Hi Steve!
Long, long time reader of your site, thanks for all you do and for making the show much more interesting. After watching last night’s hometown dates, I had a few thoughts and questions for you.
Watching Dean’s hometown date was painful. My heart absolutely broke for him. But doesn’t Dean have the option to say, no, I don’t want her to meet my family, let’s do friends instead? Wasn’t there a contestant a few years ago that happened with? Or did the producers really strong arm him into that, knowing it would be water cooler gold? Perhaps they convinced Rachel to encourage a family meeting? I feel like Dean should have had the opportunity to say a family meeting wasn’t appropriate for him and she could have met his friends instead. Melissa Rycroft did it. There were a couple others but I forgot who. Could he have? Yes, he could’ve. But Dean seemed to want to play ball with them. I’m guessing if he REALLY wanted his way, he would’ve said “Absolutely no way am I involving my father in this.” It still made no sense to me at all. Certainly didn’t seem like it helped.
Now as for Bryan, his mother was quite representative of a Latin momma! I live in South Florida, so Olga, while a bit over the top, didn’t really surprise me. I would imagine the producers go to the parents’ home in advance of shooting to get an idea of the location and they talk to the family then. How much do the producers tell the family at that point? Are they setting the family up to talk about certain things, i.e., the parents are aware that Bryan has told Rachel about his last girlfriend, so they should really play that up? I’m curious how much coaching the producers give the families in advance of shooting the hometown.
Thank you for the insight!
Comment: The family is definitely prepped on things to talk about for sure. There’s plenty of discussion beforehand with the family, if not moreso than with the contestants.
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Hi Steve,
I don’t know if anyone else has asked this so I apologize if you covered it already. When Bryan refers to an ex girlfriend on the show, is that possibly Jubilee? Thanks!
Comment: No.
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Hate to say it Steve but you had the 1st spoiler correct when you said Rachel picked Peter and they are engaged.
If you look, I’m sure you’ll be able to find pics of their SHV on July 4th plus she slipped up during her Access Hollywood interview yesterday when talking about Peter not knowing about the talk she had with his mother & he works be seeing it for the first time last night. How does she know Peters mother didn’t tell him what they spoke about? Cause IMO Rachel is talking to Peter.
Comment: I don’t worry about what things are said interviews post-show. Because every season you can point to an instance where something was said by the lead in post-show interviews where it leaned toward them picking the person they didn’t pick. They’re coached.
Again, Rachel is engaged to Bryan. Nothing else to say. Be sure to email me back on Aug. 7th when your email and your dissection of what Rachel says in interviews becomes moot. Just want you to remember how steadfast you were about what Rachel said and how it MUST mean she’s with Peter. She isn’t.
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Hello Steve,
In the recap for the hometown episode, you seemed to allude to Peter having a lot of women in his life. Do you care to explain that a little or can we all just take that to mean he is a bit of a player? You can take it for what it is and nothing more.
During her Access Hollywood interview yesterday, Rachel said that she wants to take the bar in another state. Are you still hearing she’s staying put in Dallas or is it possible she relocates to Florida? I’m hearing she wants to stay here but stuff like that is a lot tougher to know for sure.
I really like Rachel but it’s a little annoying how insistent she is on getting engaged. And it’s probably why she choses Bryan because he seems the most eager to do it. Do you think the show puts pressure on the leads to demand an engagement or do you think that’s all coming from Rachel?
If any of my questions are ones you’ve addressed in the past, please feel free to just let me know where I can find the answers. Thank you.
Comment: They don’t need to demand it, but these people know what they’re signing up for. The show definitely wants an engagement and 18 of the last 19 leads have given one. So it’s pretty much what all the viewers should expect every season.
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Hi Steve,
I’m sure you’ll get plenty of similar questions/comments about this week’s episode…but first: WTF. I know you are past the point of being shocked or surprised by how low this show will stoop for ratings but man last night was rough. I felt like such an intruder watching this family who is very clearly still in a lot of emotional pain about the passing of their mother/wife, even 10+ years after the fact, airing their hurt on national television. It had me wishing wholeheartedly we could go back to when Corrine napping through a rose ceremony was the worst that could happen. Truly terrible.
Do you think that they gave Dean the option of not including his dad and stepmom in the hometown date?? I’ve been watching this show from the beginning and I KNOW there have been times when they did hometowns without a parent. I’m just wondering how much power Dean would have had to stop this from happening. Because I know on the one hand, you sign on as a contestant on this show, you should know to an extent what you are getting yourself into and understand that hometown dates are part and parcel of the gig. But still, I can’t imagine Dean would have been super okay with having this reunion happen in such a public space (or at all). It also seems messed up to me that they wouldn’t rent a different home to film in, since we know they do that for other families. But I’m guessing Dean’s dad maybe wouldn’t have agreed to that anyways, or it would have taken extra expenses to make that rented filming space “New Age” enough to make it believable that it was actually where Paramroop lives? I don’t know. That was just brutal.
Comment: As I mentioned earlier, I’m sure he was, but Dean played ball with them. It makes no sense to me for a guy who hadn’t spoken to his dad in 2 years would want to end that “drought” on national TV. So somehow they convinced him it’d be a good idea. It wasn’t.
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Hey Steve,
I am honestly so curious to see how the public outlook of Dean will change after Paradise. Like I didn’t really quite understand the outrage of people that he was eliminated and the amount of people rooting for him to be the next Bachelor. Putting what happened on BIP aside, I don’t understand why most people cannot tell he’s too immature to even be considered for a role like the Bachelor cause I find it very clear that in no way he is ready to settle down. It kinda does bother me that because he got such a good edit everyone views him as an angel of this franchise who could do no wrong when that’s clearly not the case. My point is how much do you think Dean’s public image is gonna change? Cause right now it seems like they can’t air the whole drama with him, Kristina, and DLo and have it show him in a somewhat positive light.
Comment: It’s possible Dean comes out of Paradise looking good considering he leaves telling one girl that he still loves another one. Even though we’ve already seen him back with the girl he “dumped” on BIP. But very few viewers follow that. What will be interesting is the reunion show. I’m sure some stuff will get out.
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Hi Steve!
As always, loving the column and especially the podcasts. Your sarcasm toward this show is very fun and relatable for me. And I’m really looking forward to hearing your interview with Ben Flajnik this week.
I know you’re particular about the information you share, so I’m not asking you to name names, but I’m curious about compensation since you’ve brought it up a bit recently.
What is the most amount of money you know (or think) a lead has been paid?
Comment: I think $125k was the most I ever heard. I don’t buy that $250k that was floated around for Emily.
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Hi Steve,
I’ve read and heard a few reports that ratings for this season are down quite a bit. I don’t know the numbers or the accuracy but I’m assuming it’s true. Do you have any thoughts on why?
I can’t help but think it has to do with Rachel telling everyone before the season started airing that she’s engaged… I’ve found this season quite boring overall so I’m not surprised but I’m sure there are going to be rumblings about the ratings having to do with race and I just don’t think that’s the case. What do you think?
Comment: It’s a pointless debate to have because it can never be proven. The ratings are down a tad but nothing alarming at all. It’s also the first Bachelorette season I can remember that had to take two Monday’s off due to scheduling quirks. So I can see why it’s down.
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Hi Steve,
I was wondering about the status of Nick & Vanessa? Yesterday Dana Weiss did a Periscope and said she rekindled her friendship with Nick but did not ask him any questions about Vanessa. That seems strange to me. Why wouldn’t his fiancé come up in conversation if everything was fine? I have no idea.
Why didn’t Rachel let Dean go before hometowns? Clearly she wasn’t marrying a 26 yr old regardless of the hometown date, so why put him thru that? it seemed in conflict with her crying before the rose ceremony bc she didn’t want to hurt anyone. she could’ve just kept one of the many other guys who would have loved more tv time. do u think this was her choice or the producers forced her to keep him for that? Then Dean’s father basically told Rachel to leave, and instead she goes back inside and lays on the floor making out with Dean? Because it’s a TV show. I can’t remember anyone in the history of this show getting sent home DURING their hometown date.
Do you know how Rachel need up living in Dallas? did she go to law school in Texas?
Comment: Well, she went to UT-Austin for undergrad and has family here, so maybe after college then law school, she wanted to be close to them.
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Hi Steve,
Thank you for all of the work and effort you put into spoiling the shows for us. My question is about JoJo and Jordan. You had predicted they would not last long at all. It appears they have been together for over a year now. Do you think Jordan changed his ways, or are they struggling and putting on a front for the media? Thanks again.
Comment: I don’t know if it’s either one. I really haven’t heard much about their relationship either way.
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Hi Steve,
Other than Jason Mesnick, do you know of any other lead who went on to date someone else that appeared on their season that wasn’t their final choice?
Comment: Prince Lorenzo dated Sadie Murray, the girl he dumped at the end after he broke up with Jennifer. There might have been others, but it wasn’t as public.
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Hello Steve!
I LOVE your site and follow along every week. I have 2 things to say. First, I noticed Olivia Caridi unfollowed Taylor Nolan (from Nick’s season) on Instagram when before she used to always like her pictures. I’m assuming it’s because Taylor & Derek are now “together,” and she used to date Derek. Do you know anything about this? Also! I remember reading your BIP post about Robby & Amanda dating post show. If Robby “ghosted” Sarah Vendal and Sarah & Amanda are good friends, wouldn’t this be violating girl code? I just found this really bizarre and wanted to see what your thoughts are on this. Thanks for listening!
Comment: If that’s what happened and Olivia started unfollowing her, yeah, I’m guessing that would be the reason.
Girl code and guy code doesn’t pertain to these people. They don’t care. They all hook up with each other.
