-With Caelynn’s date, there’s a bit to cover here. No need to talk about specifically what she said. It was pretty straight forward. It’s a story you’ve known about for months if you’ve been following this site, it’s a story that was the platform she ran on for Miss USA where she finished runner up, and it’s a horrible ordeal she had to deal with. If you weren’t paying attention, or you maybe missed what she said somehow, she explained it to People.com yesterday before the episode even aired. You can read it here. Again, you don’t wish that upon anyone and that story was definitely one of the more real and emotional conversations we’ve ever seen on this show. I have no problem with her telling it, I appreciated that they took the time to promote RAINN on the telecast, and all from Caelynn’s side, I think it was handled perfectly. Everything else though, I have some questions…
-I said it in the Episode-by-Episode Spoilers podcast, then again in the Colton’s episode-by-episode spoilers column a few days later, and that’s the fact that they hyped this conversation up to such a high degree, we were due for a letdown. Not much on Caelynn’s side, but by Colton’s response. Remember, it was Chris Harrison who in three different pre-season interviews (which you can see the full quotes in the episode-by-episode spoilers link), said things like this:
“I think it’s gonna change everyone’s opinion of him dramatically…”
“…something that is going to change the course of the entire show.”
I don’t know, but my opinion of Colton didn’t change at all regarding that, at least not for the positive. Colton could’ve lost his virginity before Aly Raisman (the ex he was referring to last night). Why are they minimizing Colton’s virginity to just that. Like, Chris even hyped yesterday on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show that “he opens up about why he’s really a virgin” and “leads to this amazing breakthrough.” Did I miss something? I don’t recall anything that Colton said last night as being a clear reason now as to why we understand he’s a virgin. I understand why he found it hard to be intimate with Aly, but as I mentioned, Colton could’ve lost his virginity before Aly. So that part was a little confusing.
-I think a lot of this has to do with the hype leading into it vs the payoff. If you were unspoiled on the season, not only did you not know that was coming, you probably didn’t even know that Colton had dated someone who was sexually assaulted in the past. So I get that we’re looking at it from different perspectives – a completely spoiled person who knew Caelynn’s backstory, Colton’s past with Aly, and this all being revealed tonight vs someone who knew none of that. But even placing myself in the position of someone who knew none of this going in, I didn’t think THEIR hype of it going in equaled the payoff. Caelynn told her story and Colton said he dated someone who was a sexually assaulted as well. I’m not sure where this became this game changing, the-show-will-never-be-the-same conversation came from. That’s where I’m confused. I get we’ve never seen a conversation like this. And it was completely raw to give the details of what happened in her rape. I just have an issue with the hype of Colton’s response not delivering in any way close to how Mr. Lauren Harrison expected it to.
-Look, I get what’s going on here. This show has taken a major beating in the public eye for years for basically setting the women’s movement back 50 years or so. Not saying Caelynn couldn’t or wouldn’t have gotten cast without that backstory, but c’mon, we all know that played a major role in her being on the show, this was basically a way for them to earn some brownie points after being essentially sexist pigs for the last 16 years. Remember, this is a franchise that once had a competition on “Bachelor Pad” that put women in bikinis, blindfolded them, had them turn their back to the guys, then had the guys chuck eggs at who they thought was least attractive in the house. So excuse me if I’m not standing up and applauding this show for all the sudden becoming the moral police. Yes, that was different times and no way would they ever even dare attempt do that now. I’m glad they’re at least a little bit “woke” to what’s going on here, but Caelynn, to me, was exploited by the show. It’s her decision to talk about it, and I’m glad she did, but don’t think the show didn’t know exactly what they were doing here.
-Which now brings us to “Bachelorette” talk. Since the spoilers came out, I’ve told you this is basically a two person race: Caelynn and Hannah G. They are 14-for-14 in casting “Bachelorette” leads who finished in the top 4 of their season. So they’ve never strayed from that. And only one of those 14 leads wasn’t from the season that just aired (Emily was 2 years later). I don’t think fan polls and social media polls play as much a role this season as maybe it has in season’s past. We know they chose Colton over Jason and Blake because Colton had a better story to sell. Fleiss basically said it in so many words in this column. Everyone who goes on this show has a fanbase. Some bigger than others. Caelynn has a way better backstory than Hannah G. It’s not even close. And in 2019, the idea of having a sexual assault victim as the “Bachelorette,” I mean, I really find it hard for the show to pass that up. Nothing is set in stone yet, and we’re still a month away from it being announced, but I’d be pretty surprised if the “Bachelorette” wasn’t Caelynn. Just too much potential there. Not saying Hannah G. wouldn’t make a good “Bachelorette,” because I think plenty of guys applying wouldn’t mind it being her. I’m just looking at it the way the show looks at it, and Caelynn is a gold mine for them with her story. Look how many outlets are covering last night’s episode today. They love that type of coverage. And then to make her “Bachelorette?” Seems like a no-brainer. But we’ll see. Still a month to go.
