The “Bachelor” is back and we are in unchartered territories people. We are in a place now where the lead of the show, Peter Weber, is openly addressing me in interviews. In case you missed it, last week Peter spoke with the Hollywood Reporter and mentioned me by name. This is unprecedented. I challenge anyone to google anything from this show where they specifically address me by name. Don’t bother. It hasn’t happened. But this season it has and it’s because Peter is clinging to the fact that his season will be spoiler free. Well Peter, one correction. Your ENDING might be spoiler free, but not your season. Everything about your season was spoiled within minutes of it happening. The only thing we don’t know is what happens at the end. I mean, in one sense it’s kinda flattering they’re now going out of their way to do things that change the fabric of the show strictly based on my reporting. Thank you. Will it be an ongoing thing, or is this season just a one time anomaly? Can’t answer that now since we don’t know next season’s final rose ceremony yet. But this new wave of unconventional endings, if you ask me, is where we’re headed. Chris Harrison did an interview here in Dallas a couple years ago and specifically said the one thing that bugs them is the ending getting out. They’re pretty much fine with other stuff. They know with social media and public dates it’s impossible nowadays to keep everything under wraps. But the ending, they do their best to. And essentially they’ve failed every season except Desiree’s. So now it looks like they’re doing things differently. What that is, I don’t know for sure yet, but we’ll address that in a little bit. Some definite house cleaning work to go over before we get to my thoughts on last night.
Quick note: I know I said I’d have your rose ceremony-by-rose ceremony spoilers up today. Gimmie one more day. It’ll be up tmrw.
It’s that time again. New year, new season – time to start promoting the 6th Annual Reality Steve Fan Appreciation Party in Las Vegas this year. It takes place on Friday, June 5th at Caesars Palace, and it is open to anyone. There are a limited number of spots available. Right now about 1/3 of the spots have been reserved. But, these spots go fast going by last year’s count. It is free to attend. I don’t charge anything. It’s open bar all night and there will be food provided. If you want in, please email me at steve@realitysteve.com. If you will be flying in, your flight itinerary is your confirmation into the party. If you’re driving, then your hotel confirmation is your confirmation. Vegas locals just need to tell me how many are coming and the names of everyone in your party. The #1 thing I ask is, barring an emergency, if you book early and reserve your spot still not 100% knowing if you can make it, I’d suggest waiting until you know for sure. Bc once I confirm you, that locks up spots that, if you were to cancel later on, could’ve gone to someone else. I get things happen, but last year we had quite around 10 or so that booked, never showed up, and never gave a reason why. So I just ask you don’t do that. Next week I will have a booking code for a discounted rate at one of the hotels for anyone who’s interested. Not sure which hotel yet but it will probably be either Caesars or the Venetian again like last year. People seemed to like that.
A very interesting and detailed article came out yesterday by The Ringer talking about how the Instagram influencing took over the “Bachelor” world. I spoke with the author of this article Alyssa about a month ago and gave my thoughts which are included. This is a serious deep dive into the culture of Instagram, how it’s hit this franchise, who was the first to capitalize on it, and where it’s headed. I know a lot of you comment all the time on how sick you are of them casting IG influencers on the show. Actually, they really don’t. They cast regular people who all then BECOME Instagram influencers when it’s all said and done because it’s easy money. Big difference. But check out the article. Alyssa does a hell of a job breaking it down and talking about things you probably never thought of.
A lot has been said since Sunday in regards to Jade Roper winning $1 million in a daily fantasy football game for this past weekends games. I don’t play DFS, but I’ve been emailed enough the past few days to understand what’s going on. The bottom line is, this isn’t my call. It’s DraftKings. The way I see it, there will be 3 possible outcomes in all this:
1) Do nothing and pay them their money
2) Disqualify them and everyone moves up one spot
3) Render the contest empty and just give everyone their money back. No one wins anything.
I have no idea what they’ll choose. Do I think Jade and Tanner colluded? Based on the graphics I’ve seen online of their lineups with 298 of the 300 lineups being unique? It certainly looks suspicious. There’s no denying that. But did their collusion guarantee them winning? No, it didn’t. Gave them 300 chances to win vs 150 in a contest that had 100,000 entries. So there were still 99,700 entrants that still could’ve fielded a better team than Jade did and they didn’t. Yes, I’m aware of statistically what they were doing and offsetting players on each team to maximize the best possible lineups in the 300 they submitted. Fantasy Football is so much about luck, that I can’t come down on Jade and Tanner for doing what they could to maximize their potential. If I played DFS, I certainly would’ve done it myself. However, being a DFS novice, I didn’t know until the story broke that DraftKings Terms of Service clearly states colluding isn’t allowed. So if DraftKings can prove they colluded, certainly seems like they’ll disqualify them and/or not pay them out. It’s a weird situation all around because honestly, I see both sides.
And make no mistake, Jade and Tanner weren’t the only two in 100,000 entrants that went in as a “tandem” to maximize their lineups. Please. They just happened to win. And the only reason they were caught is because someone recognized the name of the winner. If the winner was Joe Smith, and he and his wife Mary Smith did the exact same thing and didn’t use their real names as their screen names, no one would’ve found out. And if one of Tanner’s lineups won instead of Jade’s, this isn’t a story either. So should they be punished for results after the fact? It’s on DraftKings now. I really don’t know how this is gonna play out. Frankly I’d pay them their money and change their Terms of Service. I just don’t know how you can catch colluding before the games start. Especially if 300 lineups are entered, I don’t know, 5 minutes before kickoff? Just seems awfully hard to police. And since we know it keeps going on, how do they possibly fix it? People are ALWAYS gonna try and find an edge when it comes to gambling. Always. And that’s all Jade and Tanner seemed to be doing here, along with I guarantee you many others who entered. Those others just didn’t win, so, it’s not a story.
If you haven’t been back on the site or followed me anywhere on social media since BIP ended in mid-September, you’ve missed a lot. All I can say is that it’s probably imperative that if you’re not following me on IG, you should. Name is realitysteve (and it’s got a blue checkmark next to it now. Weeeeee!). I have hired someone that will control the layout of all spoilers posted on my feed and IG stories. Not saying you’ll only get info there, but in times when filming is happening and I’m spoiling in real time, it’s much easier to do it on IG immediately, then put it on my site the next day. So just keep that in mind for “Bachelorette” season. Right now, what you’ll get on there is at the end of every Monday night, you’ll have the next week’s rose ceremony spoilers posted on my feed and in my stories. Since I don’t know how editors choose to fill each episode and we don’t know if each episode will end with a rose ceremony or “To Be Continued…” I’m just doing it by rose ceremony, meaning you’ll be given all the details I know from one rose ceremony to another. So go check that out and start following me there. It’ll be like a quicker, cliff notes version of the spoilers. Your rose ceremony-by-rose ceremony spoilers will be posted today after this column goes up.
I will give ABC credit. The first episode every season is always the worst one. There’s only so much they can. Intro the lead, show us intro videos of the contestants, do the limo entrances, show the cocktail party, then show the rose ceremony. Every first episode has been the same for years essentially. And outside of the first night drunk, or the Interruptor (as Hannah Ann gladly stepped into that role last night), there’s really never too much drama. How can there be? These people are just meeting for the first time. But last night, with beginning the show by flash forwarding to a clip of final rose ceremony day, to including the first dates of the season, then throw on the Hannah Brown factor, that was by far the most jam packed first episode they’ve ever had. Good strategy too. Because even though you may have a brain and realize there is no possible way Hannah Brown was a contestant on Peter’s season because she was filming DWTS, all you need to do is look on FB pages, IG comments, mentions on Twitter, etc and you’ll realize how many people out there are clueless to this show’s schedule. So they ALL think Hannah Brown is probably joining his show next week. Unreal.
So it’s not going to be too detailed of a recap today as I will give most of my thoughts on what everyone is freaking out about today and that’s the flash forward at the beginning of the episode, and, what does Peter and the show mean when they’ve been saying non-stop their show won’t be spoiled this season. And, where does Hannah Brown factor into all this. Read on…
