Hi Steve,
I know you don’t know the answer to this, but I am curious on your thoughts on this. Why did Hannah have sex with Peter, then eliminate him immediately after? It doesn’t sound like she had sex with Tyler or Jed in the fantasy suites. I think you’d have to ask her that question, not me.
Do you think at this point she really didn’t know it was Jed she was going to choose? No, I think she knew it was Jed.
Which leads to my next question; They always make it seem like the lead is so conflicted at the end and debating their decision until the end. Do you think this is often the case, or do they usually know by the final 4 or so who they want to pick? I think most have a pretty firm idea of who they’re picking.
Is it just me or does Tyler come across really smooth and fake? It’s good to hear he doesn’t have too tainted of a history of womanizing, but his TV persona doesn’t come across that way. If I hadn’t read your spoilers and behind the scenes juice I would be a big Jed and Peter fan, as they seem genuine and like normal guys. He definitely comes across as smooth, but I don’t know about fake. I don’t get that impression at all.
I agree with you that Luke P isn’t the monster the show made him out to be. I was actually really impressed how he keeps his cool while getting attacked. I really think he thought Hannah and him had the same values and morals and it turns out they just didn’t.
In recent history, have there been any contestants that you felt would have made a great lead, but were not chosen? I know you say you don’t really care who the lead is, but some are definitely better than others. I’d have to think about that one, but I’m sure there’s a few who could’ve handled the role that never got it.
Do you think the lead always really does want to find a forever partner? Or do you think their bigger motive is to be famous and grow their brand?
Thanks so much! You make this show way more interesting!
Comment: No, I think most know going in this is more for a career boost and branding potential, and if they find a fiancé out of it, that’s just a bonus. The show is too popular now for anyone NOT to think that going in. Just in the last few seasons, Rachel is now on ESPN. JoJo has a TV show. Kaitlyn has a successful business and podcast. They know the opportunities are there, so, while I’m sure they’d all LIKE to find a fiancé, they know what they’re ultimately signing up for.
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Hey Steve,
Me again. I was listening to the Almost Famous podcast and Ashley said she met Mike very briefly and he was not very friendly. I got the vibe from him this season he was putting on an act for the Bachelor role. Curious- Have you heard any negatives about him? In the last 48 hours I did, but just like anything, it’s not something to run with because it wasn’t first hand and it was told to me by someone who clearly has a bad impression of him based on what she knows through other people. This person thought he was putting on an act as well and claims to know a different side. Not something I’m really choosing to follow up with.
One other thing I was curious about. With all this talk about bullying surrounding Luke P. I was wondering if you ever were affected by any of the trolls and what you did to handle it if so? Would also be kind of curious what it would be that upset you but I understand that can be personal! You know with Olivia now in Austin it would be pretty awesome for a collab live podcast!
Comment: The only one that ever affected me was when I was dealing with a stalker, because that affected me personally. What anyone says online about my site, my writing, whether they like me, etc I don’t care because they don’t know me. I value the opinion of people who know me and I talk to on a consistent basis. Not strangers on the internet. Their opinion doesn’t matter, so that’s why I never respond. Maybe one day I’ll tell the stalker story, how bad it was, how it affected my then relationship at the time with my girlfriend, and how then she essentially turned on me. That could be about five chapters in a book if I really went into detail on it. I don’t know. It’s still why I’m very guarded about who I give my time to.
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Hi Steve,
Hope you’re surviving your last week of “do Tyler and Hannah end up together?!” craziness! Quick question – on Ashley’s access recap, she mentioned two things about Mike. One that he told her he made vulgar comments on BIP and two, that she didn’t like him when meeting him and stood by that opinion after talking to people on BIP. Have you heard similar things?
Thanks!
Comment: Not about anything that happened this season or in Paradise, no. Just an email I received the other day from someone was the first real negative story I’ve gotten about the guy.
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Hi Steve
Not a reader comment or even a question. It wanted to share.
Someone may have told you about it already but I read @BB_Updates on Twitter. They post live updates of the live feed. Better than recaps. Much more of an unedited view of what’s going on and much quicker read. I just watch diary room and competitions on the DVR. Like your site is the only reason I still watch bachelor franchise, these tweets keep me watching Big Brother and save so much time.
Jealous of your three TVs!
Comment: The only time I read those was when someone alerted me to it because Kat had said she dated someone from the “Bachelorette” years ago. And I think that day I was reading some of the updates. I’ve just chosen to stay away, because as I’ve said, the “Bachelor/ette” franchise is the only thing in my life I care to be spoiled on. I don’t want to know anything before it happens in any other show.
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I may have missed this on your site but I heard on Bekah’s podcast (from Aries season) that Hannah and Luke were DM’ing each other before they even started filming. Did you hear this as well?
Comment: No.
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Hey Steve,
I saw in your Tuesday post that you currently don’t have CBS due to their whole DirecTV situation. If you have the time to watch Big Brother live, hamsterwatch.com has a few links on her sidebar of websites that stream it. The most reliable link is http://videobrother.net/live-stream otherwise, she does solid recaps.
When it comes to casting BB, this season is admittedly pretty bad. It’s been bad since the start; the TV editors are just finally giving TV onlies a slight insight into it. Holly is thankfully one of the better houseguests, but the two Jacks are constantly the most disliked by fans. There hasn’t been this much bigotry and misogyny in a season in years. I know you’re only watching for Holly and likely won’t watch again unless someone you know ends up on it, but to answer the question you posed in your article: no, it’s not normally this bad. Last season was the best in a while. This season is among the worst in a while. The most likable people this season is basically everyone not in Gr8ful. Except Holly. While she’s in Gr8ful, I haven’t heard her openly trash people or scheme yet. Maybe that’s coming. I hope not.
A Bachelor question I have is, when production winds down to final four/three, how do they house these finalists? Do the final four stay in the bachelor mansion? A hotel? With final three, do they each get individual hotel rooms when they’re not on their overnight dates?
Thanks!
Comment: The second hometown dates start, the contestants never see each other again until rose ceremony days when they’re standing there. After each ceremony they are taken away separately.
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Hi Steve!
First time emailer here! I don’t really have a question, more so a statement. First off, I truly appreciate your objective view on things – especially with the Luke P. situation. I feel like the male contestants (and Hannah too) were pretty much bullying Luke at the Men Tell All. And to be honest, it was extremely difficult to watch. I mean, have they ever heard of piling on? It just really makes me sad that most people would say on a public forum that they are totally against bullying but for some reason these contestants thought they may look cool and get more applause if they figuratively kept punching away at a guy that is down. Actions speak louder than words and their actions were pretty awful to a guy who literally lacked self – awareness and who quite truthfully just wasn’t very articulate. Definitely don’t think he is a bad guy at all. Or a misogynist. Or a psychopath. Handled himself well on the show? Nope- the show was not for him. I just think some of those guys took it to a whole new level and just made themselves look immature and just downright mean. Thanks Steve! Love tuning in to your site every week.
Comment: There was definitely a mob mentality going on. But I understood their frustrations because Luke did have 2 months of hearing and seeing how awful everyone was to him, and in his first chance to speak on it, he wasn’t giving them the answers they wanted. And that was the forum for it. He’s not getting any other chances. It’s over. There’s no more Luke show. So while I think they piled on, that’s what that forum was asking for. This is your chance to speak, show remorse, admit your mistakes, and he didn’t, so they kept coming. Wasn’t a great environment to be in for sure.
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Steve,
When Luke left the MTA , it made me wonder what happens to contestants when the show is over. Lee from Rachel’s season, Bentley from Ashley’s season, and now Luke P., were all universally hated contestants. I remember Bentley saying he received death threats after the show. With all the inside knowledge you have of this show, have you heard that contestants like Lee, Bentley and Luke are stigmatized forever-and their lives are effected negatively years post show, or do people just forgive and forget after time elapses? I think it dies down once the new season starts. Yeah, you’ll never be able to escape the internet and your name will forever be linked to the show, but do you honestly think by like, I don’t know, September, people will be up in arms talking about Luke at work on a Tuesday morning? Of course not. They’ll talk about you when you’re in our face and on our TV’s. There’s no more of that for Luke so it’ll die down.
There were several tabloids last week claiming all the guys on Hannah’s season are supporting and standing up for Jed. Does this bother you? For those guys to back Jed, is discounting everything Haley Stevens has ever said, What is your take on this? It’s what I expected.
Lastly. you and Ashley have a great dynamic on the He Said She Said Podcast. Ashley is very vocal about her politics, and supporting women. You’ve done a lot of podcasts with Ashley, and you have said that you consider her her a friend. As strong as Ashley views have been on these issues, do you think that she has influenced or altered your views regarding these issues?
Thank you Steve for another great season.
Comment: First, I can’t remember any time Ashley has ever shared any political beliefs on the “He Said, She Said” podcast. Or are you saying just in general she does that? Sorry if I misunderstood.
Second, if anything, I read more stuff now than I did before because of some of the links Ashley puts out. But I wouldn’t consider myself political at all. I’m just not interested in getting involved as heavily as she does. I think it’s great what she does. Just not me or my personality. To each their own. But I will always love Ashley to death because of who she is as a person. The more I’ve gotten to know her, and I know she grates on some people because of all the political posts, but she’s so much more than that. I wish people wouldn’t just pigeonhole her into one category. Be sure to listen to tomorrow’s podcast that she’s on. It’s a good one.
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Hi Steve,
1: ABC should be ashamed of itself for the selfish way they edited this season to induce drama and ratings with regards to Luke P. He’s a human being, for heaven’s sake! I don’t doubt what you said about how producers, etc. very possibly egged many of the contestants along to fit their agenda.
2: I’m convinced that ABC has no remorse for editing the show to degrade Luke’s expressions of faith. The MTA cameras were focused on the audience who were mocking his every word, in spite of his calmly trying to explain himself under extremely difficult circumstances.
3: Has it occurred to anyone that Luke fully believed that Hannah shared his feelings about sex and marriage? I’m pretty sure what led him to believe that was edited out. It appeared to me he was very surprised to learn that Hannah had not kept what he thought was their mutual understanding about keeping sex for marriage and when that happened, SHE was the one who overreacted out of her guilt. You could see it on her face. Instead of calmly letting him know what she had done, knowing that it would have been disappointing to him, she blew it up and accused him of condemning her. ABC, of course, isn’t going to turn on their lead and make her look bad, so they conveniently edited any of their talks about faith out of the show so she wouldn’t look like a hypocrite. I think they have edited this show to death to turn the focus away from what she did (because they condone and promote it), and on to Luke, who has every right to feel and show respect for sex and marriage. He may have stumbled on his words, but it showed on his face and in the tone of his voice he was being sincere and was not condemning her.
4: How dare ABC give him a ring to take w/him to the rose ceremony? That whole scene looked ENTIRELY contrived and couldn’t have been more ugly. ABC has gone into the gutter with no respect for it’s contestants with these type of scenes. A huge smear campaign against a man of faith who I believe has a good heart and didn’t cave when he was being attacked. Hard to believe Luke would even bother coming back to MTA. It totally makes me wonder what their contracts say that would leave them beholden to the network to continue being on set. It’s SO bizarre!!!
5: I’ve never seen a lead appear to have such an ugly, raunchy persona. Hannah got up on her high horse and suddenly felt she had all control; instead of showing us a smart, assertive woman to respect and love, she’s become a spoiled person who seems loves control.
Yes, please bring Luke back for a podcast so he has some un-edited time to speak his peace w/out ABC interfering.
Comment: I guess today is the day where Luke’s army sends in as many emails as possible. You think this email was biased, or no?
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Steve,
Is it in their contracts to go to MTA/WTA? I know there have been many cases where contestants don’t go. Did they have to get approval? There’s a fine line here because there HAVE been contestants in the past who haven’t gone. Bentley didn’t. Wes Hayden didn’t. And those guys were the “villains” of this season. But they basically persuade you to go. If the morning of Luke’s flight he just decided, “I’m not getting on the plane, I’m not gonna do it,” what can they do? They can’t force someone on a plane. And they’re not gonna push the taping back. So technically he could’ve not gone by telling ABC he’s coming, then the day before not board the plane. I’m sure they would’ve been pissed, but I don’t know what would’ve happened. So it’s a tough question to answer. How can they make someone get on the plane and come on the show? They can’t. It’s just a matter of what the punishment would be, if any?
If it’s optional, how on earth did they convince Luke to go? He had to of known that not going was in his best interest? Do you think they paid him to go? I guess he thought he’d be able to tell his story better. When I heard he was going, I was expecting a better performance than he gave.
I know you’ve mentioned about having Sharleen on once a year, but I’d love to hear her thoughts on this whole season. Can you get her on to discuss this season?
Comment: Well, it’s supposed to be twice a year at the end of every season, but she’s not coming on next week. Sharleen does a video recap of every episode, she does an episode recap for Flare magazine, and she does an episode recap for her personal website. So her thoughts on this season are well documented. I think she feels she’s just repeating everything she’s said all season when she does mine, which I get. But if you want her opinion on everything, follow her on Twitter and read her stuff there. It’s excellent.
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Why do you listen to Juliet Littman’s podcast? What do you like about her podcast? How did you guys meet and how did you guys become on each other’s radar. Juliet emailed me out of the blue I wanna say 3 or 4 years ago. Before The Ringer and while she was still doing the podcast with Jacoby, and they had me on. And then we’ve come on each other’s shows since then. I like when she has Robert Mills on because he’s a TV guy, and I like hearing the insight to that stuff.
Chris Harrison said that the producers wanted to get rid of Luke earlier to try to avoid Luke fatigue. I believe that they would not mind for him to leave soon but I do think they want Luke to crash the rose ceremony. What do you think? Maybe multiple producers had different opinions if Luke should stay or go. I guess since Chris Harrison had to lie a lot, its hard to believe anything he says.
Do you think Luke is a little lucky that Jed will over shadow him in the finale?
Comment: Luke only has a few days left of major online hate, and then it will start fading quickly.
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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,” or join my Reality Steve Facebook Fan Page. Talk to you tomorrow.
