Kind of a slow “Reader Emails” day but that’s to be expected since the first one after 3 months of nothing usually is. Now that we’re back into the swing of things and we have something every week for seemingly the next 9 months, I expect the interest to start growing again now that it’s in front of people’s faces. I want to thank anyone again who donated yesterday to help support the Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support, which I’m working in conjunction with this year for my 6th Annual Fan Appreciation Party being held August 27th at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. As I said yesterday, it is not mandatory that you donate in order to attend, I’d just like you to. And you don’t even have to be attending to donate. I started by donating $250 and as of this post, I think we’re $10 short you guys matching that $250 so far. I set a goal of $1500 that I’d like to break. I think we can do that before August 27th, no? Any help would be appreciated, and if you’re interested in donating, just click here. I will be promoting this on and off for the next 3 months since I really wanted to use my party as a platform to help such a good cause. Again, any donations will help, and I thank everyone who chooses to donate.
Ratings are in from Monday’s premiere and there’s 2 ways to look at it. On one hand, it was the lowest rated premiere ever, drawing 3.6 million viewers and a .9 rating. On the other hand, it was still the highest rated show of the night in the coveted 18-49 demo. That .9 was 50% better than any other show that aired on network television on Monday. I don’t think you can compare this to our last “Bachelorette” premiere with Clare since hers premiered in October. So the most comparable would be to Hannah Brown’s which started in May. Her premiere drew 4.67 million viewers and a 1.3 rating (Clare’s drew 4.7 million and a 1.3 rating in case you were interested). So definitely a drop off, but, TV ratings since the pandemic have been down across the board and, like I said, “Bachelorette” was still the highest rated show of the night and it won it’s 2 hour time slot in the one demo that advertisers crave.
So as expected, whichever narrative you want to go with, you’ll use that metric to back your argument. If you’re appalled that Chris Harrison was let go from the show and are convinced that no one will ever watch this show, you will stick by “this was the lowest rated premiere ever” to support your argument. If you don’t think it’s a big deal Chris is gone and think people will still watch, you will say it was the highest rated show on Monday night. Very easy to manipulate your stance on things to validate your own argument when you leave out all factors. Just to be clear, BOTH of these statements are true: the “Bachelorette” premiere this past Monday night was the lowest rated premiere they’ve ever had and it was the highest rated show of the night. But those who are pissed that Chris left and claim they’ll never watch the show again will ONLY give you the former statement when backing their claim because it’s convenient. Don’t be fooled.
In addition, those arguing that the show is losing viewers because of Chris’ absence, well, there’s no way you can prove the direct correlation. Outside of Matt’s ATFR, this is the first episode in show history that didn’t have Chris as part of it. So you’re working off a 2 episode sample size over 19 years. Way too early to say it’s because Chris wasn’t there that they lost essentially 25% of their audience strictly BECAUSE he isn’t the host. Oh sure, Chris defenders will definitely try and convince you that’s the reason, but there’s no evidence that says it does unless you literally surveyed all people who DIDN’T watch the “Bachelorette” on Monday and personally ask them why. So lets just stop with that narrative. As mentioned earlier, all TV ratings are down across the board since the pandemic started, especially network TV. More and more options nowadays, COVID, it started 3 weeks later than it usually does, etc. There could be a myriad of reasons. Saying it’s ONLY because of Chris is unprovable and only being used by Chris defenders to try and support their baseless claim.
Speaking of Chris, he addressed his exit from the show on his IG yesterday:
View this post on Instagram
A few more thoughts on this post and him leaving the franchise:
-Very generic. Addressed nothing really. 19 years on the job and he gave us 3 sentences.
-The last time we heard from Chris was when he was on GMA being interviewed by Michael Strahan where Chris made it perfectly clear by saying, “I plan to be back and I want to be back.” So unless he had a change of heart since March 4th, this doesn’t sound like this was his decision.
-In the Deadline story reported yesterday, it talked about a payout in the mid 8 figure range. To me, that spells around $50 million. Chris will be fine everyone. Looking at some of the comments left by people, you’d think he just announced he was dying.
-$50 million to keep his mouth shut about the franchise and never talk about his exit ever again. Think about that.
-Lauren Zima really loves heart emojis.
-There’s over 22,000 comments that fans left. A lot of Bachelor Nation alumns too. Now, I didn’t scroll every single comment, but on a glance, just want to point out that while tons in Bachelor Nation supported him, ask yourself how many POC in Bachelor Nation left a comment? I counted two unless I missed someone. I’d say that’s pretty telling.
-Along those same lines, ask yourself this question. The amount of people that commented supporting Chris yesterday on that post, how many of them spoke out supporting Rachel after how Chris treated her in their “Extra” interview? Lets just say if I were Rachel Lindsay today, I’d realize the unbelievable hypocrisy shown by a lot of these people. It’s pretty embarrassing actually.
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