Reality television is something I have loved watching for as long as I can remember. One show in particular that I have been obsessed with is The Bachelor and The Bachelorette – I mean, who isn’t? But, as I have watched over the years, the franchise does not seem as authentic anymore. If I am being honest, I absolutely loved the last season of The Bachelorette and was completely uninterested in this season of The Bachelor. But it doesn’t matter whether I like the season or not: either way, it just seems very heavily produced and fake these days.
Just about everyone who knows me knows I was in love with Brendan and Tayshia’s relationship on Season 16 of The Bachelorette. Each week, I genuinely thought he was going to be the winner. They had great chemistry and the viewers could easily tell that Tayshia thought he would be the one down on one knee at the end. When the time came to his fantasy suite date, he left, surprising all the fans of the show. At first, I was broken-hearted because I would have loved to see them end up with each other. Brendan was getting a lot of hate for stringing on the relationship too long and then cutting it off. But even though I love him, I believe he only did that for media exposure. I understand he said it was because he was not ready, but then why would he wait until he was in the top three? These days, with social media being very prominent in everyone’s lives, one could say that the contestants of the show only come on to get their name in the media, making the whole point of the show useless.
While Clare was still the bachelorette, Brendan barely had any screen time. But once he made that connection with Tayshia, every week he was on more and more. The reality is that viewers will remember the people who they see the most, aka, the top five people are predominantly well known by the end of the season. Even though I will never know the truth, I feel like he used his screen time to gain more popularity online and get his name out there. From constantly stalking his social media, I can see that he is getting into modeling and acting, so this would have been a great boost for him to be seen by many companies. I felt the same way about Kit on this season of The Bachelor.
Another reason why I feel like the show is not authentic is because the forced fights and situations are not interesting to me anymore. This season of The Bachelor was so cringey to get through with all the drama and the fake tears. I understand that the producers are trying to keep things interesting, but it is getting so obvious. Let’s be real, there was no way that Matt would have kept Victoria on the show that long if it wasn’t for the producers. People being purposely sent back in after they were already kicked out just to try and “throw off” the bachelor or the bachelorette is not that fun to watch.
Personally, I find that once a show becomes predictable, watching it is not worth my time. I am disappointed in how this season of The Bachelor is going. Although I continue to watch every week, it almost feels like I have to rather than want to at this point.