Well that was about as crushing of a weekend as you can have. I guess we all remember where we were at certain moments in life, and definitely Sunday afternoon in the 24 Hr Fitness gym for me will be one. Was in between sets, looked at my phone, saw my Twitter feed, and said out loud, “Holy shit.” A couple guys looked over at me (guess it was louder than I thought), and I basically ended my workout at that point and headed home. Growing up in Southern California, having worked in sports talk radio in LA during Kobe’s prime years, the whole thing is pretty surreal. Never interviewed him, never had any contact with him really, but having spoken and written about him numerous times in the past, and just living in LA during those Laker dominant seasons, you felt like you knew him. I was a fan from a far. Didn’t have any of his jerseys, no autographs, no memorabilia, anything like that. I’ve never been that guy. What I do appreciate is greatness in one’s own sport. And he was one of the greatest. Guys like Jordan, Jeter, Tiger, Brady, Federer, Lebron, etc, whether you choose to like them or hate them maybe because they play on a rival team or you don’t like their personality, you can’t take away their sports accomplishments. And that’s what I respected about Kobe the most. He was an assassin and the stories of his drive and what made him so great are legendary in LA circles. Really sucks to see someone as great as him gone as soon as he is. And the way it happened is so freakish, no words can even describe that. He was an icon and he will be missed.
No real easy transition off that, but I was thinking of how anything from Kobe’s death could possibly relate to the “Bachelor.” And the only thing I thought about was maybe, just maybe, the show might cancel all helicopter dates going forward. Look, I totally get that what happened with Kobe was an freak accident, and probably less than 1% of all the helicopter flights that have happened since the beginning of time have ended like that one. I understand that. But maybe just out of respect they will end them. Hell if I know. Or maybe I’m just overthinking this. I don’t know. Put it this way, it wouldn’t be the worst thing ever if they never had a helicopter date again. It’s not like people would tune out because of it. So maybe they should. I don’t know. I’m rambling. I just still can’t believe that’s what happened on Sunday. It’s eerie.
Thursday of last week we also had some sad news in Bachelor Nation as “Bachelorette” contestant from Hannah’s season Tyler Gwozdz had passed away. Regardless of the stories that circulated surrounding his never-explained-exit after he had the first 1-on-1 date last season, seeing someone from this franchise lose their life this young is never easy to see. I didn’t know Tyler. But the guys on Hannah’s season did and they spoke highly of him if you read that link. There are things I hear every season about contestants, some of it ends up being true, some doesn’t, and it’s my discretion on whether I choose to share it what I learned or not. Tyler’s story isn’t defined by allegations that went on behind the scenes of his season. That’s irrelevant now. A life is lost and I’d rather just choose to focus on that. Once the autopsy report comes back, maybe there will be more to talk about. But for now, another tragic passing in this franchise.
ABC is really gonna start pushing this Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart show down our throats. I mean, it’s got the “Bachelor” named attached to it AND Chris Harrison is hosting it. Let him describe it for you:
“A Star is Born” meets “Bachelor in Paradise?” Huh? Sooooo does that mean someone is gonna piss themselves on this show? There’s gonna be a crazy older drunk guy scoping out younger talent? Bad description. So basically Bachelor Nation is expanding. It’s another dating show under their umbrella (same host, same producers, same “Bachelor” name), but all these contestants have ties to the music industry. Anyway, they released the 20 cast members last week on Facebook, but just like how Hannah’s guys and Peter’s women were initially released, they were taken down after a few days. Former podcast guest Brett Vergara however has the 20 person cast on his Twitter feed you can see here:
I KNOW none of us fully know what to expect from this new Bachelor spin-off, ‘The Bachelor: Listen To Your Heart’ (which starts up on April 13th) BUT, in case you haven’t seen, here are some of the potential contestants… (THREAD) #TheBachelor
— Brett S. Vergara (@BrettSVergara) January 24, 2020
And yesterday, there was a date in Venice Beach I got a pic of:
The woman in the pic looks to be one of these 3 women: Jamie G, Rudi, or Mariana. (L to R): pic.twitter.com/g2cJIyLC9G
— RealitySteve (@RealitySteve) January 28, 2020
If you watched “American Idol” a couple seasons ago, they did a whole storyline with Trevor who had a girlfriend at the time. She came to his auditions, she came to his Hollywood week, all while Katy Perry would openly hit on him and joke about it in front of her. It was all kinda…weird. He’s no longer with that girlfriend clearly. And after going over it, pretty sure that’s Rudi he’s on a date with. Really the only one of the 10 women that looks most like the one in the picture. There are no former Bachelor Nation contestants in the cast, but keep in mind, this cast is now going to be a part of Bachelor Nation, no matter if we want them to be or not. Filming started last week and there are plenty of public dates that you can sign up for as an audience member. The show will air on ABC beginning on April 13th and will end, I’m guessing, right when “Bachelorette” starts airing. These people all then become part of the mix to be cast on BIP this summer. Sure, most of your cast will still be Peter’s women and the guys on the next “Bachelorette,” but they will definitely pull a few from this show I’m sure. So be ready, as they will force feed this franchise down your throat. I’ll probably watch, and good chance I’ll just spoil the ending. But I won’t be doing weekly recaps or anything like that.
Speaking of shows from “Bachelor Nation,” I was made aware last week that producers have started poking around to former contestants gauging their interest on a “Summer Games” this summer. Makes sense, since they ran “Winter Games” during the real winter games back in 2018 opposite Arie’s season. Arie’s season only aired one episode a week, as we know, on Monday nights. “Winter Games” aired twice a week for the 2 weeks the real Winter Games aired – Feb. 13th & 15th, and Feb 20th & 22nd. So for 2 weeks, Arie aired Monday’s, and WG aired Tuesday and Thursday. The real Summer Games from Tokyo air from July 24th – Aug 9th. We don’t know the schedule yet for “Bachelorette,” but going off the past five seasons or so, that’s right around when the “Bachelorette” finale airs then BIP begins airing. So it’s too early to say how and when they’re gonna air it, or what it will air opposite of, but just keep that in mind. “Summer Games” will NOT replace BIP, don’t worry. Heard it’ll film for a couple weeks around mid-end of May, and I’m sure it’ll be no more than 4 episodes or so when it does air end of July, beginning of August.
Speaking of Arie’s season, we now have three women from his season that have gotten pregnant. His wife, Lauren, had their baby. Bekah Martinez has one child and now another on the way. And then we found out on Saturday that Jenna Cooper is now expecting:
Sooooo, does this mean her “tell all” book is being put on hold? Shocking that thing never saw the light day, I tell ya’. Jenna announced a week before this she had been in a relationship with a guy named Karl for a while, but made no mention of a pregnancy until this Saturday. In fact, went out of her way to post pictures up until this past Saturday that were clearly old photos since she had no belly in them whatsoever. Didn’t quite understand that, but hey, you do you. So congratulations are in order for Jenna.
Ashley and I want to get back to doing “He Said, She Said” podcasts every couple weeks, so if you’re interested being on the show, contact either one of us, tell us what time zone you’re in, the best time you can record, and what your story is. We were supposed to have an episode already done for 2020 but when I had to go to NY it threw everything off. So let me or Ashley know if you’re interested and we’ll see if we can schedule a time to record. Recap begins on Page 2…
