Reality Steve

Reader Emails

“Reader Emails,” Ratings, & Katie Speaks on Her Season

Photo Credit: ABC

Hey, Steve! Just wanted to talk a bit about the Katie situation. This is just my opinion of course, but I have a strong feeling Reddit is what caused her outburst. It’s pretty well known that she reads it, and the sub is nasty to her right now. One of the worst pile ons of a lead I have ever seen (at least while their show was airing), and the quickest the sub has turned on a lead from what I can recall. Post after post after post calling her out, dissecting things she said or did, calling her disgusting etc. A few posts have gotten locked because it got so bad. And now, there are polls about if you still like her or not. You can guess how that goes.

I’m going to be real honest— Katie’s fate on that sub was sealed the minute it was confirmed she was the bachelorette. People think she stole the opportunity from a woman of color which to me, is incredibly hypocritical. I doubt any person on that sub would turn down that role based on financial opportunities alone, tbh. It’s once in a lifetime, and it’s life changing. And it doesn’t matter that Michelle is getting her own season. Katie accepting the role was seen as so egregious that it didn’t matter what she did going forward. Anything ‘bad’ she does is torn apart for days. Anything ‘good’ she does is seen as manipulative to help her image. She can’t win. And like I said, it’s way worse than normal. So knowing that she has probably read all of it, makes her meltdown make total sense to me. I wish she wouldn’t read it, I really do. I wish none of the contestants would. I can’t imagine the damage it does to mental health.

Anyway, just kinda wanted to shed some light. Like I said, I could be totally wrong. But if I had to put money on what caused it, my guess would be Reddit.

Comment: Wait a second. You mean to tell me the Echo Chamber of Negativity is now piling on Katie? No way!

All they keep doing is proving my point about them, season in and season out. (Now watch them throw a conniption over me just writing that one sentence).
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Hi RS:

Who was Katie referring to in her IG story, the one about the “it” factor.

I know you said it isn’t hard to figure out, but I have no idea! Blake.

Are you going to watch Big Brother this week? Absolutely.

Also, in regards to Andy’s clothes in “Pretty In Pink”, she made all of her clothes!!!

Comment: Yes, she did. And that’s why they were awful. And that prom dress? Uhhhhhhhh. Lets just say in the future, Andie probably never made it into FIDM.
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Steve,

On the Game of Roses podcast last week they were bantering around ideas for getting The Bachelor franchise out of this ratings slump.

One thing they discussed was paying Tyler C. a million dollars to be the bachelor and pay his girlfriend to break up with him and then have her come on the show and want to get back together. Nah. I think Tyler’s time in this franchise has come and gone. Nobody would buy it.

If not Tyler C, then paying someone else famous in Bachelor nation who is not currently attached but is very popular a million dollars to be the lead.
They feel like it is time for the franchise to go big next Bachelor season to save the show. Same thing. And kinda my reason for the Julianne Hough story that happened over the weekend. Nobody honestly believes that a celebrity needs to go on this show to find love.

They also thought it was important to have one host only rather than two and also to have a consistent host.

What are your thoughts on these two things?

Comment: One consistent host is an absolute must. I do think they’ll eventually settle into that. When? I don’t know. But if I were them, I’d make sure whoever hosts the next “Bachelor” season is the permanent host moving forward. I think 3 seasons (Katie’s, BIP, Michelle’s) is enough to tinker with your hosting duties by bringing in multiple people. Now it’s time to settle down and decide on one for “Bachelor” and every season moving forward. People like comfortability. People like stability and consistency.
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Hey Steve,

This is more of a logistics/timing question. When Katie sent Thomas home last week, she kept the rose. We then saw her give Blake the rose in his room. But the guys wouldn’t have known that. To them, there would have been one more rose that she didn’t hand out. Why didn’t the guys question this? Why didn’t they ask what she was going to do with it? The only explanation that makes sense in my head is that the rose ceremony happened after the guys had already met Blake. We know from Nick Viall that Katie had already met Blake when they did the group therapy date. The timing seems fishy. Do you have any insight on this?

Thanks!

Comment: I think you’re overthinking it. I’m sure there were probably conversations we didn’t see. Or maybe the guys just assumed one less rose was being given out and there were 14 left.
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Hi Steve,

I noticed in today (Monday’s) column you mentioned it was too early to start talking about Bachelor contenders because we still have Michelle’s season coming up. I thought that they’d likely choose someone from Clare / Tayshia’s season or Katie’s season (or go further back), as opposed to Michelle’s because they would have to be filming the Bachelor before Michelle’s season even starts airing. It seems like they already have a huge pool of men to pull from, I’d be surprised if they choose someone who isn’t screen tested over all of the other options. Thoughts?

Comment: I think you misinterpreted what I said. When I said they haven’t even started filming Michelle’s season yet, I wasn’t saying that’s where the next “Bachelor” would come from. I was just saying they still have a whole season to film before the “Bachelor” so I doubt they’re in deep discussions with anyone yet. I’m sure they’ve talked to a couple guys and kicked the tires or even told someone they’d like them to be the “Bachelor.” I was more talking about serious discussions where guys are getting flown to LA to meet with higher ups about the gig. I don’t believe that’s happened yet. But no, it wouldn’t make sense to be someone from Michelle’s season because nobody would even know who they were yet, all the while it’d be giving a spoiler away to Michelle’s season before it started airing.
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Hey Steve,

I have a few comments/questions:

Is it just me or does Katie’s “hello” every time she enters the room sound like the ice cream truck song intro? I actually haven’t paid attention to that.

Do you think it’s possible for Katie & Blake to have happy couple weekends since Canada has very strict COVID rules? It’ll be interesting to hear how they’ve done it because it’s certainly not as easy as past ones.

Weren’t Blake and Brendan friends from back home? I was curious if they addressed it in NM, but it never made it to air. Yes. Very good friends.

For bachelor, bachelorette, and BIP- when do they get their engagement ring to take home? After the ATFR is filmed or after it airs?

Thanks for all of your hard work!

Comment: Yes, they get it when they go back to film the ATFR for “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette,” and BIP couples get it when they film their reunion.
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Hi Steve,

Lots of random little questions.

Did you take Katie’s TikTok to be more a jab at production or fans? And to follow that, do you think production made her take down that story post? And to follow THAT, do you think when she said “here for the wrong reasons, if I ever saw it” that was supposed to be a jab at whoever’s name that was?? Or more just a “I’m here to be the ‘it’ couple, and that alone is the wrong reason” type of thing? Ok first, I think it was a jab at fans. Because she specifically says “you think I’m too raunchy, don’t f”in follow me.” I don’t see how that would be directed towards production. I think she might be frustrated with production. But the f bombs on that TikTok seemed to be directed at fans. Or trolls/haters. Secondly, I have no idea if they made her take that down. And last, I think it’s the former. At least that’s the way I took it.

Do you think that, even after the edit that Hunter has gotten, Greg is still the villain that Katie spoke about on Nick’s podcast? If so, do you think you’ll be able to spoil some reasonings behind that before it airs? Could Katie just be calling him a villain because he leaves the show or does he really do something bad to become the villain?

Thanks for all your work.

Comment: I mean, that’s what I’m trying to figure out now. But yeah, I don’t think Hunter is the villain that she referred to in Nick’s podcast that she said was worse than Thomas.
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Hello Steve…

I have a question for you (go figure). I was listening to old podcasts on a long drive over the 4th of July weekend and listened to your episode of the Viall Files. On it, you mentioned that you had *some* piece of information on *someone* that you didn’t spill. I understand you won’t be sharing with us any detail about it, but can you give us anything? Even like the “family” of news it is (someone coming out, someone cheating on someone, etc.)? Had nothing to do with cheating, someone coming out, anything like that. It’s impossible to give a teaser to it since I’m never going to talk about it. You’ll just get mad I even gave you anything. It was handled behind the scenes and that’s all that matters. The only thing I will say is that the person in question never wanted to deal with me directly even though I was reaching out to help them. Go figure. And this was over a year ago. The info ended up being accurate, they took that info and acted accordingly, and I’ve yet to ever hear from them. Weird, but expected I guess from some people in this franchise.

Why do you think Katie is being so thin-skinned this season? It seems that she needs to have a clap back to everyone, and then publicly share those clapbacks to her stories. It’s like she needs validation or something.

I think frankly she’s a bad Bachelorette. Season is fine with T&K as hosts, the men are the same as usual, we’ve already had 2 COVID seasons so we know what to expect, but this one seems worse than we’ve ever seen. Hopefully Katie actually means it when she says that the opinions of others don’t matter anymore. I guess we’ll have our answer next time she shares a mediocre comeback on her story.

Thank you!

Comment: I think she just needs to handle criticism better. The other thing that may be hanging over her head and frustrating for her is the fact that she’s currently the lead on the lowest rated season this franchise has ever produced in 42 seasons over 19 years. We know how ratings work and how ratings are down all across the board on network television, so it’s not all her fault. But it is reality. Her numbers are much worse than Clare/Tayshia’s season, even though they didn’t air at the same time. Even if you compare it with Hannah’s that ran May – July 2019, it’s still well below that too. So maybe that’s weighing on her as well. I don’t know. But that TikTok was definitely bizarre.
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On Katie’s podcast interview with Nick Viall, she says that there is a villain worse than Thomas on this show. It seems like Hunter is being portrayed as the next villain now. But Katie just defended him on Twitter when she shares there is more to these men than what we see and says “think twice before commenting negative things”. And she has retweeted posts/pictures of their time together and wished him happy Father’s Day so he doesn’t seem like someone she has any resentment towards. She made it clear her feelings about Thomas have not changed. So if Hunter turns out to be “worse than Thomas” I feel like she wouldn’t be showing him so much positive energy online. I know it *could* just be for show and to throw us off. But she didn’t do that with Thomas so I’m just not getting the vibe that Hunter is the villain she is referring to in that interview. Any idea who else it could be?

Comment: Pretty sure it’s Greg. I just don’t know exactly what it is he does.
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Hi Steve,

I’m new to your column and the BN franchise, so please pardon my ignorance here. I have some questions about the selection of the new Bachelor – is that something you typically “spoil”? When is the announcement usually made? Do they decide who it will be last-minute based on how fans respond, how the show’s storylines play out, etc.? Do you think or have you heard if they would do two Bachelors like they did Bachelorettes this go around or go back to the usual, alternating format?

I really enjoy your writing style, keep it up. Thanks!

Comment: To answer your first question, I’ve done all 3 possibilities – I’ve spoiled it before it’s been announced, I’ve spoiled it and been wrong, and times where I didn’t spoil it.

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