Hello Mister,
I wanted to send you a quick note regarding your podcasts and a couple of unrelated notes. I’m loving your podcasts, they are great. I listen to them while feeding my baby, he loves your voice, he goes to sleep when listening to them, which is a compliment. The Reality Steve Podcast: Putting Babies to Sleep. Maybe I should re-name it.
1) Courtney’s podcast- I loved it, definitely my favorite of all. She is funny and insightful, and she is way smarter than the show portrayed her. My husband was listening to it with me and he said at the end of the podcast “wow, Steve really opened up with Courtney” and I agree, during your quick 10 at the end, we could hear that you were having fun and how open you were with her. Courtney was great. Loved her candidness.
2) Claire’s – I was actually impressed with her. She was very open with you and it was nice to hear the real reason as to why going in the water in Vietnam meant a lot, and not because of Juan Pablo. I was also impressed with her answer re:”everybody gets bad hair days.” I think Clare was great and surprising at the same time. Never thought she would expand as much as she did about her time on the show.
Unrelated notes:
3) my in laws were staying with us a couple of weeks, they are in their 70s, are a bit conservative and don’t watch TV so they had never heard about the Bachelor. I would normally watch alone but one Monday they sat to watch with me Nick’s season (the episode of Corinne’s taking her top off, not precisely the best episode for them to watch). Uhmmmm not sure what was worst, the fact that Nick was kissing several women for the photo shoot one after the other (without wiping his mouth), or Corinne’s top off and Nick’s hands over. My in laws were stunned… I wanted to hide under the couch. They could only watch like 20 mins of it. At the end my father in law asked me “so what’s so special about this Nick guy that he gets to date all those beautiful women, is he rich or talented or why was he chosen? never heard of him.” Can’t say I’m surprised that’s how a 70 year old reacted to this. Not exactly the demographic they shoot for.
4) Rachel as the bachelorette – I think it took the producers a long time to cast an African American woman as the show lead, it was definitely so overdue, but I get that they choose from the final 4 and it was until now that it happened.
Rachel is gorgeous and smart and with a good job, so I’m scratching my head wondering why a woman like her, with so much going on for her, would take the gig and risk getting any ugly publicity (e.g. slut shaming) like Kaitlin or Andi.
You always say that the lead doesn’t matter as much as the group of men. However, the Bachelorette seasons I enjoyed the most were the ones where the lead had a bit of a goofy, funny personality (e.g. Ashley, Ali) and the seasons I started watching but didn’t finish because they bored me to death were the ones where the bachelorettes took themselves more seriously (e.g. Desiree, Andy). So in that regards I think they would have gotten better TV with Raven as she has shown that kind of goofy personality and good one-liners. I get the impression Rachel’s season will be a bit on the boring side because she will probably be under a lot of scrutiny and pressure to be a “serious/perfect” bachelorette. Who knows, maybe Rachel will surprise us.
Comment: Yeah, maybe we just didn’t get that side of her this season. I think she’ll do fine. Can’t imagine she’ll be all stuffy and buttoned up for a whole season.
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Hey Steve!
So since Rachel’s dad couldn’t come on the Bachelor, will we not meet him on the Bachelorette (or will he meet the guys off camera)? Seems weird. Thanks!
Comment: I guess we won’t know until it happens. From what I’ve gathered, he couldn’t get cleared to come on “Bachelor” because of his high profile job. I don’t see why that’d change for “Bachelorette” but I guess it could.
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Steve,
OK so why in the world are they having so many to be continued episodes? Do you think it’s because Nick is so boring this season and they want to try to draw the crowds each week to get higher ratings or what?
Comment: My guess is just to change things up. Most people don’t like it. Well, at least this many “To Be Continued’s…” where EVERY episode this season had one. That’s a bit much. This isn’t “Scandal.” Quit pretending you’re a cliff hanger show. You’re not.
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Hey Steve! Always look forward to your podcast. I have a bit of a silly question, Why do you think Nick needs to know what each girl calls their father? He’s asked Rachel, Raven, and Corrine “What do you call your dad?” Lol… I’m wondering if he wants to call their fathers daddy too.
Comment: Maybe because that’s the pet name he wants to be called by his woman someday so he’s just getting a feel for what’s already taken? I really have no idea, but that is weird. Can’t say I’ve ever asked a woman that.
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Hey Steve!
I was just wondering if you ever read any other individuals reviews or blogs of the Bachelor. I know Chris Harrison has one but it doesn’t really interest me too much. Have you ever read Kristen Baldwin’s from Yahoo? Hers are really funny and they poke fun on how stupid the show is for taking itself too seriously.
Do you have any suggestions for any other reviews or blogs I could read as well?
Comment: The only one I read weekly is Sharleen’s for FLARE magazine. And her personal one on AllThePrettyPandas.com. They’re really good and insightful. I’ve seen others here and there, but I can honestly say I don’t read them from beginning to end. I just can’t. I can barely tolerate reading my own stuff back. I really have no use for others.
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Hi Steve,
I know a majority of the people will watch Rachel’s season (I know I will!) but I found your poll to be interesting. When I voted for my favorite hometown the results were – Raven: 47%, Corinne: 24%, Vanessa: 20%, and Rachel: 10%.
I like Rachel, I think she is smart and real – but I do find her quite boring. This won’t stop me from watching the show because I am a die-hard but do you think their ratings will be affected? I really don’t think anyone on this season would have been a great lead but the fact that Rachel had 10% enjoy her hometown is interesting. I really don’t think so. Yes, Rachel finished last in my polls, but maybe people were answering based on funny or they liked the things they did. Lets face it, Rachel’s hometown focused so much on race, as a viewer, it wasn’t the most relatable date. Whereas all the other three were more open, light hearted and fun.
I wish they’d make Lesley Murphy Bachelorette! She once tweeted to Elan about it. I like her a lot. Have you heard anything about her dating life? I do understand that was a while ago though so maybe put her on a season of BIP to get people to talk about her again. Isn’t Lesley a worldwide traveler now and has a boyfriend or fiancé? I could’ve sworn she did unless they broke up.
Also, one more thing – do you know of any beef between Sean Lowe and Nick? They had an exchange of tweets last week – kinda of shady and awkward. Sean tweeted something along the lines that Nick should be afraid of these dads,and Nick tweeted back “I have no doubt you thank God everyday for being you.” I’m not a fan of Sean anymore I think he is arrogant and his family seems very uptight, I’m shocked Catherine fits in. I think he feels like he is the God of Bachelor since his marriage actually worked – what do you think? What do these people plan to do after all of the blogs/advertisement slow down? I mean have you have seen Jade and Tanners house they are building? I get Tanner works, but I doubt enough to pay those taxes once their fame goes down…
Comment: I think Nick was definitely poking Sean a bit. How serious he was about it, I don’t know.
That’s a question you’ll have to ask them personally. It’s definitely discussed in pretty good detail during tomorrow’s podcast.
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Hi Steve,
Comment:
The editing on this show is so lazy and sloppy and they obviously don’t care. Did you notice during the conversation with Nick and Corinne’s dad the changing sky? One minute it was dusk blue then it was pitch black. Then it repeated. It keeps going back and forth between the two sky colors that I was so distracted, I was not paying attention to the conversation. I missed that while it aired, but a few people alerted me to it.
Question:
I think that Nick told Vanessa half way into the season that she was the one he was going to pick. A couple episodes ago Vanessa made a comment something like she will have to try and be patient and just watch him eliminate these other girls (obviously I am paraphrasing). I thought it was an old statement to make…even if you are confident that you will be the Final 1….unless Nick gave her that impression.
So…her reaction to him asking the other dad’s for their blessings makes sense. You’re right she should have known that is what you do on hometown dates…but unless she was acting she was butt hurt when she heard that.
What do you think?
Comment: She can be hurt that she found out he asked the other three if she felt that strongly. You can’t help someone’s feelings. But in this environment, she has to expect it. Doesn’t sound like she was naïve to the show.
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Hey Nick,
Just a thought in regards to the edit Vanessa has been getting this season. You have mentioned a couple times that there have been issues with her and the other girls in the house however production has chosen not to showcase it on tv. Do you think that it has anything to do with her being the one nick picks in the end? Reason being, I know other bachelors have picked “villain” type girls before however this seems to be Nicks redemption season and him picking a controversial choice may reflect poorly on the image he’s trying to portray this season. What’s your thoughts on this? I wouldn’t even call Vanessa controversial. She wasn’t. But she wasn’t the most well liked. As for why they didn’t show it, I’m not sure. I don’t think we’ll ever know.
As well – you mentioned it wasn’t looking good for nick to be on DWTS. just wondering if you had any insight what determines who gets on that show. Just wondering why they choose some bachelors and not others.
Thanks!
Also loving the podcasts this season!
Comment: I really don’t know. For a while there they had a string of “Bachelor” guys going on, then it stopped and it’s been no one since Chris Soules. So maybe there is truth to the rumor that ABC just doesn’t want their people doing it anymore since it takes the focus away from the couples and their season.
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Hi Steve.
In this week’s episode recap, you noted that Nick likely knew during the hometowns that he was going to pick Vanessa, and that it was funny to watch her family express concerns over their relationship, as if the show needed to cast doubt on their “connection.” We know from past contestants, and from watching UnREAL, how much producer manipulation is involved in driving the story line. Producers plant seeds of doubt, encourage conflict, stroke egos, and highlight contestants’ insecurities. My question is, do producers also do this with family members during hometown visits? Did the producers sit with Vanessa’s family and create that doubt, which then in turn led to some of the questions and tears that Nick faced? I’m sure you don’t know how producers interacted specifically with Vanessa’s family, but do you have any insight as to how much or little they talk with contestants’ families leading up to hometown visits?
Thanks!
Comment: Obviously I wasn’t there during Vanessa’s family visit so I have no idea what they did or didn’t say to them. But absolutely they’ll plant stuff in the families minds to get them to say certain things.
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I grew up in the Midwest. It was a common phrase of my parents to say “there ain’t a pot too crooked that there ain’t a lid to fit!”
Meaning “no one is so odd that he can’t find a similarly odd match.”
I think it is a bit dated, but the idea still holds.
Comment: Very dated.
