Hi Steve,
Long time reader and follower here all the way from Bulgaria! Love everything you do! The Bulgarians in the house. Is Rusev a fan?
My question is about something you talked about in your Sean podcast and mentioned before- that the #3 person had to stay until the end of filming. At the same time I thought you said Jason had to stay until the end of Thailand. So what I am wondering is- does the #3 person continue traveling with them until the final rose ceremony or do they leave after overnights is done filming? Becasue if it’s at the end, even though, he just got dumped, Jason got a nice little vacation to the Maldives!
Thanks for considering my question!
Comment: I’m assuming he did. If he wasn’t specifically flown to the Maldives, maybe he just flew back to LA and had to wait there with a handler til the season was over. But the #3 person definitely doesn’t go home after their elimination anymore. Yes, they basically get a free extra week vacation.
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Hi Steve!
Olivia had Canadian bachelorette, Jasmine on her podcast. We have already met Kevin. So I was wondering if there was any chance you would want to interview, Mikhel, who was the runner-up to hear about his experience.
Thank you for what you do! At work, people always know to come to me with the tea on the show!
Comment: I doubt it only because I like having people on who I’ve actually seen their seasons. Or at least am familiar with their product. Makes it easier to conduct an interview. In 90 episodes, I haven’t had one guest on that I wasn’t familiar with their work. I’m sure in the future there might be a couple here and there that put on where I’m kinda in the dark, but I feel I can do a better interview if I actually know who the person is and what they’ve done.
I think the closest one I had on who I hadn’t seen the main thing they did was Brandi Glanville since I’d never watched RHOBH. But Brandi had so many more interesting things about her and her life was so public, it wasn’t hard to research her. But did we talk about things that happened in particular episodes of her seasons? No, because I’d never seen it and I didn’t want to pretend that I had. But I did prep for her by reading both of her books, so that helped me understand a few things that had happened on the show.
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Hi Steve,
I have been reading you for years but this is my first time writing you.
I enjoyed the podcast with Sean Lowe. I admit I had pre-judged him a bit and thought he and Catherine were always chasing fame, but he made a compelling case for accepting opportunities that were presented to him. I think most people would have a hard time turning down a bunch of money if all they had to do was be filmed for a short period of time or post a few photos on social media.
Anyway, looking forward to the next season of spoilers. I know you don’t reveal your sources (nor should you), but would you say social media has made it harder or easier for you to do your job? I imagine you get a lot more information that way from random people who snap pictures and send them to you, but I would also think it means you could get a lot more crap you have to filter through to see if it is actually legitimate.
Thanks for making this stupid show more enjoyable to watch.
Comment: Pretty much nailed it on the head. Way more info gets sent to me that doesn’t end up being true, or is almost impossible to verify.
Overall in terms of social media, the biggest I get now is an email or a DM with a tip starting off by saying, “I heard…” Ok, well immediately something like that isn’t good enough. My response is always the same: Who did you hear it from? Who are they? How does THAT person know? Have they ever had any information before? What’s their track record/credibility? On and on and on it goes.
Also let me make one thing clear if I haven’t already. My job isn’t hard. I’ll never complain about my job. With that said, does it get annoying at times? Absolutely. And here’s a perfect example when it comes to social media: following the contestants. It’s a completely separate entity now that not only do you have a show that’s on, but what’s happening on social media is a show in and of itself. And I don’t have the time nor the interest to follow every single person, see what they’re tweeting, posting on IG and their IG stories, etc. But I know people out there who do, so it kinda makes it easier for me. 95% of the time when I get something that says, “Did you see what so-and-so posted…” my answer is no. But now that you told me, I do. And if it’s worth looking, I’ll go look assuming I don’t follow them (which is the case most of the time considering the few people I follow on social media). So it does make my job simpler when die hard fans fill me in on stuff that these contestants are doing on social media. Like I don’t follow Leo or Bekah. So when all that shade was being thrown from both sides, I certainly wasn’t the first one to see it. But within minutes, numerous people were telling me about it so in that aspect, I don’t think I need to be following all of them. I’m going to hear about it within minutes inevitably.
One last thing I’ve noticed that’s been probably the biggest change: having an opinion. Everything I say now is dissected. Just giving a simple opinion now isn’t even good enough for some people. I’ll just use a random example. If I say, “Arie and Becca are never gonna get married” and I’m talking before the break up ever happened. Immediately I’m questioned with, “Are you saying that because it’s your opinion or are you saying that because you know something?” I’ll always get questioned on everything I say because of the track record I’ve built for myself that I think people assume I know everything about everything when it comes to this show. I don’t. I’ve never claimed to. I know probably more than 99% of the fans out there, but that’s just on the things that are told to me. And not everything is told to me. But you’d be surprised at how many people think it is. So yeah, not even being able to state basically anything without being questioned on it definitely gets annoying at times. But if that’s the worst I have to deal with in this job (and it pretty much is), then I can live with that.
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Steve
Garrett went out of his way to apologize for his liked tweets both on the finale, and post show interviews. Becca asked everyone to give Garrett a chance to change and grow. The very next day, media outlets were still referring to Garrett as a “racist and a bigot”. Do you think that Garrett’s liking those tweets have stained and besmirched his character permanently, and people just aren’t going to accept his apology and forgive him? Some will and some won’t. It’s definitely not black and white where 100% of America has put it behind them or 100% of America feels that’s what he is.
In the last fifteen years, the two very best, and genuinely nice guys that ever came on the show are JP Rosenbaum and Chris Lambton. If someone can’t get along with JP and Chris, theres probably something wrong with them. I noticed that yesterday Arie called JP an asshole on twitter. Even if it was Arie’s idea of a joke, it came across as offensive. Arie’s big April fools joke was that Lauren was pregnant, and people were really offended by that as well. Arie seems extremely media conscious, and aware of what people are saying about him. My question is, has Courtney or Sydney or someone else ever told you what Arie thinks about you, and all the things you’ve reported about him, over the last five years? He’s not a fan, lets put it that way. But why would he be? I wouldn’t be if I were him. If I wanted to be friends with everyone in this franchise so that they’d all like me, then I’d never write anything negative, my recaps would glorify the show, I’d compliment everyone…and you as readers would be bored out of your f***ing minds. That’s not my job. Been doing the same thing for 15 years, although I’ve definitely eased up the last few years. I’m going to make fun of the show and it’s contestants because, well, they deserve it and it’s easy to, and I’m going to give you information you can’t get anywhere else. My job is not to try and be friends with them. Am I with a few? Sure. And those have happened naturally. I don’t usually try and go out of my way to do it. You just kinda start talking to someone, you have a good vibe with them, and you keep in touch.
Do you think that Courtney coming on the podcast after Aries season, cost her a wedding invitation? Do you think Arie will still want to be friends with Courtney after all the things she said about him on your podcast?
Thanks
Comment: I haven’t spoken with Courtney (well, about any Arie stuff) since about February. So I don’t really know what their relationship is now that Arie & Lauren are living together. Maybe I’ll check in on that soon, but it wouldn’t be something I’d share publicly.
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Hey Steve,
Becca made a post on Instagram today about her new sponsorship with a company for aviator sunglasses. Any idea how much she makes per post on this? Since she has over 1 million followers, I’m assuming it’s enough for her to never have to have a real job again.
Comment: Well, she’s not going to retire off one post. But it varies. Yes, she has a million, but IG posts also look at engagement from your followers. If you have a million followers and you post about a product, but don’t get at least a 10% engagement in comments and/or likes, that’s not good. I haven’t checked so I don’t know. But they definitely also look at what your readers are saying and responding to the products you’re posting about. It’s not just a flat rate of, “Here, you have x amount of followers, post this, and we’ll give you x amount every time.” It definitely varies. But that many followers, and if she gets the engagement they expect could easily net her $10-20k.
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Hi Steve,
Just wondering your thoughts on if producers coached Bibiana to choose Colton in the first rose ceremony? It would make sense as that choice was rather random and it shows that in the second episode Becca shows up. If Colton was already sent home by the time Becca showed up, there would be no Becca/Colton/Tia drama and there would be no reason for Becca to even be in Paradise and would be a waste of a trip to get her out here.
Comment: They absolutely did.
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1. Do you think Kevin is full of sh** when he said he thought would marry Ashley I. one day? 100%.
2. I’m in the minority on this one, but I think Jared and Ashley have a shot at making it. They are both into football, so it’s not as if they have nothing in common. I mean, wouldn’t you prefer to date women that are into sports? You know what’s funny? Of the six serious girlfriends I’ve had in my life, I’m talking my six most successful relationships, five of them didn’t have a clue about sports. Women like that are definitely in the minority. If I limited myself to only dating women who were giants sports fans, I’m severely narrowing down the playing field so to speak. I just look at it as a bonus if they do.
3. One thing that I like about BIP is that at least we don’t have to listen to contestants complaining about not getting enough time with the lead. It’s really a completely different show when you think about it. The concept of dating, rose ceremonies, and former contestants is the same, but in terms of your living situation, spending time with someone you’re interested in, it’s night and day different.
4. Did you ever find out what happened to the producer that had a fling with Rozlyn Papa? If so, did he find another job in tv production? Last I saw, he was actually a writer for the WWE.
5. This is old news, but Danielle Lombard claimed in an interview with ET in June that Justin Bieber slid into her DM’s and they ended up hanging out, but a romance never materialized. Did you hear about this? I guess she got unlucky that she isn’t Hailey Baldwin.
Comment: I remember hearing about that at the time. Random to say the least. Then again, I hope Danielle didn’t feel too special considering Justin is known to do that with a ton of girls.
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Hi Steve. Long time reader, first time writer.
1. When someone like Colton gets this much airtime in spite of seemingly not being well liked by fans, does this decision come straight from the top from someone like Fleiss or Rob Mills? Do they really think the virgin story line is interesting? Yawn… He let him go to the final 4 with Becca, even though on Mondays BIP she said knew he wasn’t for her. Then he got his Bachelor audition on the tell all. Now he gets he feature story on BIP. I’m not sure who makes the call on something like that, but there’s a pecking order on this show when it comes to contestants. We can clearly all see that every season. And Colton right now is very high on that list.
2. Do you think Bibiana was promised anything for giving her rose to Colton? Like a date card or casting on a future show? Or is she just a good soldier? I’m pretty sure she just went along with it.
3. Are they really limiting the alcohol this season after last season’s scandal? Maybe that is why this season has been such a snoozefest. Or maybe they’ve decided just to not show the drunken antics because of what happened last year?
Comment: I’ve noticed a lot of drinking going on, but maybe they can handle their alcohol better? I don’t know. Definitely haven’t been any sloppy drunks yet. At least that they’ve shown.
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Hi Steve,
I read your site mainly for the humor because I find these Bachelor franchise shows so ridiculous, yet I can’t seem to stop watching. I’m a statistician who does a lot of work late at night on the couch with the tv on in the background… hence why I watch the bachelor/bachelorette/etc. Makes for great background tv. Ridiculous enough to keep me awake and working but not intriguing enough to distract me from work!
Anyways, I chuckled when I read that you flip through channels during commercial breaks and often flip to baseball games. The only thing I spend more time on than my work is watching baseball and reading about baseball. Fenway Park may be my favorite place on earth (somewhat kidding but not entirely). I’ve been a die hard Red Sox fan for quite awhile now (I went to graduate school in Boston), so I’m pretty excited about this season. Although, still trying not to get too excited since they’ve collapsed the past two years in the first round of the playoffs.
So, I wanted to ask…. what are your World Series predictions? It’ll come down to whoever is hot in October but it’s still fun to speculate! Should I have a little faith in my team?
Comment: Put it this way, if you guys don’t win it this year, it’d be a major disappointment. They’re on pace for the greatest regular season win total in MLB history. Then again, the last team that won 116 games never even got to the World Series, so nothing is a given.
Baseball playoffs are a crap shoot. In a 5 game series, it’s not inconceivable that the Red Sox go 2-3. And if they do, they’re eliminated. Playoffs are a different animal in baseball. You get a hot starter, and that can carry you to the title. Chris Sale has been ridiculous this year. But look at what he did in the postseason last year. He was awful. Like, not even average. He got lit up twice. You just never know. As a Red Sox fan, considering you’ve won 3 World Series titles since 2004, yeah it would suck if you didn’t win it this year, but can you really be that upset? You’ve got a good young nucleus, and all you can ask for as a fan is having a team that’s gonna put itself in position to win it all every year. Once you get to the postseason, just pray. Nothing that happened in the regular season guarantees anything in the postseason. The instances you can point to just in the last 10 years of regular season production vs postseason production being drastically different is a mile long. Just get there and hope for the best.
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Hey Steve,
Now that we saw Becca and Colton have their “closure” chat on Paradise, am I crazy or doesn’t that just totally undermine their talk on the Men Tell All where they always harp on the fact that the guys haven’t seen the Bachelorette since the day they were sent home. Colton wanted closure again on the Men Tell All? What am I missing?
Thanks for all you do!
Comment: Yeah, makes it ridiculous, but the MTA couldn’t address the fact that Becca and Colton had already had a talk a month before about it. So now knowing it, sure, the MTA chat between them seems silly. But at the time, for fans that aren’t as invested and don’t understand the concept of when the show’s were filmed, it pretty much went right over their head.
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Send all links and emails to: steve@realitysteve.com. To follow me on Twitter, it’s: www.twitter.com/RealitySteve. Instagram name is “RealitySteve,” join my Reality Steve Facebook Fan Page, or listen to all my podcasts at Apple Podcasts. Talk to you tomorrow.
