Hiiiii Steve! Hope all is well. I think I might have some original questions this time that haven’t been answered 10+ times.. we’ll see though.
1) Obviously I’ll start with the bachelor. The show was filmed over the election, and obviously this was a very controversial one. Any couple in real life would have discussed it- let alone someone you’re about to be engaged to (granted Vanessa is Canadian, but still). I for one was super emotional about the outcome and I’m sure at least one of the remaining women was openly emotional about it- whether happy or upset. My question is- a) Do you think this was actually discussed between nick and the women, or do producers guide the conversations towards what they want? B) Would they ever air any discussions about the election/politics? Or would they just show a woman crying about it and make up a false story line as to why? As much as the show tries to claim that the purpose is to find love and build real relationships, they completely contradict that by never including any real life conversations about real life issues/beliefs. I know they have hundreds of hours of footage and only air like 5 min of conversation per date, but it’s strange to me that they’ve never really shown someone getting sent home because of a disagreement on politics or religion / shown the conversation. I guess I’m expecting too much for the show to be semi realistic. A) I have no idea, but if I had to guess, I’d say no. B) Probably not.
2) The women in the bachelor mansion need Tami Taylor to be in the room when they do their ITM’s saying “girl you have got to get some respect for yourself” like she did for Tyra after she won the student body election by basically whoring herself out. Corrine and Liz could have really used it! Actually, everyone could use Tami Taylor. Tami Taylor is America’s mother. Hence the reason I tell everyone to watch “Friday Night Lights.” That character is too real not to.
3) Back when paradise was airing and nick kept speaking out about how there wasn’t an edit- you had said something along the lines of “wonder which producer’s ass he’s kissing”….. well, now we know! What a weird thing to randomly start preaching about? Hope he comes out at the ATFR and says everything happened exactly as it aired. Yeah, when Nick went on that media blitz a week before he was “officially” the “Bachelor” and started kissing the ass of production, it certainly was peculiar.
4) Lastly, you and I share a mutual respect/admiration for Sharleen Joynt. She doesn’t seem to try to kiss any producer ass and just says it how it is on her recaps. Not to mention that she always openly gives credit/references to you, which goes to show she doesn’t really care about playing along with the unspoken bachelor alumni rules that a lot of the others seem to do. With that being said, I genuinely trust what she says and believe she’s a great judge of character. She is good friends with nick and constantly refers to how genuine and curious of a person he is. She basically goes against what you have said numerous times about nick doing everything he does to promote his career and being strategic in all his moves. Normally I don’t doubt anything you report, but I don’t know how Sharleen could be such good friends with him and defend his character as much as she does if that were all true. Wondering what you think- as I know you trust her word as well.
Hope you enjoyed my short novel here. Have a great day!
Comment: Sharleen must be in an awfully tough position writing that column with Nick as the lead this season. I love Sharleen’s recaps as well. I’m with you on that. But kinda like Dana, you have to remember that anytime you’re hearing a recapper, podcaster, blogger, TV talent, etc who is friends with Nick off camera talk about the show, well, I’d take it with a grain of salt. Do you want to hear someone who’s friends with Nick give you their opinion on him all the time? Me neither.
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Bonjour Reality Steve !
I write you from the Côté d’Azur ! I hope you are feeling better. After listening to your podcast interview with Dana it compelled me to write to you with respect to Abby’s interview on a previous podcast. I wish to say I am not here to challenge the veracity of Abby’s claims; I do, however, question her timing.
Abby delivered and divulged beaucoup disparaging declarations about Nick and painted him in a very unflattering light. To me, this says more about Abby than it says about Nick. She continued to associate with someone she claims made constant, personal, cutting remarks about other contestants. Nick apparently spoke incessantly of himself in glowing terms; barely letting Abby get in a word edgewise; yet, surprisingly enough, she continued, indulged in the insanity of his alleged delusion parade; considered him a friend even.
Abby said Nick briefed her that he was going to be crowned the next Bachelor and she had not heard from him since.
Wait ! Rewind that back ! Me thinks me crack the case !
“not heard from him since.” Quelle surprise ! The catalyst !
If Nick could have given Abby just a few more lascivious crumbs; a petite morsel or deux of salacious detail of diva behavior and other conceit and caprice…
Je vous souhaite un bon bon weekend !
Lou Lou
PS Do emoji work on your website ? Holla !
Comment: Ummmmm, do we have any French translators out there?
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Why do you hate Nick so much? Bcuz he’s the Bachelor and your not? I bet that’s it. You can’t stand how much better looking he is than you and only wish you had women at your feet like he does. You’ll never be half the man he is. Youre writing is so hateful towards him no wonder your single. Just leave the guy alone and get a life!
Comment: It’s you’re. And your. Thank you. Keep reading.
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RS,
I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for your glowing recommendation of Friday Night Lights. I finally got around to watching the whole series from start to finish over the past few months and just finished this past weekend. It was SUCH as good show and I am SO sad it’s over. I will miss following the lives of the characters and can’t help but wondering where they’d be today..haha. It’s truly such a fantastic show and I’m glad you introduced me to it.
Just curious what your favorite story line was and who was your favorite character? I can tell you my absolute least favorite story line was when Landry killed the girl who tried to rape Tyra. That was so off the rails and lost me there for a few episodes! I’m glad they resolved it quickly and never spoke of it again, lol.
Anyway, thanks again for the suggestion and #TEXASFOREVER 🙂
Comment: I think Coach and Tami was my favorite storyline, as probably most people’s. Since you watched it late, I’ll fill you in on a little something. When season 2 was being written, that’s when the writer’s strike happened, so a lot of storylines that season never got the proper ending. Not saying that storyline was any good, because the writers admitted as such it was the one they liked the least, but season 2 was probably the weakest due to the fact it got cut short because of the writer’s strike at that time.
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For being such a non player, this guy always stuck out to me (must have been his ‘Mushroom farmer’ job) Super interesting to read his back story and post ‘Bachelorette’ successes. I don’t think I followed you quite yet during Emily’s season so I don’t remember ever hearing much about the guy.
Clicking the Grantland link makes me realize how much I miss the Reality Fantasy columns, too!
Comment: Yeah, he was pretty much a non factor on Emily’s season. I wanna say lasted 2 or 3 episodes? But good for him.
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Hi Steve-
Any thoughts on if Liz is too embarrassed or if you think we might be seeing her on Paradise?
Thanks for your work, loving the podcasts.
Comment: According to Jade on Juliet Litman’s podcast, she thinks Liz should do it but doesn’t know if she will. I mean, that’s where Jade met her future husband, and it’s a different show in terms of meeting someone, so I think there’s a better than 50/50 chance she would if I had to guess.
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Hey,
I just wanted to vent a little bit, because the more stuff that is posted in tabloids or said in interviews, the more annoyed I become.
Chris Harrison telling Ellen that they went with Nick, as The Bachelor, bc he was more sincere than the other options, is laughable to me. Am I the only one? When he said that they are serious about love/romance and they wanted to cast a bachelor that’s also serious (versus someone who cares more about money and promoting music), it makes me irritated. They did it out of shock value, and it worked. People don’t care about finding love on that show. cooooome oooooooonnn. And the show doesn’t care if the couple ends up together. In fact, I think it’s better for them if everyone breaks up bc now it gets people talking. And apparently Chase signed the contract, yet they went with Nick? I don’t even remember Chase on Jojo’s season, so he probably was a boring sap of some sort. Tell me again how Nick is more sincere than the other guy..?
And this whole “I gave Corinne the rose to see how other people would react…”? No offense buddy, but if you’re hoping to SINCERELY marry one of those girls, maybe try NOT humping and grinding and groping the bimbo in front of you. That rose was given to spur drama – not to check others’ character.
Ugh. Vent over. Sorry.
Comment: Pretty much. Chris Harrison is a mouthpiece for the show. He has to sell the show as best as he can. Of course he’s gonna give all the reasons why they went with Nick, claiming he was most sincere. It’s all garbage.
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Hi Steve,
I love your new podcast. I listened to Jim Rome with my dad growing up, and it’s pretty cool to now have that sort of talk radio show in present day for things I’m interested in…Like the Bachelor and Nashville and the secret lives of C list celebs. And you’re so naturally talented at the talk radio stuff. I hope this leads to even bigger things for you.
Anyway, I’m writing with a question about Nick. I mostly remember Nick as the sort of dopey, manipulative bow tie-wearing guy from Andi’s season, and it’s super surprising to me that we’ve all already seemingly forgotten that Nick’s main backstory thing on Andi’s season was that he’d already been engaged once. So I’m wondering if you have any info on his engagement before he went on the show? Who was that person, and where are they now, and what do they have to say about all this hoopla? If anyone can find them, it’s you.
Please do it, for the good of America.
Comment: No idea. Actually, I completely forgot he was. If that former fiancé hasn’t talked by now, I doubt she will. I have no interest in trying to find her. What’s she gonna tell me that I don’t already know? If anything, my guess is they don’t keep in touch anymore and I’m probably aware of many more things than she is. I’d much rather keep my guests to people in the reality TV world for the time being.
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Hey Steve,
Thanks for all your spoilers. They make this show so much more enjoyable.
Just a few comments, first: Nick looks so absolutely bored when talking to the girls. I saw someone wrote that last week, and I had the same thought. It’s hard to watch.
Also, you’re super right about Holly’s face – unrecognizable. Very sad.
A few questions for you:
Why doesn’t Bachelor Nation ever talk about Chris and Peyton Lambton? They’re even successful with their own show. Do you think it’s because they didn’t actually meet on a show? I’m not really sure. Could be because they didn’t meet on any of their shows, but not really sure. Or maybe it’s because they’ve done well for themselves on a completely different network.
Do you know if Chad has reached out to Corinne at all yet? Or vice versa. No idea.
Usually, you’re adamant about the involvement of frankenbiting and producer manipulation in the editing of the villain, but with Corinne, you seem.to just be attributing her behavior to her being a spoiled brat. Thoughts? Because we’re clearly seeing Corinne say things she’s saying. We’re not getting voiceovers with her face not on screen. Almost everything we’ve seen with her is with her face and mouth moving in the same shot. Not to mention her actions of taking her top off, sleeping during a rose ceremony, telling the others about her nanny, the bounce house, etc.
Also, I know we’ve only seen two episodes so far, but they really haven’t given Rachel or Vanessa much airtime at all. Do you think this will be a repeat of Sean aka Catherine’s season, where we don’t see the connection until much later on? (Versus jojo’s and Ben’s super obvious connections with their final picks.) Well, each of them has their 1 on 1’s coming up in the next two episodes, so we’ll be seeing more of them now.
Finally, who do you think was the worst villain?
Comment: Depends what you mean by “worst?” Worst meaning “most entertaining?” I’d say Courtney.
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If by worst you mean “seriously just annoying and awful?” Corinne is certainly annoying and dumb and playing up her role. But maybe Kelsey Poe? She was pretty bad.
Steve: I enjoy the podcasts. Great radio voice! Here are my questions
1) It seems to me like alot of Corinne’s actions are just due to immaturity. It calls to mind Vienna, who acted immaturely and who seemed to regret it years later once she matured and moved on. Chris Burkowski as well was young and seems to be embarrassed by his time on the show. Seriously, would anyone want their exploits in the early post-college years to be nationally televised? The show exploits that immaturity. Would there be any legal impediment to any of the contestants from many seasons ago talking to you? No. If Chris or Vienna wanted to talk to me, I’d be up for it. But I’m not going to go chase them. Because I’d really want to talk a lot about their time on the show and the ramifications of it, and my guess is they’re over it.
2) Even if there is a legal impediment, in 33 seasons of the show, they never sued any contestants ever. And even if they did they would lose since there is no damage to the show and be seen as infringing on someone’s First Amendment rights to talk about an experience from 5 or 10 years ago. Maybe a lot of them moved on and don’t care about the show anymore but it would be nice to hear from some of the popular earlier contestants to see what they are up to and what they think about how the show changed since they were on it. I think once one early contestant did it more would come on. Enough contestants already let out negative things so I don’t see why more would not come on. Ha ha, you pretty much said what I said in my first answer. I doubt this many years after the fact Vienna would want to talk about the Jake TV breakup, or the drama with Kasey. Sure, it’d be interesting, but I don’t think they’d do it. And Chris I doubt wants to re-live what an ass hat he was on this show. But there is no legal impediment for them. They could do it if they wanted.
Nick Peterson will be tomorrow’s guest. One of the more stealth, yet popular and polarizing contestants we’ve seen. Had his moment of villain-ism (in some people’s eyes) for his “Bachelor Pad 3” win. But I think he’ll be great. I’d love to have a lot of former contestants on in coming weeks. However, you gotta remember that some don’t want to feel the wrath of producers saying, “Why are you doing his podcast?” It’s not that they legally can’t do it, it’s that they don’t want to burn any bridges. So assume the ones that I do get to come on, won’t care.
3) In your podcast with Possessinista, you talked about retweets, tweets, instagram, etc. Is there a reason you don’t do more of that to make money? I can recall a time when you mentioned “uncrustables” in your column and I thought oh yeah, I have not heard of them in awhile, maybe I will buy them. I think your readers know you only advertise things you love (Friday Nights Lights, 24, etc.) andI think you would make good money just mentioning products you genuinely like. Do you not do it more because you have not thought to do it more or because you feel it would be fake or because it is too complicated to do? I will never promote anything that I don’t use or enjoy myself. And I don’t have an Instagram following where I could make money promoting product anyway. But you have no idea how many advertisers I’ve turned down from my site because it was something that I didn’t care for or had no use for. You’d see right through me, and one thing I’ve always been is pretty transparent. Where I could be, obviously. I’m not like these contestants. I don’t spill my private life on social media. I don’t talk about who I’m dating, if I even am. Things are going great the way we have it now and I’d like to keep it that way.
4) You mentioned in one column a while back that Jeremey (the one from Dallas, I think Jeremey is his name?) is the only person in the Bachelor franchise that you were friends with such that you would invite to your own wedding. Since then do you have new friendships with people in Bachelor Nation of that level?
Comment: I’d say I could add a couple more to that list. But I’m not at liberty to say who.
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Hi Steve,
A few questions/thoughts.
Is it just me or does Nick throw more shade at Kaitlyn than he does Andi? He seems to be really relieved about not ending up with her, whereas Andi and him seem a lot more comfortable around each other. I haven’t noticed that.
I also noticed Rachel said she is working on getting better at social media. Clearly she is trying to up her chances of being the bachelorette. If ABC does go with her do you think we will see a more diverse cast? I would think you’d see as many, if not more, black contestants if she’s the lead, sure.
Loved your pod cast with Dana! You guys fed off each other wonderfully. It was really nice having two totally different perspectives.
Have a great weekend!!
Comment: As much as what I said earlier about Dana’s point of view obviously coming from a tad biased perspective, I’ll absolutely have her on again. Because it’s someone who, although we have differing opinions, can have a rational discussion about it. Dopes that just say “You hate Nick, you don’t know what you’re talking about” are just that – dopes. There’s no point in talking to someone that ignorant who isn’t willing to listen to an opposing view point based on information that they don’t have themselves.
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Hi Reality Steve,
I’m a long time reader – love the site (and really digging the podcast!) I really enjoyed the conversation you and Dana had regarding how these contestants are making temporarily livings off of their 15-minutes on social media (and how likely, most of them will burn out).
You mentioned a few contestants who have been savy enough to turn their Bachelor experience into a long-term career boost (I know you mentioned Jillian Harris). I was wondering what your thoughts are on Sarah Herron? From an outsiders perspective, it seems that she actually used her turn on the bachelor to promote awareness and fundraise for her charity helping physically disabled girls, Shelift. Like I said, don’t know much about her – but at least on social media, it seems like she’s using her “fame” in a pretty positive way. What camp would you perceive her as being in – gone in 15 minutes, or do you think she’s successfully using this platform to springboard a career in non-profits?
Again – thanks for making my guilty pleasure even more fun!
Comment: She’s definitely used her platform for something much better and above shilling some lame products she probably never uses. So good on her.
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You replied the following to one of your reader e-mails: “As Jade said in the podcast, if you’re gonna slam Liz for going on the show just to be on TV, then you have to slam all of them. Liz isn’t a notch above or below anyone else on the show for going on. They all want to be on TV and see where it leads. Why is Liz taking that much more heat? Doesn’t make sense to me.”
I have to say I disagree. The reason Liz’s situation is different is because she ALREADY explored a possible connection with Nick. She decided it wasn’t worth pursuing. Had they lost touch, tried to get into contact but the timing wasn’t right, etc. it would have been a different scenario. But she rejected him. The ”I thought he was just being nice so that’s why I didn’t give him my number” excuse is pretty lame. Even if a part of you thought that, if you genuinely liked someone and felt they were worth pursuing, you’d take a chance.
Just my opinion.
Comment: I can see that. And like I said, I never thought Liz should’ve appeared on the show in the first place. But she did so I’m forced to discuss it. Are we talking about the level of “famewhoring” here? Because we could basically go back and forth on how much you consider it and I consider it, and that’ll get us nowhere. I think Liz explained herself pretty poorly on the show, but I think I know what she was getting at. It’s like she knew what she wanted to say, it just kinda came out wrong. But obviously there are people who think otherwise. My take was that she never should’ve come on in the first place because she was set up to fail (which she never saw), but once she did, she articulated herself about as poorly as you could. But she seems fine by it now, so I guess that’s all that matters.
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Hi Steve,
I noticed in about 3 of your questions in the past, people ask about GOMI and you don’t seem to know what it is.. it stands for Get off my internet. its basically just a place for jealous haters to bash someones blog.
this is kind of rare but your blog actually made the SOMI thread (stay on my internet)
it is silly, i know, but definitely a guilty pleasure to read about bloggers, Shay Shull has a busy thread.
Comment: There’s an actual forum out there that talks about bloggers all day long? This country is in serious trouble. Who has time to do that? Ugh. I could go on and on and on, but I won’t. I think I’ve made my feelings known on forums, message boards, comment sections, etc. I just don’t get it and never will.
I know you included links in your email for the SOMI thread and Shay Shull’s but I wouldn’t ever give some bottom feeders like that a link from my site. And if this means that one of those trolls is reading this and relay it back to their underground circle of hate and then start up something on me. So be it. I don’t care. I don’t read it anyway, but it would only prove my point even further. So yeah, it’d be great if they started up a bash Reality Steve message thingy or whatever it’s called. People like that are some of the lowest forms of humans ever and I don’t bother to recognize such nonsense. Let them be miserable in their own world. I’m doing great over here.
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Hi Steve,
Thanks for always letting us fans as you questions even though you may have already answered them before and thanks for letting people like me ask you questions all season long. I have two questions:
1) Is there a photographer who takes pics throughout the season, and then offers the contestants or the lead a chance to buy the pics? I’m asking because every now and then I see one of the contestants or the lead post a good pic of them from the season, and I know they can’t have their phone or any other camera while on the show, so I’m asking if they do have an option to buy photographs from the season that were taken? Yes. The show photographer. I think his name is Rick Rowell. His name is always at the bottom of the ABC pictures on their press page. Or sometimes I’m sure producers will take them from their phones then send them to the contestants to post once those particular episodes air.
2) I love that you spoil the show because it lets me see how the relationship with the lead and who they pick develop, and it makes me pay more closer attention to the one who gets picked. However, I’m wondering if you ever didn’t want to spoil it anymore, or couldn’t take the time for it because life happens and sometimes you can’t do what you used to do, would you have someone who could take over? It’s sort of like if the President can’t perform his or her duties anymore, then the Vice President takes over. I mean do you have someone you could trust to take over for you invade you can’t anymore?
Comment: I would never hand it off to someone else. If for whatever reason (and I don’t see it happening), I stop doing spoilers while this show is still airing, someone else will have to come up with something and make a name for themselves that the masses can go to. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable passing it on.
