Hey Steve,
This will be a quick one.
A few weeks ago you asked in your column why not consider Clay for Bachelor if considering Mike… and there is one reason. Because his voice is incredibly unpleasant to listen to.
Great guy otherwise though!
Next, Annaliese and Cam we’re both super desperate for love and also somewhat unloveable, why can’t they realize that it’s in their best interest to at least team up if they’re not attracted to each other in order to stick around longer?
Thanks!
Comment: You’d have to ask either of them. Seems like Cam was smitten with Caelynn and wasn’t interested in Annaliese. And she wanted Chris. Once Chris didn’t give her his rose, she was done and it was too late to go after Cam.
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Hi Steve!
Okay, here’s my take on Caelynn & her drama. Full disclosure, I’ve never liked her & have viewed her as fake from the start. She was trying to be the “cool girl” (remember the Gone Girl speech?), feign indifference towards Blake & it didn’t work. She was pretending to be the fun party girl who was down for anything, carefree, & not needing to be serious. In her mind, she assumed that Blake would sleep with her once & immediately decide he had to be with her.
I think she truly believed that she would appear in Paradise to Blake realizing he made a huge mistake & fall madly in love with her. She is so transparent & artificial. She has relied on her looks her entire life & has consistently been told that she is better than everyone else around. If Blake showed any sort of interest in her on Day 1, Caelynn would have happily taken up with him in hopes of being a Paradise power couple. But he didn’t. And she proceeded to go off…
Every girl wants to think they will be the one to break the mold, win over the guy & make him forgo all the others. I’m guessing she has done this same move in the past with others. She lost her shit inside when she showed up & wasn’t immediately fawned over by all the men. I’m sure all the attention given to other women just twisted the dagger.
Comment: Under normal circumstances, I could see where you came to that conclusion. But when it’s revealed they were talking pre-show about people finding out they slept together and had a plan going in to just be honest, all that kinda goes out the window.
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Hi Steve! First time emailing.
-The whole thing with Blake and Caelynn seemed off and Blake looked genuinely shocked when she brought everything up. I’m just wondering what the hell is going through Caelynn’s mind when she knows what she and Blake talked about THROUGH messages? Did she think he’d never release them? Did she forget? It doesn’t make any sense to me why she was acting that way when it could have easily been disputed by Blake with those texts. BUT then again, why did Blake look so worried when she stepped onto the beach and pretty much ran away and avoided her? These two girls who host a podcast, the Morning Toast, are friends with Lauren Elizabeth who is really good friends with Michelle Randolph and they spent pretty much all Stagecoach weekend with them and they said that they KNOW for a fact Blake and Caelynn were in a relationship. If I had to guess, Caelynn probably thought Blake would never release the texts. But she kinda left him no choice when she went into a full on attack of his character.
So let me get this straight: Two girls host a podcast. One of them is good friends with someone whose friends with someone else and they spent Stagecoach together and know that Blake and Caelynn were in a relationship? Well then. Must be true.
-One of your previous emailers mentioned how they thought Hannah was maybe going to ask Tyler back and he either had two options: look like an asshole who’s trying to be open for the bachelor role and say no or just say yes so America doesn’t hate him. Didn’t expect her to ask honestly, but damn, Hannah put him in a tough spot and can’t help but think she was potentially trying to ruin his bachelor chances even though it seems like he doesn’t really care for it.
-No one knows what Hannah & Tyler talked about. And sure, it would be f’d up if he made it seem like he wanted to move forward with her & then he’s seen with Gigi days later on multiple dates. BUT why is Hannah acting like Tyler owes her the world? She didn’t pick him. He’s allowed to date. And like I said in my previous comment, Hannah put him in a tough spot in the AFTR asking him out in front of millions. He HAD to say yes. I agree. He was in tough spot. Couldn’t possibly say no in that situation. I don’t get the sense that Hannah thinks Tyler owes her the world. I just get the sense that she’s disappointed in the way things played out, which she can be. But it’s also on her because if she would’ve picked him in the first place, none of this would’ve happened.
-Lastly, do you believe Clay dumped Angela to go on BIP? If so, how did that even come about? I mean, it’s not like he was that popular. I’m sure they weren’t seeking him out to come. Does he reach out to them? I’m kind of confused about that. And how would Paradise even help his football career? Or did Annalise mean that he has no football so he needs BIP fame now?
Comment: That’s not what I was hearing. I’m not sure what Annaliese was getting at, but being on Paradise does nothing for his football career. Maybe she was referring to the fame aspect. I don’t know.
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Hello Reality Steve, I have a few questions.
#1 Did Blake and Taysia ever hook up before paradise? From what I understand, no.
#2 Did Blake and Hannah G ever have a romantic relationship before paradise? I know he flew to Alabama to see her, and perhaps I am being naive, but do you know if they actually “hooked up”? From what I understand, no. And you saw on last night’s episode they said they didn’t. I guess it’s up to each individual person to determine if they believe them.
If so, I am curious the extent of their hookup. I think it’s strange that during the bachelor/bachelorette the contestants seem to take sex soooooooooooo seriously, they talk about the fantasy suite as if it means that you basically are married with children if you spend the night together. Meanwhile, in the real world, these contestants are having sex with one another much more casually.
Comment: Which is why Caelynn’s story is so hard to wrap my head around.
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Any idea if Caelynn and Dean are still together? Or have you heard behind the scenes of how they’re doing with all this Blake stuff?
Comment: Yes, they are.
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Hey Steve, I’m trying to figure out the ‘girl gangs’ from BIP, to see where their friendships and loyalties lie. Most of them were from Colton’s season, where the Caelynn/Cassie vs. Katie/? blowup at the tell-all happened. What do you think?
Tayshia
Demi
Katie
Nicole
-vs.-
Caelynn
Hannah G
Oneyka
?? Sydney
?? Kristina
Comment: Yeah, I’ve lost track of all that. What I do know is this: there are some people who are taking sides publicly, that behind the scenes, are singing a totally different tune. That’s how much image matters to these people.
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Hey Steve,
I’ve got another BH90210 question for you… Team Dylan and Kelly or Team Brandon and Kelly?
I’m almost finished with season 5 and Kelly is still dating Brandon. Personally I like her with Brandon. I’m curious what your choice would be.
Comment: Hmmmm, the million dollar question. I think I’m more of a Brandon/Kelly fan, which probably puts me in the minority.
I feel like Kelly/Dylan was just a high school thing. Now, if we’re taking the storyline of “90210” that was rebooted in 2010 and taking that into consideration, we’ve gotten our long awaited answer as to who she actually ended up with and what happened. But I’m pretending that anything that happened on that show and anything with storylines involving the original cast doesn’t count.
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Hi Steve, thank God for your BIP spoilers. There is so much going on the island that it was good to know in advance what is happening. Based on the assumption that cutie pie Tyler C does not want or get the nod to be the next bachelor. What are the chances of Blake getting his redemption and getting to be the next bachelor? I would also say Jordan would be a good bachelor as he was simply hilarious last night but based on the fight that will occur in tonight’s episode— Maybe not? I just think that Hannah raised the bar on being such an open book, hot mess, bachelorette that so many fans of the show could relate with. I think Peter would be bland as he is too cookie cutter of what previous bachelor’s were. He always seemed to try to say the right thing whether he meant it or not. Yawn. Thanks for all your information.
Comment: I don’t see them giving Blake the “Bachelor” gig. Too much negativity surrounding him. Even though after the next rose ceremony when Hannah makes her choice of Dylan over him his storyline kinda dies off, I just don’t see it happening.
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After years of reading your site and largely ignoring anything off Bachelor/Bachelorette topic, my husband and I started watching UnReal. We are in season 3 now and I’m blown away! It is fascinating (and horrifying) to see how these shows are produced. Obviously some of the storylines (Mary, police shooting, etc) are exaggerated but seeing an inside glimpse into the behind the scenes production is eye opening to say the least. It definitely makes me think about the real life people associated with the show. Especially with all that has come out on Fleiss recently, how does this show continue on in such a publicly exposed way? Is it just that most of America is ignorant to the truth behind the scenes or that we are willing to ignore it for our entertainment purposes? It seems crazy that internet shamers are so quick to crucify contestants and publicized true stories (like the Fleiss story) but largely ignore how the bachelor is made. Yes. Ultimately, I don’t think people care how the sausage is made so to speak. They just enjoy the taste of it, which is the end result.
I also struggle with how leads justify signing up to be a lead when they see how seasons are made. Obviously UnReal brings this to light by showing them understanding all that they can “get out” of doing the show but it also exposes how producers will do anything to get the drama they want (including screwing over the lead). It again makes me think of current seasons like Arie, Colton & Hannah’s “most dramatic season endings ever”. How much do you think production will push for the “wrong” ending in order to hope for more post-season drama? Do you think we’ll ever see a traditional ending again (final winner, proposal & stay together)? I don’t think they purposely push for anything to be wrong. But they definitely want something to happen every season that’s never happened before, and I guarantee this is spoken about in production meetings before the season starts.
That brings me to my next question, are there any links to specific posts you’ve done in the past going through how much of UnReal is accurate? I found the podcast but hesitate to search hard or listen until I’m done watching all the seasons.
Thanks for going backwards into your archive because I’m slow to finally watch things you recommend.
Comment: No, I don’t have any specific links, sorry. It was something that I just talked about on and off again for years. I did do one podcast with someone from UnReal and that was Shiri Appleby. Maybe go check that one out.
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Hi Steve,
I just started listening to your podcast last year so I recently started going back and re-listening to some that were released before I started listening. I’ve noticed that on Apple podcasts, they only have your old podcasts going back to early 2018. So I know that there are some older ones that I have not been able to listen to that aren’t available on Apple podcasts anymore. Do you know if there is a different platform that has all or more of your old podcasts available on it? Or, I was wondering if you would be able to create an archive on your site of all of Thursday posts from the last few years that had your old podcasts. Not sure how much work that would be for you, but you could have a tab at the top of your home page like you do for “Spoilers”, “Reader Emails”, “Dr. Reality Steve”, etc. This would make it a lot easier for people who want to get caught up on old podcasts that may not be available on other platforms anymore. It’s just a thought that I wanted to share with you. Yeah, I’m not sure why it stops at a certain date. Let me try and find out. And actually you can. On my posts on desktop, there’s a blue rectangular box that should be in every podcast episode that says “podcasts.” You click on that and it’ll bring you to every podcast. However, there’s only 3 or 4 to a page and 53 pages of them, so you’d have to do a lot of scrolling back. On mobile, same thing. There’s a blue “podcast” tab right at the top which will bring you to posts that only have the podcasts.
I love your podcasts, as I’m sure many others do. You talked a little bit about Rachel and Ali’s podcast with Jed last week. You didn’t want to comment on the way that Rachel and Ali conducted the interview, and I understand that. When I listened to it though, I just kept thinking that you would not have been as easy on him. At all. It seemed like Rachel really wanted to lay into him and cross-examine him a few times, but Ali would kind of cut her off and hold her back. I’m sure Rachel could have been a lot harder on him and I wish she would have!
Anyways, I really enjoy listening to your podcasts so keep up the good work! Thanks!
Comment: No, I wouldn’t have. Nor would I have made excuses for him.
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Hey RS!
The more I think about it, I wonder if Caelynn was contacted by production to start this drama with Blake. Maybe they assured her more air-time if she came in pissed off at Blake. They’re aware of her being a sexual assault survivor and maybe used that to get her emotions flowing. “How can you be okay with him treating you that way? Doesn’t he know what you’ve been through?” And possibly she fed into it. She clearly came in with an agenda when she told Chris “I am NOT a fan of Blake.” Total speculation but after both the texts and her response, her reaction makes no sense. However, you’d be hard-pressed to find a girl who claims she’s okay with it being “just sex” then doesn’t develop some kind of feelings. Haven’t we all seen the movie Friends With Benefits? I’d have more respect and a better understanding for her if she just came out and said “Yeah we hooked up. I thought I could do it without strings attached but I’ve developed feelings and want to see if there’s anything between us.” That was Blake’s mistake believing he could just have casual sex with all these girls and nothing would come of it. Since Caelynn doesn’t have her guns blazing trying to defend herself, I think she’s realizing she’s caught. We don’t see her providing any kind of receipts that defend her story. Maybe she should come on your podcast lol. I think a lot of Caelynn’s reaction was probably egged on by production. It’s what they do. I’m sorry, I’m just not convinced Caelynn was really that broken up about having sex with Blake one time two months ago, along with texting a Facetiming before that. Sorry. So yeah, production knew Caelynn, Kristina, Tayshia, and Hannah were all coming n the show, they knew Blake had some sort of past with all of them, and they create storylines from there. If Caelynn comes on and says that she’s cool with everything and she and Blake have moved passed it, is that good TV? No. It isn’t. They want drama. I think Caelynn is over exaggerating her relationships with Blake for the sake of a storyline. She can deny it til she’s blue in the face. I don’t buy it.
I’m kind of surprised Cam and Annalise didn’t get together. They’re basically the same person, aren’t they? While everyone else basically wants to “explore” they set their sights on the first person to give them attention and they start planning the wedding in their head instantly. I actually feel bad for them.
I’m 100% on board for Mike being the next Bachelor, but I am predicting it’s Peter solely based on the fact that he’s “windmill guy.” It’ll be the selling point just like Colton’s virginity was to his season. I hope I’m wrong though since I’m not a fan.
4 hours a week seems like such a big commitment to cover everything. I can only imagine how exhausted you and others with podcasts are. I’m exhausted just as a viewer lol.
Comment: I want this season to end already and we’re only 4 episodes in. Or at least get to the reunion, because I think that’ll be juicy.
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Hi Steve,
What still confuses me with the whole Blake situation are two things:
1. If he and Caelynn were cool and everything was talked about before paradise, why did he run away as soon as she came down the stairs? Then he acts completely surprised when she confronts him the next day? Idk, like you said, something’s not adding up. Editing.
2. If Blake was so adamant about pursuing Hannah, why wouldn’t he ask her on that first date??? Seems like he could’ve avoided all of this drama (or lessened it) if he just pursued her from the start. It really pissed me off when he talked down to Dylan last night and even spoke for Hannah and how she’s feeling/what she’s thinking.
I’m neither Team Blake nor Team Caelynn at this point, I just want to know if you have any other pieces to this shitshow puzzle.
Comment: That is the million dollar question and I’m guessing Blake will address that once he does his media tour. That’s one major f**k up he had this season. Absolutely we would’ve been dealing with something completely different if Blake takes Hannah out on that first date, because my guess, is they would’ve been together at the end of this thing. And if that’s the one he wanted going in to Paradise, it makes zero sense for him to ask out Tayshia first. My guess? Production had something to do with it. They always do.
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Steve! Stevo! Stevarino!
Long time reader & big fan!
Jordan on Paradise this season lead to me googling Jenna to see what she was up to and to see who she was with these days. It seems she’s writing a tell-all book?!?!! She can not be serious?!?! Who will buy that!!? Talk about milking your 15 minutes of fame!
Comment: Bless her heart.
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Hi Steve,
I follow your blog pretty regularly and have been doing so for a long time (definitely enjoy your take on the show). I’ve also been watching since the second season of the Bachelor so guess you could say I’m a pretty avid fan of the drama and hijinx this show brings lol.
So I’m watching the Caelynn and Blake drama go down and usually I’m all about female empowerment and having been through my own personal trials and tribulations with men, I tend to want to believe the woman in her story. However, it is clear as day to me that Caelynn is a pathological liar and is gaslighting the hell out of Blake, as she did with Katie on the Women Tell All, and the Bachelor with what happened in the limo with Cassie and the drama with Hannah. She is so convincing at lying and is so manipulative (I mean her cryfest in Bachelor in Paradise is oscar worthy-given the context and TRUE narrative Blake provided us), that I think she believes her lies. I don’t think she’s consciously doing this or is even aware, but this is clearly stemming from a mental health issue. She is making people question their sense of reality (something gaslighters and narcissists are SO good at doing, trust me I was married to one), despite the fact that the texts Blake has showed the public make the entire act she’s putting on a complete and utter lie.
She is desperate for attention and I hate to even question it because it’s so wrong to say and as someone who was sexually molested by a family member myself when I was younger, buuuutttt it even makes me question the story she had told Colton. Mind you, I questioned it before only because I don’t know if sharing such a personal traumatizing story to millions of people is the way to go about it (might have shared it off-camera with Colton instead because it is still important to share), but that’s neither here nor there at this point. I just think something in Caelynn’s past or her upbringing has left her with some really deep scars, low self-esteem and mental health issues where she’s regularly engaging in attention-getting behavior, gaslighting, and lying, while putting on an act to those around her. It makes you wonder who the real Caelynn even is or if she even knows who she is.
Also as a side note, I support Blake in what he did after the episode aired. He owned his mistakes, but not the lies that were told and I commend him for that and for acting to clear his name. The slut-shaming of Caelynn that followed was absolutely uncalled for and he clearly didn’t intend for that to happen, but he was also being labeled as things he wasn’t and has a right to defend himself and his name. I would actually flip the scenario and ask people, if it was Caelynn or any other woman who came forward with such texts and the roles were reversed, would we even be questioning that action? Or are we used to guys being “horny” that we can expose their texts and just attribute it to “boys being boys.” If you’re going to say those texts were too personal or intimate for Blake to share, you better also be saying the same if a woman shared the texts of a man engaging in hookup culture. Just sayin. #keepingitreal
Comment: I appreciate the email and sharing your thoughts. Some will agree with you. Some won’t.
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Who do you think got more hate, Jason and Molly, or Arie and Lauren? I didn’t start watching the show until about Desiree’s season, and I didn’t really pay attention to it before then (when you could still avoid it if you didn’t watch it). Anyway, I was just curious. Jason and Molly for sure. Moreso because they were the first to do it. Arie definitely got some hate for sure, but since we’d already been down that road before and seen it, it just didn’t have the negative impact and reaction that Jason had.
Besides Peter Kraus, do you know of any finalists or at least reasonable contenders for the lead that either didn’t want to be the lead or even turned it down? Obviously there are plenty of Luke Pell’s out there that would give a limb to be the lead, but if I remember correctly, the rumor out there was that Peter didn’t want the gig. I thought that was interesting seeing as that’s why a good portion of these men go on the show.
Thanks Steve!
Comment: Not that I’ve heard.
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So are you trying to say that Taylor and Hannah are never ever ever getting back together?
Comment: I think you meant Tyler. And obviously you can never say never to two people who were once in a relationship, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
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Sorry if you’ve answered this already— I swear I’ve read all your episode-by-episode spoilers for BIP but can’t remember if this came up:
Was Derek in on the whole “Demi has a girlfriend that they’re eventually going to bring to paradise”? I know you said that Demi had it planned with producers ahead of time, but it makes me wonder if Derek was in on it too. Was he really interested in Demi romantically and then the producers just allowed him to be blindsided by the fact that she was never going to leave Paradise with anyone other than the girlfriend they were planning to bring on? We just saw no build-up or depth to Derek’s and her relationship so the fact that people are talking like they are the “strongest couple” just makes me think that he was in on it the whole time and was cast for this season just to be Demi’s love interest and then “have his heart broken” by her. I don’t think Derek knew about how Demi was seeing a woman pre-show until she told him. So he wasn’t in on it.
Also, on a different note, I can’t believe Caelynn had the gall to call someone else a “stupid bitch” on BIP. They used a frankenbyting voice-over in the beginning of tonight’s episode so you couldn’t really tell who she was talking about or when it was actually said, but dang— have we ever seen someone last as long as her on Bachelor/BIP who uses such rude/explicit terms towards her fellow cast mates? I mean there are always disagreements/cat-fights on every season but we’ve never heard someone repeatedly use the term “stupid bitch.” I would think someone from the pageant world who is trained to be poised and composed would have more eloquent verbiage to spew at her adversaries. Yeah, she definitely said it, but it was spliced so we have no idea who it was towards.
Last question:
How do people like Sydney or Nicole or Jane get asked to be on Paradise? Nothing against them, but they were complete non-contenders in their original seasons and then they bring pretty much nothing of interest to Paradise. You always make it sound like a lot of Bachelor and Bachelorette alumni would kill to be on BIP and stay in the limelight, but if there were that many wanting to be on BIP, surely the producers could get some bigger personalities and more well-liked/well-known contestants than Sydney/Nicole/Jane/bibi
Comment: Best way to answer that is Paradise has over 30 contestants a season. And most of them are from the Bachelor/ette seasons that aired that calendar year. You don’t get to that number unless you cast people who weren’t a main focus on their season. Go back and look at past casts. You’ll always find people like them that make it to Paradise. Hell, Dylan didn’t say “boo” on Hannah’s season we just saw and he’s one of the main characters this season. Happens all the time.
You say production can get bigger names than them, well who? Who from Colton and Hananh’s season are you dying to have on BIP that you think would’ve made a name for themselves that isn’t already on. Colton’s #2, 3, 4, women are all on the show. Of course they’re going to take women who only last a few episodes. And there’s always night 1 people that get cast on BIP. There’s at least one every season.
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Hi! You said you’re low on e-mails, so some basic thoughts/questions.
First, Katie — I’ve seen a lot of people questioning her behavior during the Wills convo, but it seemed pretty clear to me that she was completely hammered. No mystery there, IMO! I don’t think people doubted she was drunk. It was the talking while trying to breathe crying that made her impossible to understand.
Second, Blake vs. Caelynn. I know you said it will probably be addressed at the BIP finale reunion thing, but do you have any idea of who TPTB are more supportive of? Like, do you think they want to continue to annihilate Blake, or with the info he released, do you think they’ll want to spin it as a redemption opportunity for him? You re-watch these clips from the “Women Tell All” this season then let me know who you think the show will always be backing.
Finally, which of the BIP couples (if any!) do you think might actually be genuine? I’m skeptical of all of them, but then, I never thought Evan and Carly would last, and here we are LOL. And as you’ve said, BIP is a better vehicle to finding a relationship.
Thanks for all you do!!
Comment: I need more time to watch them. Ask me at the end of the season.
