Gonna be a few buys days in “Bachelor” land starting today and on this site. Yes, you’re right, I haven’t written as much this offseason. That’ll change come Monday. Back to the normal schedule of recaps Tuesday, “Reader Emails” Wednesday, Podcast release and “Dr. Reality Steve” on Thursdays. In addition, next week I will tell you about ANOTHER podcast that will be coming your way starting next month that I will be doing – with a co-host. And it’s someone from this franchise. I really think you’re gonna like it. That podcast is not replacing your weekly Thursday podcast. That is sticking around til, well, at least another year. More on that coming soon as well. I told you, lots of exciting things happening on this site that I’ve been having to take care of on this end, hence the reason for the lack of columns in the offseason. But after today, get ready for an influx of them to last us through the end of “Bachelor in Paradise” in September. You’ll be getting a minimum of three columns a week, along with your weekly Thursday podcast starting now, so hop aboard and enjoy the ride. You like that one? Very original, I know.
Ok, lets get to the matter at hand since the next few days are going to be very informational when it comes to “Bachelorette” news. Later today, at 4:30 EST to be exact, Chris Harrison is going to be revealing Rachel’s guys during a Facebook Live Chat. First time they’ve ever done it this way, but whatever. That’s what they’ve decided to do. Which means the bios will up today. I’m assuming that also means the first episode will be made available to the media today. Usually it’s about a week earlier, but now that they’ve waited so long and the season begins on Monday, I don’t know if I’m going to have the bi-annual “Bio Breakdown” column this year. I still need to watch the first episode when it goes up to give you the spoilers for that, I need to record tomorrow’s podcast later today, and I need to still give you your episode-by-episode spoilers which I’m finalizing as we speak. Those are my top priorities right now. If I do some sort of “Bio Breakdown,” it would be on Friday. I just can’t promise anything.
However, with all that said, the one thing I know you’ve been begging me for, is who did Rachel choose? I told you during a tweet on Monday I would give you that coming up, and now we’ve finally gotten to that point. Today is the day when Rachel speaks to the media for the first time since filming ended, so you’ll be seeing plenty of outlets giving their interview transcripts of her later today and into tomorrow. So nothing like revealing the winner now and having that elephant in the room when all the people ask her the same questions the lead gets every season except, you know, “Hey, the spoiler says you’ve chosen so-and-so. Care to comment?” Good times. We know her final 4 were Dean Unglert, Peter Kraus, Eric Bigger, and Bryan Abasolo. Dean was eliminated at final 4, and the final 3 guys met her family here in Dallas a couple weeks ago. They then jetted off to Spain for the final rose ceremony, which happened last Thursday, May 11th. I’ll have what happened in between all that stuff in your episode-by-episode spoilers coming soon, but I can tell you with full confidence that: Rachel is engaged to Peter Kraus.
As I say every season, this isn’t a prediction, this isn’t a guess, this isn’t “Well, I know who the final 3 are, I’ve got a 33% chance of being right, might as well just take a stab at it.” No, she’s engaged to Peter. Happened last Thursday. There will be stories, tabloid reports, chitter chatter, ABC promos making you think something else, whispers, etc for the next two months trying to get you to believe that I have the wrong spoiler, or she’s engaged to someone else, or that she never found love and it was a giant waste of time. All garbage. She’s engaged to Peter Kraus. So congrats to those two, their lives and every motion they make from now until her finale airs on Aug. 7th will be dissected every which way but Sunday, so I hope they’re ready for that. Nothing left to see here for me. Will get you your episode-by-episode spoilers by Monday hopefully, fill in all the gaps for you, let you know about the drama this season, so then you can sit back for the next couple months and brag to your friends how much you know about a show that hasn’t aired yet.
I’m sure you saw the news Monday of Ben and Lauren making it official that they have broken up. I was told of this news Friday (hence the reason I alluded to it in my tweet), however since I didn’t know when they were going to make it official with a statement, didn’t feel it was my place to out their ended relationship since they’re a “power” couple from this franchise. Yes, I have outed some failed relationships in the past (Josh and Andi’s comes to mind), but that was when I knew their statement to the media was coming within minutes (as theirs did in relation to my tweet). I had no problem letting Ben & Lauren release their statement first. Then again, I don’t think many of us were too surprised by the announcement. Lauren and Ben was the bigger one of the two relationships that I heard had ended on Friday when I tweeted. The other one is Robert Graham and Becca Tilley. I highly doubt they’ll be releasing any statement, so just know they were the other ones I was alluding to. I never really bought Robert & Becca as a couple from the get go due to the numerous things I’d heard behind the scenes, but Ben & Lauren are a different story. Never really thought it was a great idea, and I said it at the time, to do a TV show about their engagement so soon. How many times now is this that either a newly engaged couple, or a married couple, had their lives documented on a reality TV show and then broke up? It keeps happening, yet these people keep doing it.
Here’s my thing with Ben & Lauren. Everyone has their issues. We know this. Especially couples from this franchise. If you listened to my podcast with JJ, you know how hard it is to carry on a relationship after the show is over, because there’s always going to be a part of you that feels you need to prove yourselves to the masses, since so many are skeptical. And that can’t be easy. But when Lauren is spending weekends in Nashville, and at Tortuga then Stagecoach on back-to-back weekends with her friends, and Ben is nowhere to be found, like I said, anyone following on social media could clearly see the writing on the wall. Lauren has every right to do whatever she wants with her life. I personally just don’t think that’s a good look. Do I expect her to sit at home and cry in a closet for weeks? No. But when you know all eyes are on you, and you’re constantly showing everyone how much you’re partying it up out of town without your fiance on numerous occasions, I mean, what do you think the reaction you’re gonna get is? I think she should’ve just handled herself a little differently through the end of this relationship. And then this past weekend, the weekend she officially moves out, she’s out again in Vegas hanging with Diplo on his snapchat at a club? Again, I just think it’s a bad look. But hey, that’s just one man’s opinion.
