You know what I love? Entertainment sites on a slow holiday weekend just posting stories that are clearly click bait. Chris Harrison rumored to be a contestant on DWTS? Julianne Hough might be the next “Bachelorette?” Where do they come up with this stuff. I know the production team behind DWTS is not the same production team that does the Bachelor franchise, but c’mon, it’s the same network. I highly doubt Chris will be cha cha cha’ing his way into our homes come the fall season. It doesn’t make sense on any level, since a lot of DWTS is based on video packages and talking about why you’re there. All anyone wants to know from Chris is what happened, and he can’t talk about that because of the settlement he took. Sorry. Not interested. As for Julianne? I mean, in 42 seasons they’ve never cast anyone famous in that role, unless you count Jesse Palmer years ago. Julianne Hough dated Ryan Seacrest for 3 years. She dated a country music singer. She was married to a pro hockey player. So you’re telling me she wants to go on this show so she can be set up with Blandy McBlanderstein who’s a bartender and also does some personal fitness on the side? Yeah, sure she doesn’t. The only way this happens is if they blow up this franchise, completely change the concept of the show, and everyone on her season is somewhat famous. There’s no way she’s the “Bachelorette” under the normal show premise. Must’ve been a slow weekend.
Get your “Reader Emails” in today. A little bit low as we speak so anything sent in today will most likely make the column. Again, we’re now 7 weeks away from the 6th Annual Fan Appreciation Party in Vegas at the Rio All-Suites Hotel. Friday night, August 27th. Half the spots I have available have been filled. I’d say most as of now are coming in from out of town, so anyone else that wants in, it’s first come first serve. Vegas locals, your spots are opening up now as well, so at this point, anyone who wants in, just email me your info, a copy of your vaxx card and if you’re flying/driving, a copy of your flight/hotel itinerary. Locals just need to send me a copy of the vaxx card and a promise not to flake. There will be an open bar all night along with appetizers. Those who were at the party in 2019, it’s in the same place. Top floor of the Rio hotel. We’re the only room on the floor and the roof is the backyard of the room so to speak. It’s awesome. In addition, anyone attending, even if you’re not attending, please help donate to the Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support in Dallas that I’m working in conjunction with for this years party. Any donation would help and all will go to the women’s shelter. Thanks.
I know some of you have questions regarding last night’s promo. In case you missed it, here it is:
Get ready Bachelor Nation. It’s heartbreak, emotion and #TheBachelorette like never before ? pic.twitter.com/Ql12FpO664
— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) July 6, 2021
I’ve never been one to break these things down frame-by-frame. Not my thing. Plenty of others do so if you really want to know you can clearly find it somehwere online. The two biggest things I took from that promo after watching it back was Michael A. is the guy who knocks on her door and Blake’s family is shown, confirming what we already knew that he gets a hometown. Katie has even said this season is not a traditional ending. And I’ve said I don’t know how the final 4 breaks down, I just know she ends up engaged to Blake when it’s all said and done. These promos are to get people guessing, to throw people off, and to create conversation. So take it as you will.
Who says getting eliminated night one on this show means you can’t strike it big? If you remember this season, Landon Goesling was eliminated at the first cocktail party by Katie. Come to find out Landon is now dating TikTok star Cassidy Condie (@cassidy.condie on IG). She’s got 3 million followers on TikTok and they’ve been posting a lot together recently. I believe they were at Disneyland yesterday in their IG stories.
A couple BIP updates. Grocery Joe and Serena were together this past weekend in Chicago at a rooftop pool:
(BIP SPOILER CONFIRMATION): Grocery Joe & Serena Pitt today at a rooftop pool in Chicago… pic.twitter.com/rXiXL2XQ59
— RealitySteve (@RealitySteve) July 3, 2021
Brendan and Pieper were also seen out by numerous people in the Boston area over the weekend as well. I know a lot of you will ask, “Aren’t they in trouble for this?” And the answer is, well, no. Production doesn’t care nearly as much about BIP couples spoiling things as they do the Bachelor or Bachelorette. It’s always been that way. I’m sure at some point over the next month, there will be spottings of Kenny and Mari together as well as Riley and Maurissa. These people are gonna find a way to see each other and not hide it. They do it every season. My favorite part of all this is the fact that people like Joe and Becca and Natasha who all have weekly podcasts talking about the franchise, have to pretend that pics like this aren’t out there or just have to avoid altogether that they went down to Paradise. I think it’s hilarious that they have to insult the intelligence of their audience, most of which are aware they went on the show, yet they can’t say anything. I fully expect the original BIP cast list to come out this week, so look for that.
Katie sure made some news this weekend, didn’t she? First, she posted this story on her IG story that she ended up deleting immediately:
Not hard at all to figure out who that person was referring to and who Katie immediately defended. No wonder she deleted it so quick. She did follow that story up with a “I wasn’t referring to anyone specifically blah blah blah” but the damage was already done. And oh yeah, she deleted that follow up IG as well when she realized she was only making it worse.
Then she put out this TikTok later on:
@thekatiethurston Dear TikTok Fam – I refuse to lose myself. ?
We all know it’s not easy being the lead. Everyone and their mothers has an opinion. But where is Katie getting that much pushback to release a video like that? I haven’t seen it any different than previous leads. Sure she’s getting negative comments, but everyone does. Unless she’s just more sensitive to them, I don’t know, but that’s a pretty harsh reaction to criticism from the show. There hasn’t been a ton of shit that’s happened in 5 episodes that would warrant that type of response. I know she did Nick’s podcast last week that I’m gonna break down as best as I can tomorrow. I don’t know where this is all coming from with her, but something has certainly set her off. You can just tell people not to follow you. You don’t need to tell them to f— off and not follow you. I’m sure she’s stressed out, I’m sure she’s not used to the attention, but as we say every season, unfortunately this comes with the territory. Just probably wouldn’t have reacted the way she did. Just me talking about this today makes me think she’ll think it’s another pile on or what not. I mean, you put stuff out there publicly on your IG or TikTok, people are going to have opinions. If her opinion now is, “I don’t care what anyone’s opinions are now,” then I guess we should be good. I don’t know what’s going on with her. Judging from the outside, I just don’t see what warranted this TikTok video. Me thinks she pays attention to trolls too much.
