Hey Steve,
Great to be back in season! Couple questions, hope these aren’t repetitive. Thanks!
1. Which contestant does Kaitlyn Bristowe know / is friends with? She mentioned this on IG. Mykenna.
2. What is your take on Jade and the Fantasy Football win? Honest win or could she have cheated? Yesterday’s column addressed it.
3. I am surprised with the edit Hannah Ann Sluss has received…she seems the opposite of “bff” Hannah G, who is sweet, soft spoken, shy, and quiet. Hannah Ann is also sweet I guess but came off so robotic and cringey. Any idea if this is accurate from what you’ve heard or if we can expect her to receive a better edit moving forward considering she makes the final 2? I think she’s fine moving forward.
4. Lastly, with week 1 over, could you give us an absolute subjective opinion on who should be the next bachelorette (know you probably don’t have any evidence for info on that yet, just super curious what you think now that we know all the women a bit better)
Comment: I’d say one of the top 4.
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Kaitlyn Bristowe made an instagram post stating that she had “bitter feelings towards one person (not a contestant)” from her seasons
Any idea who it is?
Comment: No. From her “Bachelor” season with Chris? Or her “Bachelorette” season?
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Will you please elaborate a little on the production logistics of the show? When the contestants are introduced, do they come up with the ideas and production just assists with props or does production provide the ideas? It’s mostly production telling you what to do. You could go to them with your idea of what you wanna do out of the limo. But if they don’t like it, you’re not doing it. You do what they tell you to do.
If production provides the ideas, do you have any insight on how they decide which contestant should be picked for the special introductions? Not really. It’s mixed and matched. There have been people who did gimmicks that lasted long, and other who got booted early. There’s no rhyme or reason.
At the cocktail parties are the production assistants visibly present to meet with the participants off camera? If they are, why do they seem so surprised at things like interrupting people’s time? Wouldn’t they see the PAs prompting people and figure it out? They know. It’s all part of the game. Of course Peter could say, “No, I’m talking to this girl. Wait your turn.” But that’s not how the game is played.
Are you surprised that actual flying is a part of the show? Even if Pete is a commercial pilot, the safety record of general aviation aircraft seems a risk since an incident might wipe out the entire season.
Comment: But it’s his job. Any plane could crash on any day ever. Peter’s gonna do it, what, 3-4 times this season? If it were to have unfortunately happened, then yeah, they’d have to cancel the season. But I think they realize the odds are slim so they don’t think about it.
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1) what are your thoughts on Dylan being an ass to Hannah B on social media? I get it but I feel like it just makes him look SO immature. I don’t pay attention to what Dylan does. Let him be.
2) have you heard about Evan and Morgan from temptation island breaking up and Morgan supposedly befriending Kacey? I like Kacey but I’m having a hard time understanding her being willing to be friends with Morgan.
Comment: I hear things all the time. If on Jan. 2nd, Morgan decided to take down all her pics of Evan on her IG, there’s a reason for it. And it’s not because she’s falling more and more in love with him.
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Hi, Steve! Looking forward to reading your column for another season.
I was wondering about the “reality” of the long clip of Peter and Hannah talking about their feelings for each other. How much of that do you think was producer manipulation? I can’t imagine it was 100% scripted – Hannah’s not that good of an actress! – but I’m also super skeptical of things on this show that seem real. Do you think there was some editing to make their feelings for each other seem more serious than they are? Or some manipulative conversations between Hannah and a producer before she started talking to Peter? I don’t think it was scripted, no. There were definitely lingering feelings there. But seems to me since we never see her again, they got past it.
I read the article you were quoted him about the phenomenon of Bachelor contestants becoming professional influencers. Question: now that you’re promoting your Instagram more, are you considering doing some influencer ads?
Comment: Definitely. Not sure what kind or how I’m gonna do them, but it will only be ones that I feel fit my brand, I approve of, and I think my readership would be interested in.
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Hi Steve,
Love your site and all you do. I’ve been watching this show, most seasons, since it began over 20 years ago. Amazing.
I was pretty disgusted with the episode last night for a number of reasons that, as a person who is honest, just rubbed me the wrong way. For starters, Peter already knew someone from a meeting in that same hotel one month before, which seemed to give her a very unfair advantage; he also gravitated towards the most aggressive girls who didn’t play fair (I realize producers promoted this, but I thought he looked weak to play along and take whoever grabbed him) and most of all, the cheating on the competition wasn’t called out, so not only wasn’t she disqualified, but the cheater actually got the win and went on the date? WTH, that just is disgusting. There have been other instances where a contestant knew the lead. This isn’t new. For a while there, we got a “returnee” every season. That’s not that big of a deal. And she didn’t ultimately end up winning, so why does it really matter? As for the cheating on the group date, I wouldn’t call it disgusting. There’s not really any rules when it comes to this show. That was allowed to happen for a reason, and that reason was they were establishing Kelley’s storyline.
I also thought both competitions were demeaning to the women by making them compromise their morals — first by watching a cheater take the win and then, by being told to tell compromising personal stories about their sex lives. They’re being portrayed as desperate. I also think they were told to talk about their sex lives to make Hannah look better, but that really isn’t fair either. It also doesn’t work. She did what she did and we’ll think what we think (I really don’t care personally so they need to stop talking about it). Sex themed dates have ALWAYS been a part of this show. So I don’t know if you’re new or what, but you can find multiple dates every season that put women in embarrassing positions to either look sexual or talk about sex. The list is endless. It’s what this show does.
Then there’s the part you mention, where they don’t let some girls talk to the bachelor which is nothing new, but seems to be more irritating to the viewer, along with these other things.
I guess we live in a world that’s gotten more and more dishonest, and low in morals, and last night’s show reflected this trend, but I am disappointed that the show is so disrespectful to some of the women by being so unfair in so many ways. I know we should be cynical about the show and it’s manipulations, but somehow it all just went too far last night. Even if the women on the show don’t care about the way they are portrayed, other women do care. Looking at some of the men who produce the show, I guess it’s not too surprising.
Comment: Yeah, you’re watching the wrong show if you’re looking for one with high moral standards. It’s never been this show and never will be.
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I also have a question about production staff. Do they keep counselors on staff that the women have access to talking to? Being a therapist/counselor myself, I keep thinking, “Man, I really hope there are some counselors on deck to help with this craziness.”
Comment: Yes, there’s a therapist/counselor that travels with the show. However, contestants don’t talk to them until after they are eliminated.
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Hi Steve,
I don’t know if this is too late to make it into tomorrow’s questions, but something I keep going back to with Peter and Hannah Brown. Obviously producers knew that by bringing her back, it would elicit drama, anger and other emotions from the women in the house. I have watched the show and read your column long enough to know that producers do not really care about the contestants, as long as they are getting good footage and making good TV. But I always thought that production was very protective of its lead. Was production really clueless about any lingering feelings between Hannah and Peter? Was the goal really to mind f*ck the lead in the very beginning of the process? I realize after next week that Hannah is not heard from for the remaining of filming, it just seems that the emotions between the two of them were raw and real. I think if Hannah and Peter are currently together, then the Bachelor may actually lose some of its fan base. Do you have any more details on the back story of her appearance and if everyone thought Hannah would just come on, present a date, and that would be the end of it (and a way for them to give Hannah yet more screen time)?
Thanks for all your hard work!
Comment: Clueless? Probably not. But I don’t think they thought they were gonna get what they did when they put the two of them together. I think they thought it would be more awkward than anything, you know, your ex showing up. But then feelings came to the forefront and they just went with it. The more I read and hear from Hannah, the more I think she was just someone who was highly emotional and in a highly stressful situation that day. She was 2 weeks into DWTS, the night before she had just been kinda ripped by Carrie Ann for her performance, then the next day she has to deal with seeing Peter. My guess is she wasn’t in a great head space herself that day and it manifested when she saw Peter.
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Hi Steve
I was just wondering – has there ever been a winner of the Bachelor/Bachelorette that was not given an intro video package on the first episode of the season? It seems like the winner almost always has an intro package. Do you know how they choose who gets one? I’m guessing it’s just the production’s best guesses at the most compatible people for the lead in addition to some bold personalities just to mix it up?
Comment: Yes. Happened plenty of times. And plenty of people have ones that get filmed and never shown. Story editors would be the one to ask about that as to why who gets theirs shown vs who doesn’t. They’ll always show at least 2 of the eventual final 4. Sometimes they’ve shown all 4. That’s about the only given when it comes to intro videos.
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Any update on Evan and Morgan? There has been no breakup announcement but Morgan deleted everything of him on Instagram, but kept ring pictures. Theories are that they are staging things to be on Ex On The Beach. Any gossip or theories? I don’t think that’s the plan.
Will you be attending a show of Bachelor: Live On Stage? Zero chance.
Is Madi’s virginity going to be blown up as much Ashley’s was? It’s definitely a storyline for sure. One that will come to a head during overnights.
Has there ever been a lawsuit about contestants not getting paid? Most reality shows compensate all participants. Or do they go with the idea, if you’re unhappy about it, don’t participate. Thousands of others are willing to. Pretty much. The second you sign a contract to be on this show, you are under their power. You have zero legal recourse to do anything. The contract basically spells it out for you. It’s the worst contract in TV. Most reality TV contracts are. But these people don’t care, nor probably read it, because they want to be on TV so bad.
Do you think the flash forwards are going to run all season? Like at the beginning of the episode and such? No. I think we’ll go back to a normal season, and the only shots of the ending we’ll get again is the next time we get a “coming up on this season of the “Bachelor…”
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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.
