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Tayshia Adams from The Bachelorette
Tayshia Adams from The Bachelorette
Photo by ABC/Craig Sjodin
Culture > Entertainment

This Season is Making ‘Bachelorette’ History, for SO Many Reasons

Nicole Wojnicki

I feel comfortable making the declaration that this is a historical season of The Bachelorette. So many instances have been unlike anything we’ve seen before, and if Clare’s brief stint wasn’t enough evidence, Tayshia has absolutely proved to us that it’ll be nothing like any other Bachelor or Bachelorette season. With twelve men left, we’re halfway through this unreal season. While I’ll be sad to see it go, I know it’ll be remembered as one of, if not the most, unexpected, different, and dare I say revolutionary seasons of the show’s run.

We had our first season with two bachelorettes

ABC/Craig Sjodin

The most obvious thing to go down in Bachelorette history is the fact that we’ve had two bachelorettes, Clare and Tayshia. The transition from a woman who met “the one” on the first night to a confident woman who knows what she wants in a man made Bachelor Nation go insane. While Clare’s portion of the season was extremely predictable, you just don’t know what to expect since Tayshia came on scene, and that hasn’t happened since Colton’s season – I remember watching and being super confident he was going to pick Hannah G, then shocked when he ended his season abruptly to date Cassie, who wasn’t ready to be engaged yet.

There’s more focus on the relationships than the drama

There are so many people that Tayshia’s formed connections with already that I’m clueless about who will win her heart! This season has so far focused on the relationships more so than the drama. I mean, they had to manufacture drama between Ed and Chasen for no reason, that’s how low on drama they are this season. 

TBH, the real drama this season is who Tayshia will end up with, which I feel should always be the bulk of the drama. Which relationship is better, not the drama that I saw in Hannah Brown’s season. The outrage from Bachelor Nation when she kept saving Luke P. when it was obvious that he was not for her was tremendous. She kept saving him up until the top 4, where she had the famous “Jesus still loves me” outburst. As much as that drama helped women learn a lesson about abuse, I still prefer the anxiety over who Tayshia will end up with to fearing for her safety. 

Chris Harrison is present a lot more

The amount of Chris Harrison I’ve seen this seasons is insane. He’s participating in the dates, he’s had contestants stop by his suite and he’s interacting with the men a lot more. In the past seasons, you only saw Chris Harrison when he had to comfort a Bachelor/ Bachelorette, or at a rose ceremony announcing the last rose. The constant presence of Chris Harrison this season is a change I want to see continue on.

The dates are realistic

These dates (not counting the strip dodgeball date I would like to forget about) are dates I look at and say, “I could see myself doing this.” Before quarantine, the dates on the show were extremely superficial, traveling into international waters and looking more like vacations. I saw this a lot during Peter’s season, where the dates they had in the U.S. were cute, pilot related ones. Then they went to these amazing places, and the dates were suddenly all about posing for pictures in exotic waters, climbing the tallest tower and other activities that seemed more like experiences than bonding with the other person.

One of Tayshia’s dates was the most realistic date I’ve ever seen on the show. She played the floor is lava, ordered room service, had a pillow fight, looked at her baby pictures and found out a little more about Ivan all in one night! Not only can I see myself having a date like this, I’d honestly rather see that on the show than climbing tall towers.

The conversations are raw

The conversations this season are extremely real and raw compared to other seasons. Most of the seasons have had a bunch of football players and beauty queens, and it feels like it’s become all about that. Like in Jojo’s season, where she had a conversation with Jordan, and he was talking about his family and Aaron Rodgers and Colton, a former football player, talking about his family and football as well. Fast forward to Colton’s season and beauty pageants became the main focus, as they had quite a few beauty queens on the season.

But this season Tayshia had an extremely important conversation with Ivan during her 1-on-1 about Black Lives Matter. Ivan was talking about his brother going to jail, and how he’d get beaten up by the prison guards for no reason. After that, they were all in on the Black Lives Matter conversation, which had Twitter outpouring their support for this conversation.

Needless to say, this conversation was super intense and made me absolutely speechless hearing what they had to say about this movement, and how important it was to them. I sat, I listened and I was absolutely mortified to hear what was happening in the African American community. I learned a little more from that conversation about race, and I hope anyone else watching was able to learn from that conversation as well.

For what may be the very first time, dates are feeling not-so-superficial, and conversations are covering topics that actually matter in the world. So, who do you think is going to win Tayshia’s heart? Tell me what you think on Twitter @HappyLilNerd, and don’t forget to watch The Bachelorette on Tuesday’s 8/7 CT!

Nicole Wojnicki

Old Westbury '18

Nicole Wojnicki is an alumni of LIU Post and has studied Broadcasting Journalism. Nicole drinks Starbucks, tweets about reality TV, spends time with her two cats Shishka and Bob, works out and writes about her interests and life.