A few news stories to get to in Bachelor Nation today, most of which I’ve tweeted about or talked about this past Sunday night in the now weekly IG live show I’m doing with Ashley Spivey at 8 ET. Tune in this Sunday for the next episode. And guess what? My new phone tripod arrived yesterday and this one actually works! So instead of leaning my phone up against a speaker which I’ve always done for any interviews or FaceTime calls, I feel oddly excited that I actually have a tripod for my phone now. Granted, I’m so far behind everyone else on this, but hey, at least I’m finally there now. Anyway, I was going to include some “Reality Roundup” today, but I figured Wednesday might not be a great day to do that considering “Survivor” airs on Wednesday nights and the new season of the “Challenge” starts tonight as well. So Thursday or Friday is when that’ll most likely come. Today I just wanna go over Bachelor Nation news that I’m sure you’ve heard over the last few days, but maybe haven’t heard me talk about it. Kind of a lot to cover, even though none of it is show related.
Lets get that out of the way first. I know nothing more than you guys when it comes to “Bachelorette” or “Bachelor in Paradise.” Nothing. I laid out everything for you a couple weeks ago in regards to their shooting schedule and how things could possibly even work, but that’s looking less and less likely, and still, it was only speculation. Until someone from this show addresses it, there’s not much to talk about on that front. But no one’s addressing it probably because no one knows anything. How can they when we’re basically living hour-by-hour right now in this country? My guess is, and this is strictly a guess, is that “Bachelor in Paradise” never happens this summer because I’d think “Bachelorette” takes priority. But again, I have no idea what their plans are if things keep getting pushed back.
One thing we do know is Summer Games was officially canceled, as that announcement was made on Monday. Not that anyone expected it to happen once the virus hit, but now it’s officially canceled. However, with the real Olympics getting pushed back to next year, my guess is they’ll do the same with Summer Games. I think even Fleiss tweeted it’ll be back next summer. So look for that in Summer of 2021.
Probably the biggest news to happen in the last few days is the tragic story regarding Michelle Money’s daughter Brielle, who was in a skateboarding accident and was on life support in the ICU. Michelle gave an update earlier this morning and thank god it sounds like Brielle is doing better. Here’s what Michelle posted earlier this morning:
I’ve always considered Michelle a friend. She came on the podcast on back-to-back weeks back in 2017 in the early stages of the podcast. Once I interviewed her, and the next week she came back and interviewed me. If I’m not mistaken, that was the longest podcast I’ve done as it went well over 2 hrs. I’ve never met Brielle before, but I do remember FaceTiming with them a couple years ago because Michelle said Brielle had a Bachelor related question for me. I can’t remember what it was now, but I remember it was pretty funny that Brielle thought to tell her mom, “Hey, can you FaceTime Reality Steve. I have a question.” So glad to hear things are looking better for Brielle. Keeping them both in my prayers.
Also this past weekend, Ben Higgins got engaged to his girlfriend Jessica Clarke. I’ve told the story about how last year during my Fan Appreciation Party, Ben happened to be in Vegas for a friends wedding vow renewal and we were at the pool at the same time, and Ben’s group just happened to plop down 3 chairs over from me, so I went and introduced myself and we talked for about 30 minutes. That’s my only run in with the guy but I remember that being the early stages of him being with Jessica and he seemed really happy. And I think many people could see an engagement between them was a matter of when and not if. So congrats to them.
Speaking of my Fan Appreciation Party this year scheduled for June 5th. It’s looking more and more likely that I will be pushing it back. Again, we just don’t know enough at this time, but thinking that we’ll be back functioning again as a country in 2 months with no issues concerning travel, Vegas hotels, etc might be wishful thinking. June 5th looks right now to be a bit soon. We’ll see. It won’t be hard for me to reschedule just a different Friday night in July or August or something, but I understand people bought flights and what not. The good thing is airlines seem to be pretty lenient on flight changes because of the virus, so hopefully people can re-book, or at least get their money back. The party is full right now, but I know if I have to change the date that not everyone will still be able to go if it’s late July or August. Maybe they have other plans or maybe they will still be a little leery about traveling. I totally get it. Would just mean if/when I do decide on a new date, spots will be open and I will announce that at the proper time. And the people who were booked for this year, if they can’t make the new time, they will have first dibs on spots for next year’s party. Only seems fair.
The biggest topic to come out of this past Sunday’s IG live with Ashley Spivey was “What’s going on with Tyler and Hannah Brown?” Your guess is as good as mine. I do not know, nor do I really care. If they’re gonna keep putting themselves out there on videos and purposely not address what’s going on, to me, they’re attention whoring. I just have a hard time seeing it any other way. I’m not talking about WHAT they’re posting, which is just silly stuff anyway that I don’t really get. I’m just talking in general that they very well know their posts generate so much attention. And that attention is “Are they dating?” And they seem to enjoy the fact that everyone is talking about whether they are or aren’t, so they just keep posting and not address it. To me that screams they’re loving the speculation and the guessing and comes across as self serving. Whatever. It is what it is. I know nothing about their relationship. If they’re dating, good for them. If they’re not, then why continue to let people speculate you are? Different strokes for different folks, I guess. But no need to ask me because I don’t know anything.
Yesterday was the release of Colton’s book. Former two-time podcast guest, author, and writer for the LA Times Amy Kaufman interviewed Colton about it, and I thought he had some really interesting answers. By the way, that link works for me when I use it on mobile, but when I click on it on desktop, the LA Times says I’ve used up all my free articles and it’s asking me to pay. So hopefully it works for you. If not, here are a few of his answers I found interesting:
Amy: Do you think that the show did want you to fall in love?
Colton: There were lines crossed in my relationship with Cassie that I found out about after the show. There were things that they said and did that compromised my relationship with her. Now, it makes so much sense that she decided to leave. If you’re gonna make a show, at least give me a fair shot to end up with the girl that I’m falling in love with. Your job as a show is to make us come together. I understand we did [come together] at the end, but I had to take it into my own hands and be extreme with it. They value their TV show more so than the love story that they always promote. Actually, there were some things you did that drove us apart and if I didn’t stand up for myself, I probably wouldn’t be with Cassie today.
Unfortunately I don’t think Colton expanded on what these things were that production did. However, not the least bit surprised to hear this. I’ve been telling you this for years now. Hearing him say it, even without giving specifics, only solidifies what I’ve been preaching to you about how much goes on behind-the-scenes that the audience has no clue about. And again, I think people understand in 2020 that reality TV isn’t real, but I’m telling you, I still don’t think people grasp how much of this show isn’t organic. And how people are told to do and say things by production that they just end up doing. Don’t think so? Look at these answers:
Amy: You talk a lot about being pushed into doing things by producers. You said that, after being on “The Bachelorette,” producers wanted you to go on “Bachelor in Paradise” to pursue an old flame, Tia Booth, if you wanted to be considered for “The Bachelor.” Didn’t you feel bad for stringing Tia along?
Colton: One hundred percent. Finally, at a rose ceremony, I looked over at her and I was like, “What am I doing to this poor girl? I need to be honest with myself. I can’t keep listening to producers saying ‘I need to give it a shot.’ I know in my heart of hearts that this isn’t for me and I probably never should have come here.”
Amy: OK, so explain that to me: How do you get talked into things? Like asking four different men for their daughter’s hand in marriage?
Colton: I might have been brainwashed a little bit during all of this. Asking for permission for marriage was something I grew up valuing. … When I told [the producers] I felt value in asking the fathers, they wanted me to ask all four. That was a very, very big struggle, and that was very, very hard on me. Quite frankly, at that point, I already knew where my mind was.
Amy: So then why did you go through with it?
Colton: I wish I had an answer for you. [The producers and I] would meet and I would be like, “I can’t do it, I can’t do it.” With Tayshia [Adams] — I’m probably going to get in trouble for saying this, but whatever — at first, I didn’t ask, because I valued her being engaged before and I didn’t want to do that to her. I didn’t ask when I sat down with her father. And at the very end, [producers] were like, “You have to. You need to pull him again.” By that time, it’s 12, 1 in the morning and I’m like, “OK, can we wrap this up?” It’s like “Well, you know how to wrap this up. Go have that conversation.”
Even that conversation with Matt [Randolph], Cassie’s dad — I read the situation that he wasn’t going to give me permission [to marry his daughter]. I wasn’t going to ask because I wanted it to be a one-time thing. But I think I got prompted [by producers] three or four or 5 five times, being like, ‘Tonight’s a big night. Don’t you have a question you want to ask?” Those are the cutthroat things. They can do a better job of taking a step back and letting the contestants have control over their love and their story.
I mean, he said it about as clear and concise as one can: he was brainwashed. He did things on that show that he didn’t want to because someone, somehow, some way got him to do it. So while people constantly say the show isn’t “scripted” per se, but hell, read those answers and you realize it might as well be. What’s the difference between telling someone to say a line you want them to, and doing what Colton described there about having to ask all 4 families for their blessing to marry their daughter? Nothing if you ask me. And while there are some in this franchise who publicly have said on record that they were never told to say anything, I can 100% tell you that it happens. I’ve had people specifically tell me they were told to say exact lines on camera. Some did, some didn’t. It happens though, so anyone who said it doesn’t is either A) lying because they don’t want to piss ABC off or B) it was never asked of them.
Like I mentioned earlier, none of what Colton said is really news or things you hadn’t heard before, but, to actually hear the lead of the show talk about how manipulated he felt by production goes to show that they really do not care about their contestants, and their job is to produce a TV show, first and foremost. Don’t ever forget that when watching the show. I can say it all day every day until I’m blue in the face, but I know a lot of you still think it’s just because I’m a cynic and am always critical of the show. No, I’m a realist and I’m telling you what really goes on. Colton’s book only supports that.
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