As a person who has watched the Bachelor off and on for several years, watching how social media affects people’s perception of the participants as well as the reality show is astounding overall.
First and foremost, this season with Joey as the Bachelor drew in the majority of the viewers. Last season of the Bachelorette with Charity, Joey was the runner up as well as a fan favorite, basically guaranteeing him spot as the next Bachelor. With that being said, TikTok has taken a liking to the Bachelor franchise as a whole. If an individual is on the Bachelor side of TikTok, several videos will come up on that individual’s “For You Page” with videos relating to Monday night routines from 8:00 to 10:00 pm. Videos may include meals and drinks made while watching the Bachelor, gathering with friends all in a college dorm room on a computer to watch, or even watching on television with family.
Varying memes and videos have been created all over social media platforms of the Bachelor himself and the contestants. Memes including comparing these individual’s looks to something “humorous,” or even creating memes of their facial expressions are presented on social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter. Similarly, videos of interviews from the contestants or even conversation had been turned into target points for viewers to put hate on a contestant. Within this particular season, a fan favorite named Maria was personally targeted by several of the other contestants, or so that was what was shown. A handful of those contestants had conversations with Joey conceding lies about Maria, even further calling her a bully. Since Maria was a fan favorite and the viewers saw these allegations as false, there were several attacks on a handful of the contestants’ personalities and physical features. Some may see this as defending Maria, but others may see this as stooping down to the contestant’s level of hate. On TikTok, videos were made for people who knew several of the contestants either showing what they used to look or act like, or “outting” their personalities and past relationships.
Media personal, Reality Steve, is known across Bachelor Nation for providing spoilers for fans who go on his website each season. He presents spoilers such as the final four, then the final two, leading up to who ends up engaged at the end. Every season, up until recent, his predictions have always been correct about who ends up winning. Reality Steve predicted that one woman would win, and she is a fan favorite and has been who several watchers have kept their eye on the whole season due to him saying she is the winner. However, for the first time in history, Reality Steve just revealed his prediction is wrong! This had fans in an uproar because several fans believed and wanted this contestant to win. There were then conspiracy theory videos made on social media platforms followed by hate to the actual winner.
Although the Bachelor series is an ABC channel reality show, it is spread across many more platforms than just television. Social media takes aspects of the show to a different level presenting a toxic spin to the series.