On Tuesday, Colton Underwood was announced as the next lead on The Bachelor and to say the least, America has lots of feelings about it.
Colton captured the hearts of women across the world when he first appeared on Becca Kufrin’s season of The Bachelorette, which finished last month. Not only does Colton have a big heart, but he’s just an All-American guy. He’s a former NFL player, runs his own charity for Cystic Fibrosis (Colton Underwood Legacy Foundation) and is such a hardcore dog lover that he made an Instagram page just to post pictures of cute dogs (@coltonlovesdogs).
So why is this pick so criticized? Let me give you the backstory:
On Bachelor in Paradise, Colton reunited with Tia Booth, who he went on a date with prior to going on Becca’s season of the Bachelorette. Tia is good friends with Becca — they met on Arie’s season of The Bachelor last year — which is why this was a big deal. Girl code says to never date one of your friends’ exes. But if they only “dated” for one weekend, then can you really even consider them as exes?
Becca had a fair warning that Colton previously dated Tia, but she knew it was only one weekend that they hung out and that Colton didn’t think much of it. On the first episode of the season, Tia sat down and told Becca about the whole situation. They cleared the air, allowing Colton to continue on the show and pursue a relationship with Becca. He ended up making it to the final four but was sent home during the hometown dates after Tia came back to confess she still had feelings for him. This was heartbreaking for both Becca and Colton, but Becca had to stick with the girl code and let Colton go.
Fast forward to Bachelor in Paradise, where contestants from various seasons of The Bachelor/The Bachelorette unite on a beach in Mexico and date anyone who sparks their interest. Tia arrives with high hopes to see Colton – but he’s not there. She’s so upset and will not consider moving on until she receives a date card and must pick someone to go on a date with.
She ends up taking Chris [Randone] on the date, they have a good time together, and Tia is finally feeling hopeful. Then… Colton strolls into paradise with a date card. He ignores Tia to chat with other girls but ends up asking Tia on the date anyway so they can see if there is any connection worth reviving.
They enjoy themselves on the date, but Colton is still conflicted about whether or not he wants to date her. After much deliberation and push from Tia, Colton decides he wants to pursue her and after going on another date, they declare themselves “boyfriend and girlfriend.”
They’re happy together for at least a week or so… but then fast forward to Monday night’s episode (the night before Colton is announced as The Bachelor): Colton breaks up with Tia. To be honest, I’m not even sure what really happened for him to flip the switch so fast. It seemed like everything was fine but then he just had some sort of realization that Tia was not the one for him.
Now that you know the (super long) backstory, do you think Colton was a good pick for Bachelor? Most of America doesn’t think so. Jason Tartick seemed to be America’s top pick – and they can’t get over it.
As much as I like Jason and think he would make a great bachelor, I’m here to advocate for Colton. I think he’s upbeat, relatable, and above all doesn’t deserve all the hate he’s getting. What did he even do that was so bad anyway? It’s fair to wish that ABC chose someone else as the lead – the contenders would all be stellar picks – but let’s face it: ABC is not going to revoke their choice.
Let me ask you: does Colton deserve to find love? If you answer yes, then you should support him being the Bachelor.
Let’s all root for Colton success in finding his love story. They say third time’s a charm, right?