's all for now Rosebuds, it's almost time for episode 3. Meet me back here later this week for more snarking on The Bachelor. Same Bach time, same Bach channel.
The cast didn't travel, either, except for Hometown dates and the Fantasy Suite dates, which took place in three separate locations (Amanda in New York City, Shannon at Lake Tahoe and Trista in Kona, Hawaii.) Alex and the final two women (Trista Rehn and Amanda Marsh) then returned to the house in California for the final rose ceremony. Overall there was much less drama in the house (no one got drunk the first night... ) and things just seemed flat compared to what we see on the screen today. How do I know all this? Not from memory, ABC recently posted Alex's complete season online and I admit I watched (most of) it over the week-end. Check it out here.
The biggest difference, however is not what we see on screen but what happens off screen: Social Media. Strange as it sounds now, Social Media almost didn't exist in 2002. No Twitter, no Facebook, no cell phone cameras and no Instagram, etc. It was a lot easier to keep the outcome secret in those days, and the participants didn't become nearly as famous as they do today. In fact, I've come to believe that "gaining enough Instagram followers to make money with #ads" is now the prime reason for going on the show.
The most recent Bachelorette, JoJo, has 2 million followers, and Ben Higgins has 1.5 million. Even such also-rans as Ashley Iaconetti, Caila Quinn, Amanda Stanton and Jade Roper Tolbert have several hundred thousand followers each. Do they run ads? Oh you bet they do, for such stellar products as vitamins that make your hair shiny, tea that helps you lose weight, and Ponds Cold Cream. (Both JoJo and Kaitlyn want us to believe that they've been using Ponds for years, which is, to put it mildly, not credible.) JoJo's runner up Robby Hayes (current Insta followers: 333,000,) got himself in hot water when it came out that he had reached out to previous Bach alums and asked them to help him get more followers. Even with all the evidence to the contrary, it's still important to pretend that everyone is there for the "right reasons."
Just out of curiosity, I've been keeping an eye on the Instagram accounts of some of this season's "stars." On January 3, the morning after the premiere episode, Nick had 795,000 I followers, bad girl Corinne had 11,800, Jade's maid of honor Liz had 12,200 and good girl Vanessa had 21,400. Now? (I'm writing this on Monday afternoon, right before the start of episode 3.) Nick: 868,000; Corinne: 56,100; Liz 24,800; and Vanessa: 73,200. (Corinne's already running an ad, check it out here.)
Who will be the next Bachelor? It's way, way too early to know, of course, but now that producers have broken the pattern of picking the new Bachelor from the most recent season of The Bachelorette, are all the wanna-be Bachs out there frantically trying to position themselves for a redeeming turn on Bachelor In Paradise this summer? Ummmm, yes. Robby, Chase, Jared, Grant, Josh and who knows who else are all probably hoping they can "pull a Nick" and be the star of the show next year.
In particular, I'm guessing that Chase and Luke, who came in 3rd and 4th respectively on JoJo's season, are hoping for another shot at the job. Both men have said in interviews that they thought they would be the Bachelor this time around, with contracts signed and in Luke's case, bags packed, until that fateful moment when producers called and said they were "going in a different direction." Ouch. It can't be easy to watch Nick's turn in the spotlight, which to me seems brighter than ever before. I'm not sure if ABC is promoting this season more vigorously than in past seasons or if I'm just more tuned into it this time around, but Nick is everywhere. He'll be over 1 million Insta followers in no time, possibly with a turn on Dancing With The Stars as icing on the cake.
And finally, have you ever wondered what Nick's real job is, when he's not in Bachelorland? When he first appeared on Andi's season he was described as a software salesman who lived in Chicago, but now that he's famous, those days are so over. Glamour magazine sat down with Nick recently and asked the question for all of us:
Glamour:
Lastly, forgive me for this, but what exactly do you do for a living? Do you
have a job?
That's all for now Rosebuds, it's almost time for episode 3. Meet me back here later this week for more snarking on The Bachelor. Same Bach time, same Bach channel.
3 comments:
I love it that I don't have to watch the show to know what the past 15 years have brought us. It's not really my "jam" but your synopsis is riveting.
One little thing, though. Bill was 18 years older than me (we met at 22 and 40) and there isn't a person who knew us that didn't think we were meant for each other (or MFEO). Granted, if we had been on reality TV, no one would have given us a chance - for some very good reasons. But I'm not sure there is a cut-off number for "difference in years."
So fun to read, Kimberly. xoxox
(This is Kimberly talking.) You're right - there's no cut-off for difference in years. Watching the show, several of the youngest women struck me as too young for Nick, not strictly based on age but also the behavior that was shown on screen, which made them appear *very* young.
The real lesson, however, is don't ever take anything that happens on this silly show and try to translate it into real life!!
Thanks so much for commenting!
I agree, Kimberly. It's not really the difference in years. It's the difference in maturity, common sense and, well, being a grown-up.
xoxox
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