“Reader Emails,” Ratings, & Arie’s Blog

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Here’s Arie’s blog now up at People.com where he talks about his dates with each girl along with the drama in the house. Then again, the lead never knows what’s really going on in the house or what the girls are saying in ITM’s because it’s not shown to them. He doesn’t see that til way after the fact, hence the reason he’s defending Krystal in his column. I think judging by his date with Krystal he knew he preferred Becca’s date over her and essentially is just trying not to make Krystal feel bad after the fact. We see this a lot of the time with the lead so I don’t think he’s doing anything out of the ordinary. But you could tell from just watching who he had a better date with. Maybe he didn’t want to catch mono from Krystal or whatever the hell she had for 3 weeks during filming that made it sound like she gargled razor blades every morning. I really am glad to know that’s not her real voice and she was sick during filming. I think it just would’ve grated on me during the duration of the show if that was the real thing.

Ratings are in and the “Bachelor” basically did the same number than the premiere. 5.5 million viewers both weeks, but a 1.4 rating this week vs 1.5 last week. Now with the next few episodes not up against football, lets see how it does. But then in a month, you’ll have two weeks where it’s up against the Winter Olympics, so expect ratings to drop then too.

Get your “Dr. Reality Steve” emails in for tomorrow. I have one, but I might not use it because they will possibly be used for a future “He Said, She Said” podcast. So I can pretty much assure you your email will get posted tomorrow if you send it in today.

Now time for your “Reader Emails” of the week. Enjoy…
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Hi Steve,

Some questions here:

1) Has anyone besides me noticed a resemblance between Arie and Becca K? As in, they could be brother and sister. I don’t see it, but maybe some others do.

2) Emily Maynard has posted several positive comments about Arie. Do you think she’s being genuine? (I recall years ago Arie made a negative comment about her on Twitter about how she’s not as nice as everyone thinks. Then he deleted it.) I’m sure she’s over it and doesn’t care.

3) Who do you think has worse character– Arie or Jef H? I’d say Jef is in the lead at this point. But not by much.

4) Are Arie and Sean really good friends or is that just something they play up to promote the show? I think it’s played up.

5) Who do you think is the top contender for the next bachelorette? I think it’ll be Tia or Lauren B.

As an aside, a couple comments:

1) I find Lauren Schleyer and Annaliese to be the prettiest women on the show. Both are Stunning! Both are very attractive, I agree.

2) Weird that people keep commenting on Arie being “old and gray” given that Peter is about the same age and also gray. I’ve never once mentioned Arie being gray because it’s pretty irrelevant. I don’t think it really matters all that much. If they were to cast a 45 year old lead, then yeah, that’d be different. He’s the same age as Nick was and younger than Brad was the second time around. What color his hair makes no difference to me.
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Hey Steve,

Few questions/comments for you. I really enjoyed your podcast with Johnny Bananas. I watched all the old challenge seasons when I was younger, and have started getting back into them in recent years.

What did you think of premiere of vendettas? I liked it for the challenge aspect. Give me some more time before I determine if I like the addition of the contestants from shows we don’t watch here in the states.

Do you like the addition of cast other shows? See answer above.

Do you think they would do a season of old bachelor contestants? We’ve seen a little of that with Josh Murray on champs vs. stars. I think you’ll start seeing more and more “Bachelor” & “Bachelorette” contestants on MTV shows in the future. Don’t forget that Chase and Jasmine are on the upcoming US version of “Ex on the Beach.”

Speaking of Murray, what do you think of his performance? If his goal was to redeem his character, I think he’s doing okay. If Josh would’ve continued to screw up his character on a show like that, he would’ve really had some problems. I don’t think that show really lends itself to him making his edit worse. He’s been fine.

Do you enjoy the vs. Pros and vs. Stars seasons as much? I felt like, especially with this stars season, that the actual challenges have been pretty tame. This Stars team is one of the worst teams ever assembled. They were terrible in challenges. The only reason why 3 are in the finals is because the show made it that way. I think if you took the top 6 swimming times, it’d be all Challenge people. Maybe Josh makes top 6, but that’s it. Probably should go back to Pros next season. And that final was a joke. I’m happy Bananas got his 7th title, but if he’s being honest, he knows that was about the biggest cakewalk he’s ever had in winning a title.

And lastly, any thoughts on this season of college football? Georgia or Alabama?

Comment: Alabama. Man, I’m such a good prognosticator.
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It’s just annoying that you don’t get credit. Now Perez Hilton is pointing out Not Peter and his fiancée’s instagram flub and not giving you credit.

I also like to listen to their podcast but Perez and Chris Booker now do a segment on the Bachelor and pretend like they don’t know about your site. I tried to email Perez Hilton that you posted the info about Not Peter a while ago but then you have to sign up for some dumb website to get through. Oh well. Just lame and disappointed that you keep not getting credit.

Thanks for great blogs and podcasts!!

Comment: Perez Hilton is still a thing? I guess I should give him at least some credit for sticking around this long when he barely writes anything on his own site and hasn’t for years.
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Hello Steve,

Wow! I just listened to your podcast with Sydney & Brittany. I am a huge Peter fan and I am in complete shock!

I had no idea Peter is such a manipulative douche. I can totally sympathize with Brittany because I’ve been in her shoes with the whole push/pull bullsh*t.

By the way, I have never listened to a podcast, this was my first. I wanted to hear what Brittany had to share. I hope people take it easy on her, that’s not an easy thing to do – admit someone wasted your time and played with your emotions.

Who is the California chick?!?! An ex-girlfriend or an ex-fiancé? Why do I recall him mentioning an ex-fiancé during Rachel’s season?

Thank you for giving these ladies a platform.

Comment: The California girl was neither an ex-gf or an ex-fiance. Just a side piece he had that he called on whenever he felt like.
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Hi Steve, long time reader here. LOVE your site and your podcast.

Three questions:

1. Intro videos. Does the show make 29+ intro videos, one for each
contestant, before they get out of the limo on the first night, or do
they only make videos for contestants they think will make an
impression? Have they ever had to go back and make an intro video for
someone after the fact because they did better than expected? No, not everyone gets intro videos shot. I don’t know what their thought process is on them in terms of who they decide to make one for vs who they don’t. There are some people that shoot intro videos who don’t even end up making the show. I don’t believe they’d ever go back and shoot an intro video after the season is over. Seems kinda pointless.

2. You’ve talked about how some winners (like Vanessa on Nick’s
season) weren’t well-liked, but that the show gives them a good edit
in order to preserve the romance of the show. When does the actual
editing of the hour-long show episodes begin — does it start
immediately, or does it start when the Bachelor picks the winner? If
editing starts immediately, has there ever been a time when they had
to go back and change earlier episodes because a contestant won or did
better than expected? They’re crafting stories all throughout the season. But to pinpoint the exact time the editing on the episodes starts, I have no idea. I don’t work in TV.

3. How does laundry work for contestants? Do the women have to do
their own laundry in the mansion? Can they have their dresses dry
cleaned between wears? They do their own laundry. I don’t think any woman will ever wear the same dress twice on this show, so I don’t see the need for dry cleaning.
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Steve, Dumb question, I wouldn’t expect you to know why the show changed their graphics. They were pretty much unchanged since the premiere with Alex some 16 years ago, and I’ve seen every Bach/Bachelorette season. Perhaps the better question is has anyone else pointed this out to you? It’s just something that jumps out when you’ve seen every prior episode.

Comment: No, no one has, but I didn’t did notice they changed.
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What is with so many girls on ‘Peter’s understudy’ ‘s season being in Real Estate?

Caroline… Chelsea…Sienne…Ashley…and those are only the ones I remember.

Is this normally a common profession on the bachelor series, or is this something purposely selected because of Arie’s career?

Comment: We’ve seen realtors in the past. I don’t know how common it’s been, but we’ve definitely seen them.
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Hey Steve!

Very excited about the return of reader emails so I can get back in my habit of planning to write a quick question that then turns into a novel. So here we go!

1) For a lot of the recent seasons, you’ve said the lead knew early on who the winner was and it was obvious to the cast and crew (Ben- Lauren, Jojo- Jordan, Nick- Vanessa)… Was this the case this season? I don’t think so.

2) I’m assuming it was at least clear to the producers that Becca was making it to the end, since they waited until the final rose to bring her ex on? I’m wondering if the producers were in contact with him early on and kept him on standby for as long as they thought she’d last, just to make it as dramatic as possible? Or if it only came about after hometowns? If you heard one way or the other!

The show obviously loves to bring ex drama on- even when it’s with a contestant that the lead clearly isn’t into and would probably get eliminated soon anyway- so I’m sure this was a fun one for them! Ha. No idea who made contact with who first.

3) Is it just me, or does Lauren B. look totally different on instagram than she does on the show / in her bio pic? I had to look up which Lauren you said was runner up cause I didn’t think any of them looked like her in the pics you posted!
(Ps- I found Lauren S. to be absolutely gorgeous in person and seemed super cool/normal— I hope she goes far) I haven’t looked at Lauren B.’s IG enough to see a difference. Don’t get too comfortable with Lauren S. She’s gone next week on her 1-on-1 date.

4) Lastly, can you please explain a little more what happened with Jef and when everything went to sh*t with him? Or shed some light on why you’re willing to go in depth on other behind the scenes drama, like Peter and Arie’s character and their exes speaking out (which I appreciate!), but aren’t willing to go into why Jef is no longer wanted by the franchise and basically enemies with Arie? I know you mentioned it all went down at Sean’s wedding, but it’s become relevant again and even a short summary would be appreciated by many (I think), if you would please consider 🙂 There are numerous stories surrounding what went down so hard to know in this particular instance which story to believe. However, you can definitely trace it all back to Sean & Catherine’s wedding because that’s where sh** went down. There’s Jef’s side of what happened, then there’s production’s side of what happened. It’s about the “dates” that Jef & Arie brought to the wedding and what may or may not have happened with them. Should they have ever been there in the first place? Were they invited? Were they snuck in? Did someone in production hit on them? All kinds of goodies that I’ve only heard stories of. But even Arie in a recent interview said the last time he spoke to Jef was at that wedding.

5) I appreciate everything you do- I honestly wouldn’t watch the show anymore without you!

Thanks Steve!
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Hey Steve! I know you watch The Challenge so I wanted to see what you thought of the new season, if you’ve watched the first episode. Do you like the addition of the Ex on the Beach cast members? Do you think Bananas will have an easy ride to the end like always, or do you think all the rookies might actually stick together this season? I actually root for the young guys to take out the vets, but Cory seems to be a lot of talk and hardly any action. I need to give this season more time. I’ll always enjoy the format of challenges then eliminations. This season, they’ve added “grenades” which haven’t fully been explained yet, and, I need more time on the other cast members from non US MTV shows along with “Big Brother.” I don’t know yet.

Also, did you watch the spinoff, Champs vs Stars? I watched Champs vs Pros and loved it, but I think not having actual athletes this season was a huge mistake for the show. I hate how one-sided all the challenges are. I thought it was interesting how MTV brought people from other channels, like bringing Josh from The Bachelorette. But he can’t stack up against CT and Zach, obviously. If they do this again next summer, they need to just bring back athletes and not TV celebrities.

Thanks for all your work spoiling the show!

Comment: Yeah, Champs vs Stars has kinda failed so far. I’d be shocked if Bananas doesn’t win.
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Hey Steve!

Do you remember hearing why Emily chose Jef Holm over Arie? I remember watching at the time and thinking she was set on Arie and had just taken Jef because he would be easy to dump. Or was Arie as much of a f-boy even before Emily’s season and she figured it out?

Thanks! Hope your new year is going well!

Comment: They were both f-boys as they proved once Emily and Jef did break up, the two of them teamed up and would trash her behind her back.
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Hi Steve,

I noticed that all the girls follow each other on Instagram except for Lauren B and Becca K, do you know the reason the final 2 girls don’t follow each other? Was there some conflict between the two of them?

Comment: I don’t know if conflict is the right word. Sometimes two people just don’t mesh. I certainly don’t think there’s hatred between them. But were they besties? No. And I don’t think they will be anytime soon either.
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If you think Becca or any of her friends/family would take anything you have to say about Arie seriously, then you’re delusional. Anyone with two eyes can see the personal vendetta you’ve carried against him since 5 years ago.

I think what really irks you is that Arie actually chose a nice/normal girl, and that it could mean he actually is trying to settle down and was taking the process seriously. So what if he didn’t go into it intending to find a wife – I don’t think any sane person actually expects to find the person they’re going to marry within 2 months on a reality show – but I do think he found someone who he 100% wants to try with.

I know you’ll scream black and blue about how terrible Arie is, and keep trying to expose him with “dirt” from ex girlfriends (oh shocker a jilted ex has bad things to say about the guy who dumped her), but the truth is, the worst thing Arie has done is slept around when he was a single guy. You just look like a fat, old jealous dude that wishes women found him attractive.

Also, your full time job is to online blog about a reality tv show that you despise. What I’m trying to say is that you’re a joke. ?

Comment: Thanks pal. Really appreciate the kind word and the support. Keep reading.