Some of you that have been reading me for a while may find this hard to believe, but it’s true. As you know, two of my favorite things in this world are sports (especially college basketball) and trips to Vegas. However, I’m here to tell you that I’ve never combined the two. That’s right. In all my years of my Vegas trips (going back to junior year of college), I’ve never been to Vegas on the opening weekend of March Madness…until next week. That’s right, decided to do it next week and can’t be more excited. So much so that I watched a bunch of YouTube video titled “March Madness Buzzer Beaters” over the weekend just to get myself amped. Leave me alone. That’s how I justify this trip. But seriously, I’ve never been during March Madness, so this will definitely be interesting the first couple days of the trip as I basically watch all 32 games without having to change the channel. Needless to say, that’s as pretty much as close to heaven on earth as you’ll get for me. This past weekend I started hunkering down and began my homework on watching a lot of conference tournament action, so I have a better grasp on who to bet come tournament time. Last year I did well. The years before that, not so much. A lot depends on seeding, region, and matchups when picking upsets. Then again, there’s also a HUGE difference between picking upsets in your bracket pool with work buddies (where no pointspreads are involved), and picking games involving pointspreads. Like, if I pick an upset in my bracket pool and that team loses, but I bet them and they cover the pointspread, frankly I could not care less about the bracket pool loss. Hopefully I didn’t lose you there. Anyway, this trip does slightly affect next week’s schedule on this site.
Because I’m leaving for Vegas a week from tomorrow (you know, since I HAVE to be in my seat at the book first thing Thursday morning when the games tip off), next week’s “Reader Emails,” “Dr. Reality Steve,” AND podcast will all be posted next Wednesday. Also, next week’s Tuesday recap will include an exclusive first look at some of the guys on Rachel’s season. Could be 2, could be 3, could be 4, could be 5. I have no idea how many I’ll give you yet. And considering next week’s podcast guest was the most requested guest I’ve had from you guys all season, and I told you she would be on, it’s only fitting that Sharleen Joynt will be next week’s guest to wrap up Nick’s season, and you’re getting her a day earlier than usual. I’m basically like Santa in March, I tell ya’. This week? Normal schedule. “Reader Emails” tomorrow, “Dr. Reality Steve” Thursday, along with podcast #16 which will be when the tables are turned, and Michelle Money will be interviewing me. She said she wanted to, so we’re gonna do it this week. We’re recording it later today and she’s got a lot of good juice lined up to ask me according to her. I will do my best to answer everything thrown my way. If you have questions for her to ask me, go ahead and tweet her @MoneyMichelle.
Our Nell Kalter has your Vanderpump Rules recap up now for your viewing. Again for those who missed last week, Nell will not be recapping RHOC next season, whenever that starts up. I don’t know yet if there will be another recapper to replace her. I’m leaning towards no, but haven’t made my decision yet. I probably should find out when that season starts actually.
Towards the end of last week, Kaitlyn decided to expand a little bit more about how Mike Fleiss prevented her from being on DWTS after her “Bachelorette” season aired in 2015. Pretty horrible reason, but right up Fleiss’ alley if you ask me. Facts are facts: Zero “Bachelorette” have been on DWTS since Melissa Rycroft (which was over 5 years ago and she was a last second replacement anyway), and four “Bachelors” have been on. He can make excuses all he wants, but his reasoning to Kaitlyn is pretty laughable. “Your passion should be with Shawn?” Uhhhh, is she not allowed to have passion for him AND dancing? So ridiculous, but again, it’s Fleiss. He controls every contestant who comes on his show to a certain extent, so, when he pulls power moves like this, you basically have to deal with it. I’m glad Kaitlyn is speaking out about it now, since essentially no one really speaks up against Fleiss.
Which brings up Juliet Litman’s “Bachelor Party” podcast on Channel 33 last week with Robert Mills, ABC’s Head of Alternative Programming. If you haven’t listened, it was actually really good. I’m not a huge fan of Mills based on his tweets and the fact that, well, he’s a big wig at ABC and obviously we don’t see eye-to-eye, but he really shared a lot of insight from a corporate head that you probably wouldn’t expect. Very honest about a few things in past seasons, and even this season, so you should take the time to listen to Juliet’s podcast with him last week. He even briefly made a snide remark about Erica Rose and how with her “help,” they were able to enforce their lawsuit against me back a few years ago. I didn’t have a problem with Juliet bringing that up, nor Mills saying what he did. It happened and it was well documented on this site what happened as I wrote a full piece back in 2012 on it you can read right here.
There have been a few really good “Bachelor” parodies we’ve seen over the years. The excellent “Burning Love,” Jimmy Kimmel’s the “Baby Bachelor,” SNL’s “Beard Man” and “Bland Man,” a couple others. Well, we can add a new one to the list that popped up last week. I’m pretty sure moms will love this one, as someone has created “The Babysitter.” Here’s the trailer:
Are we going to get weekly episodes of this? I gotta imagine we will and they didn’t just film a trailer with no follow up. I guess we’ll see in the coming weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Ratings are in from last night, and because the whole thing was wonky splitting up the overnight dates over two weeks with 2 one hour episodes, it’s hard to compare. But the first hour last night drew 7.1 million viewers and a 2.2 rating, while the final 2 hours saw a big drop to 5.88 million viewers and a 1.8 rating. Just for comparison, Ben’s WTA at this point last season (granted just a straight two hour show by itself), drew 7.4 million and a 2.2 rating, which is on par with what Nick’s first hour did last night. So read into that what you want. This season has been no better than any previous seasons, so anyone claiming Nick’s season has been one of the highest ones yet is blowing smoke up your ass.
As for this week’s poll question, it’s easy. Whose overnight date did you like the best?
crushonspivey
March 7, 2017 at 9:59 AM
That was the worst WTA I have ever seen, and I sure hope they don;t cast any of the loudmouths from last night on Paradise. They were obnoxious, not likeable. Paradise girls should be Kristina, DLo, Danielle M, Astrid and Sarah. Maybe Corinne because she will play ball, be stupid and dumb for ratings.
What they did with Nick and raven is hte same thing this show did with Michelle Money and Cody too. Totally fakes about them having sex the night before. Because t his is a TV show, they do script some things, and fake storylines are part of them producing the show.
RaRa
March 7, 2017 at 10:31 AM
As to Steve’s eye roll towards people who say “I only want to be married once”, there are a lot of people who enter marriage with the attitude “If it doesn’t work out we can always get a divorce.” My husband told me that when he married his ex-wife (she was his best friend, and they decided to get married so he could get dental work using her benefits), that was their attitude. “We can get a divorce.” Which they did, after only a couple of years. Our parents’ generation saw marriage as a “once in a lifetime” proposition, but we live in an increasingly “disposable” society. “If it gets damaged or loses its luster, throw it out.”
rob22
March 7, 2017 at 10:41 AM
I agree with crushonspivey. The WTA was the worst ever. So boring that I really only paid attention sporadically. And the overnight dates seemed to be really lacking in any detail except maybe the one conversation with Vanessa, and the BIG O thing, of course. I did think the jumping in the cold water part was funny, but only because Nick turned out to be such a wimp and Vanessa actually seemed to get into it a bit as she got the hang of it. I was thinking that if I was Nick I would have faked it, at least, so as not to lose my man card like Nick did with his wimpy effort. But I guess the man card ship sailed long ago with him.
The final show is going to be very anti-climatic. They spoiled their own F3, after all. And, after the overnights, I’m not seeing it with Raven anyway. Ultimately, the winner is Nick. He got the lead and parlayed it into DWTS. It couldn’t have worked out better for him. Vanessa can tag along for the cash and prizes for as long as she can tolerate Nick and being away from Montreal. I doubt that Nick cares about the relationship, except for his desire to keep up appearances and stay in the spotlight as long as possible. I imagine he realizes that dragging Vanessa around for as long as possible is good business for him.
kimmyfromdablock
March 7, 2017 at 11:41 AM
Agreement all around that the WTA was super boring.
Danielle M’s hair looked great, but that deep V white jumpsuit was just awful. It was way too try hard.
I agree Steve, Danielle L. was overly emotional and came off needy and unable to move on.
I’m happy Liz got a better edit. I was definitely someone who didn’t like her on the show.
The whole Taylor/Corinne thing was played to death. The way I see it, during filming, Taylor had no idea that Corinne was going to become a fan favorite. Taylor decided she’d play a audience hero role being the one who called Corinne out on her attitude and behavior, therefore playing the ‘tell it like it is’ mental health professional. I’m sure Taylor thought she’d be lauded for standing up to Corinne since Corinne’s behavior came off as so entitled and obnoxious. Instead, it backfired big time and she was unprepared for that. I’ll take a mental health professional who has the wisdom of life experience over a fresh out of college fool any day. Taylor was definitely played by ABC and fell for it hook, line and sinker.
jenb91
March 7, 2017 at 12:07 PM
I noticed that in the video you shared of Nick and Jared if you go to 4:13 you can see what looks like Nick saying what the girl who emailed you said “she’s a cool girl, not as much as what was brought on, didn’t have sex.” Just an observation. Maybe I’m wrong but that’s what it looks like he’s saying there to me.
nicky
March 7, 2017 at 12:49 PM
jenb91, after your comment I went and rewatched the video of Nick and Jared. I agree with you – Nick is definitely saying those words around that 4:13 mark.
julastar
March 7, 2017 at 2:23 PM
Nice catch jenB91 !
Steve, thanks for everything you do, making the show much more interesting! They should actually pay you not sue you !
Couldn’t agree more with your analysis on Nick’s character : he looks like he doesn’t care because he just doesn’t. And there is no chance this couple will survive. I really did not want to believe you until they announced the DWTS appointment and had to surrender. Aaaand I have to mention his bathing suit IG pic, if you haven’t caught it yet, will make you wanna throw up in your mouth.
Cheers from france and keep the great work!
rob22
March 7, 2017 at 3:42 PM
It will be interesting to see how long it lasts. I compare this season with Juan Pah-blows, although Nick is a little smoother in his delivery. But neither seriously cared about their F1. Still, JP and Nicky lasted quite a while as they dragged out their 15 minutes. Didn’t they end up going another 6-7 months after the show aired? Long enough that some people actually thought they’d get married. I’m sure we’ll hear the same things this time. And, as long as Nick and Vanessa continue to cash in on something, or other, I imagine they’ll hang on a similar amount of time.
stephyg
March 7, 2017 at 6:37 PM
Steve if I have to hear Josephine or Lacey’s annoying voices this summer I’m going to vomit. Those girls were the biggest Corrine ass kissers. Super annoying.
kmannone723
March 7, 2017 at 8:42 PM
It’ll be interesting to see how long Nick and Vanessa last and maybe after DWTS they can comprise on where they live because he can probably do his acting stuff just as easily in Canada as in LA but maybe a different province so they can see her family occasionally but still have some distance from the family to develop their relationship slightly away from the limelight. The ultimate question is what are BOTH willing to sacrifice to be together? Besides the longer he lasts on DWTS the more money he makes to potentially buy a house for him and Vanessa and if they agree to let ABC or some other company televise their wedding, even more money comes their way especially if Vanessa wants kids she would probably want a short engagement. Personally I hope Corrine and Chaad get together and he treats her horrible so she can her just desserts.
cjscjs711
March 7, 2017 at 9:51 PM
I don’t blame Fleiss at all for trying, succeeding, to mix Kaitlyn’s DWTS deal. She was a terrible actress on the show, and to me it seemed to transparent that her goal WAS to be on DWTS. It was probably a little too transparent for Fleiss, too. However, who could guess! That she would stay with what’s-his-name so long! That made her look sincere in spite of all the bad acting. Who knows – maybe she was sincere after all.
Nick I don’t think has been doing as well as I expected as the Bachelor. He seems now like a set-in-his-ways older guy, afraid to let go, and not really falling for anyone. I’ve never been a fan of Nick’s, but this makes me feel a little sorry for him in an odd way.
adrie
March 7, 2017 at 11:06 PM
Nick has looked so bored and disinterested this entire season. I don’t see any type of connection with anyone, maybe something fun with Corinne as transparent as that was. It makes it hard to watch at all.
valadega
March 8, 2017 at 1:26 PM
Nick isn’t into any of these women. This season has been nothing but a dumpster fire.
tater
March 11, 2017 at 3:01 AM
Off the subject but what did everyone think of Nick and Jax Taylor from Vanderpump Rules getting into a fight? Nick claimed he didn’t do the social media thing and wouldn’t take a picture with Jax even thought they were both helping a friend promote his new Hotel business. Any inside Info about it? I guess Jax went off.