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The Bachelor is an American television series that started off in 2002, but has since expanded to countries all around the world, gaining popularity wherever it goes. This show has one eligible Bachelor that dates numerous attractive women to find his one true love. To keep things progressing the show has a rose ceremony every week and whoever is unable to capture the Bachelor’s heart and interest is left without a rose and sent home. This is the show we all have come to love for so many reasons, from its glamorous girls, the beautiful mansion, the stupid drama caught on camera, the cat fights, and most of all, our Prince Charming finding the lady of his dreams. The show isn’t everything it’s made out to be, as you can imagine when the producers are filming at least eight hours of footage a day and only airing two hours a week. There is a lot that goes on that you might not have realized. The characters aren’t who you think they are, the glamour isn’t what it’s made out to be, even the tears are not always genuine. We reveal fifteen secrets about The Bachelor that the show is still trying to hide, including scandalous relationships, manipulation and bullying in order to get good footage for the show, who gets paid what, the tests the contestants are required to go through to get on the show, and how the contestants are chosen, revealing all of the nitty gritty.
15. What Goes On In The Fantasy Suite
The girls really look forward to the Fantasy Suite with the bachelor, but not just for the reasons you might think. Actually, this is the one time they will have with the Bachelor without cameras or microphones, where they can actually get to know each other without the pressure of performing for TV. Much to the contestant’s disappointment, these nights can be really short, sometimes only lasting a few hours and often only starting really late at night. To our relief they don’t use the same room for each date night (can we all agree that that would be weird?). They have food provided and room service. The producers are aware that not every date will be a hit so if things go downhill, there is a phone in the next room to call the producers so the couple can leave their date.
To save the Bachelor from getting exhausted, after each date night they make sure he gets a night to himself.
14. Girls Have A Lot To Drink
The contestants on the show aren’t forced to drink, they are just provided with a ridiculous amount of alcohol and leave them so deprived of absolutely anything to do that all the girls really can or want to do is drink. The girls are not allowed to read, listen to music, use the internet, or exercise (well there is no gym equipment in the mansion, they can however run laps around the house if they want, or some of the girls use random house held objects as free weights). Lauren Bushnell said she put on twelve pounds while on the show from all of her eating and drinking.
Leslie Hughes, from Season 17, summed it up well when she said to The Daily Beast, "I remember it was like 12 noon, and they were like, 'You want some champagne, wine?' And I was like, 'It's 12 p.m., noon!' And they're like, 'Welcome to the Bachelor family.'"
13. The Mansion Isn’t Entirely Real
Courtney Robertson from season 16 let us know the roses at the front of the mansion are all fake. But, it goes much deeper than this. The mansion is actually Marshall Haraden’s home with his four children in Agoura Hills, California. Just before the show starts the whole family pack all of their stuff away to storage and go away for forty-two days. Then the producers have painters and re-decorators come in and completely change the place. I sure hope the family is getting paid a decent amount for all that effort twice a year!
Appearances aren’t all they seem with their hometown visits either. Sometimes these visits are at a contestant's rich relative’s house instead of the actual contestant’s home, just to keep up a good impression for TV. Even the romantic proposals are all built and designed as a dramatic setting by the producers.
12. The Rose Ceremony Is More Tedious Than You Can Imagine
The ceremony is meant to be the most dramatic scene of the show, keeping us all in major suspense waiting to see who will stay and who will go. The producers know how to make us feel like this. They actually control the order the girls are given roses by the Bachelor, this is not determined by the Bachelor himself. To help build suspense they make the Bachelor call the most obvious contestants first and leave the more questionable contestants near the end. Although these ceremonies are over in literally minutes for us, apart from all those lengthy ad breaks that seem to come at the most crucial points, in reality they actually go for hours in order to get enough good footage. One of the former contestants, Jessica Holcomb said that the rose ceremonies usually go for about five hours. In fact, she said for the first rose ceremony even the sun had risen by the time it had finished.
11. Producers Will Do Anything For Tears
Former contestant Jessica Holcomb, from season five, gives a shocking interview to Cosmopolitan where she talks about one of the producers at the time, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, touching on her insecurities and weaknesses to produce emotions for the camera. When she was eliminated by Jesse Palmer on the third week, she remembers Shapiro asking her "You've been very honest about all the girls here being so much prettier than you and skinnier than you and better than you. How does it feel to know that you were right?" Jessica said she just continued to say the meanest things till she was in tears, and even then they asked her to turn around for the camera to see her crying, but she refused, because she didn’t want to look like she was crying over a man she didn’t even care about. So they still used footage of her walking away in frustration as though this was over the Bachelor.
10. Girls Bring Their Own Clothes
This one actually shocked me the most. I remember watching The Bachelor previously with my sister saying how it was funny, because the girls had such glamorous expensive outfits on and when the lucky lady finally won the Bachelor's heart at the end of the show and the couple went back to real life he would see her in all her normal clothing without the makeup artists and hair stylists to help. But, much to my surprise, The Bachelor does not provide clothing, makeup or hairstyling for the girls, except for on the first introduction night of the show and for the two contestants at the finale episode. Instead many contestants go on a crazy shopping spree right before they come on the show, with some of them spending hundreds of thousands on clothing, buying good makeup and even getting lessons so they know how to apply it.
9. Producers Make Their Own Version Of The Story
Jessica Holcomb revealed to Cosmopolitan how the producers manipulated her and changed the film to get the story they wanted. She said the producers told her, "You're really the only one that hasn't talked to Jesse and he doesn't think you like him." They're like, "You need to go talk to him and be more affectionate and stuff, because everyone has kissed him but you." So we went on this date, this Habitat for Humanity date, and he was talking to me and saying all this stuff like, "I wish I could spend more time with you." Well, they don't show that. They don't show that part. So, we're talking by the fireplace and all I did was touch his chest a little bit. I'm kind of scratching his arm, being sweet. That's it. But they make it look like I'm creepy-clawing him. Because they zoom in on my hand, super close. But it was not creepy at all. And so then I was known as the creepy claw girl everywhere I went. It was horrible.”
8. Contestants Don’t Get Paid To Go On The Show
The contestants aren’t paid to go on the show, so they either really love getting in front of the camera or they are actually on the show to find their one true love. On the other hand, the Bachelor is rumoured to be paid around $100,000. This makes you wonder how genuine the Bachelor is in his pursuit of a partner. Though, we finally understand why he would want to put himself in such a stressful situation with over a dozen girls maliciously fighting over him and crying over every heartbreak. That is decent money.
Although the contestants aren’t paid to go on the show, it still provides them with an opportunity for a bit of media attention that can often lead to endorsement offers, requests for interviews and participation in other TV shows (three contestants having already been on Dancing With The Stars), speaking engagements and invitations to nightclubs.
7. Contestants Are Tested Before Coming On The Show
If you’re like me, you probably thought half of the girls recruited for this show were purposely picked because they were emotionally unstable and would make good TV drama. Well much to my surprise, the contestants are all individually tested psychologically before coming on the show to see if they really have what it takes to survive the pressure of reality TV and the stress of sharing one boyfriend with over a dozen other attractive women.
It’s not only a psychological test they have to pass, but also every contestant and Bachelor, for The Bachelor (Australia) must perform STI tests and complete medical forms as a background check before appearing on the show. Contestants are happy to participate in these as they are aware that a lot of scandal has been known to go on when the camera is not rolling.
6. Producers Control More Than You Realize
Producers hate the word ‘process’ being used in the show, if a contestant is filmed saying this, they have to film again and say ‘journey’ instead. They don’t want to draw the audience into the fact that it’s actually a TV show, they want the audience to feel like they’re watching a fairytale unfold before their very eyes.
The dates are not organized by the Bachelor, apart from him letting the producers know what he likes doing and deciding which girl he would like to take. Though the producers even give suggestions for which girl he should ask. The producers organize the entire date. So when the girl is going on about how special she felt with all the effort he put into their date, in truth, he didn’t even know what the date would be until either the morning of the date or when he arrived at the date. Could it get any less romantic?
5. How The Contestants Are Chosen
Typically, contestants are found to be an average size six and around the age of twenty-five. The Bachelor himself doesn’t personally pick his contestants, though he is asked for the type of woman he would be after. That’s why you’ll often see a group of girls that all seem pretty similar in appearance on the same season. Laurina Fleure, from The Bachelor (Australia) season two revealed what the casting process was like, sharing with news.com.au, “They take 20 girls at a time into a room and they make you face one another in lines… and they make you tell the other person what annoys you about them. Then they ask you to line up in order of where you think you fall in terms of most intelligent to least intelligent, then again based on who is best dressed in the room.” Sounds like the producers are after contestants with a strong character.
4. The Girls Are Extremely Bored
Have you ever wondered what some of these contestants do all day? Olivia Caridi from The Bachelor Season 20 revealed in an interview to Allure that because they had almost nothing to do in the mansion, most of their days consisted of them just pampering themselves. She said, “We were so bored all day. There was so much downtime. We were always doing beauty routines because that was literally all we had time to do. There were so many days where we did a lot of mud masks and self-tanning sessions. We were painting our nails all the time because we were constantly changing outfits, and we wanted to match the nails to the outfit. There was a lot of beauty and pampering for each other that never really gets aired.” So that sums it up, the contestants did pretty much nothing in the mansion but pamper themselves.
3. Contestants Hardly Know The Bachelor By The End Of The Season
Ali Fedotowsky, from season 14 in The Bachelor and season 6 in The Bachelorette revealed in an interview with Women’s Health Magazine that by the end of the season she felt that the contestants still hardly even knew the bachelor or bachelorette. She said, “You spend so little time with the person you choose before the final rose ceremony. I would say you probably spend about 72 hours tops with the person you wind up choosing, and 12 of that is spent ‘sleeping’ in the fantasy suite. You can't really get to know a person in that time frame.” No wonder the Bachelor always looks undecided at the end of the season. I thought they were just pretending not to know who they would choose in order to keep up the suspense in front of the camera, but since he doesn’t really know any of the contestants, he might genuinely not have a clue who he'd like to be with.
2. They Don’t Eat Food On Their Date Night
You know those romantic one-on-one dates the contestants are desperate to have with the bachelor? The dates with perfect ambiance and wonderful food and a cute setting. Well much to my horror I’ve found out the couple doesn’t actually get to eat the food set in front of them on their date. Instead they eat at the hotel room before going to the date so they don’t get in the way of the filming on the date (crunching sounds in the microphone, food in their teeth, loud munches before responding to questions.) But seriously! I thought eating was the best part! Jackie Parr from The Bachelor, season 17 and Bachelor In Paradise, season 1, confirmed this by declaring to Women’s Health Mag, “Those delicious meals you see on the one-on-one are for display, not for eating.” Could we be more shocked?
1. There Is More Scandal Than You Would Believe
Jamie Otis from Season 16, mentioned that she caught one of the producers and a contestant awfully flushed and embarrassed when she entered a room they were in alone, she was positive something ‘scandalous’ had occurred. She said this sort of behaviour was a lot more common than you’d realize.
Rozlyn Papa from The Bachelor, Season 14 was sent home for a relationship she had with a producer on the show. The host of the show, Chris Harrison attested to this relationship, saying many of the contestants had caught them and the producer had admitted to this to several different people. Still Rozlyn tried to claim that her and the producer were just good friends and this was all made up to increase ratings for the show. Chris said they were not making it up, as they wouldn't go to such extreme measures firing the producer and kicking Rozlyn off the show if they were just spreading rumours.
Sources: Popsugar, cosmopolitan, womenshealthmag, allure, people, dailymail
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