It’s that time of year again when I feel compelled to rant about the Bachelor online. The show just aired its 29th season finale on March 24th, which means I have a lot of thoughts to share. That being said, my thoughts have much more to do with The Bachelor’s production than with the show itself.
After ignoring my various assignments in favor of sitting through the entire three-hour finale of Grant’s season, I found myself asking several questions. Why did I stay up until 1:00 am watching a grown man contemplate his televised engagement? Did I not have anything better to do? (I definitely did). Lastly, what compels me to return to the show every season? I came to the conclusion that I am drawn back to the show time and time again by its conventions and familiar format. However, at this point, it is impossible to separate The Bachelor’s qualities from its major production issues and events happening outside the show.
One of my favorite fan accounts for Bachelor Nation information is @bachelordata on Instagram. The creator of Bachelor Data manually collects and analyzes data throughout each season for other nerdy fans (like me). One of Bachelor Data’s posts that caught my attention was titled “Does the Bachelor feel shorter this season? Because it is. Here’s the data”. She proceeded to compare the episode count of all the Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons with shocking results. According to Bachelor Data, “Grant didn’t get the extra two weeks every other Bachelor has had in the last 14 years”. As indicated in her graphs, the only other recent Bachelor Nation lead to suffer the same fate was Charity in the 20th season of the Bachelorette. What could possibly connect these two leads whose seasons aired years apart? They are both the most recent black leads in the franchise.
In the past, the format of the show was primarily blamed for its lack of POC leads. The Bachelorette is selected from the final runners up of the most recent season of the Bachelor, the Bachelor is selected from the final runners up of the Bachelorette, and so on. When both the current lead and the contestants are almost entirely white, it is unlikely that a POC will make it to the finals. Communication scholar Rachel Dubrofsky describes the show as “a context in which only white people find romantic partners,” (Dubrofsky, 2006). This is not to say that no people of color are cast on Bachelor Nation shows. However, POC contestants are few and far between, an issue that is well within the production’s casting control. Further, Dubrosky argues that “[w]hile women of color appear on the show, they do not thrive. In the first season, all four women of color in the initial pool were eliminated by the third week,” (Dubrofsky, 2006).Â
This issue can more recently be seen in the treatment of Jenn Tran, the 21st Bachelotte and the franchise’s first Asian lead. Despite earning the lead role, Jenn experienced extreme mistreatment and prejudice from both fans and production alike. Towards the end of the season, a popular Bachelor Nation source called Reality Steve discovered public information that Jenn’s final choice, Devin Strader, had a restraining order on his record and a history of violence against women. These claims were verified by Entertainment Weekly with legal documentation of the restraining order. This was a clear example of negligence by the Bachelor Nation production team, which claims that background checks are an eligibility requirement, allowing the team access to all “criminal investigations, charges and records”. Despite congratulating itself on the inclusion of its first Asian lead, the show chose to put Jenn in uncomfortable, even dangerous situations by not responsibly conducting background checks for her season.
In both the shortening of its black-led seasons and the mistreatment of its first Asian lead, Bachelor Nation has an evident racism problem. As fans of the show, it is our responsibility to acknowledge this production problem and call out the racism perpetuated in the fan community. The Bachelor production team needs to address this issue at a structural level before I can enjoy it the way I once did. With the recent announcement that The Bachelorette is on indefinite pause, I can only hope that they are doing just that.