-A few things to get to first. The amount of people who, 46 seasons in, are still baffled by the full season promo is mind boggling. Kinda hard to believe people still fall for that editing every season, but they do. It happened again last night. The show made you think Genevieve and Serene make it to the end and that’s who Clayton is telling he slept with both of them, when it’s clearly not. Yet so many people on social media last night commenting on how it wasn’t any of the women that I’d posted as final four. C’mon people. It’s the oldest trick in the book. Your final 3 are Susie, Gabby, and Rachel. He is engaged to one of them. I just don’t know which one yet.
-I mentioned this a couple weeks ago when the bios came out, but there’s usually 3 times during the season where most people come forward to offer info about the contestants. The day the bios are released and the names and faces are first out there (which was Sept. 25th this year), the day ABC officially releases their head shots and bios (Dec. 15th), and the night of episode 1 when the women are officially on people’s screen. A lot more “hey, you should know this about this one” emails and DM’s last night, and none of it was positive. Even about some of your early favorites. Is it earth shattering news? No. But just don’t stan these contestants based on what you see on TV. They’re all out for fame. Which leads me to…
-We all know how much social media has dominated this show for the last few years now and become a major part of storylines both on and off the show. But I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen so many women reposting every single thing someone posts about them, especially for women who were eliminated night 1 and are, frankly, irrelevant to the season. I mean, I get you’re happy you appeared on TV for one night, but when you get :10 seconds of TV time, yet you repost 15 IG stories of someone saying, “OMG…I loved seeing (so-and-so) on my TV last night!” it looks kinda sad. If you did or said something that was worthwhile, then yeah, maybe. But that wasn’t the case whatsoever. Of the 8 women who went home night one, outside of Claire who got eliminated early, did any of them get shown having ANY time with Clayton? If they did, I don’t remember it. Man, guess they’re really trying hard for Paradise this season.
-One quick note about the entrances. I’m forgetting, but who was the woman who made the comment on her limo entrance she was from the future and said she and Clayton end up together? Was that Sierra? I think it was. Anyway, Sierra actually arrived in the “Back to the Future” DeLorean. For some reason, that part wasn’t shown, but now you know why she said what she said. Has a lot more context knowing she showed up in that car. Maybe ABC couldn’t get the approval to show the car or something, not sure. But to go out of their way to have someone arrive in that classic car then not show it seems a little bizarre. What a waste. Just because something wasn’t shown last night, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. DeLorean was example #1. And Shanae going off on Clayton and calling him a pussy was #2. CORRECTION: Claire called him that, not Shanae. It happened, just wasn’t shown.
-Jesse Palmer is a man of many talents. Sure, people are going to have their thoughts on him being the new host of the franchise, but you can’t say it’s bad choice based on experience. The guy has literally been on TV for over 10 years now and has hosted numerous shows. He’s a major analyst on ESPN’s college football coverage, he hosts that Baking Competition show, he hosted “The Proposal” last summer, he hosted that surfing show this summer, he’s the Rooms-To-Go guy, etc. I get that people had a comfortability with Chris Harrison, but sorry, he’s no longer there and he’s not coming back. Jesse is the host, he’ll do just as little per episode as Chris did, and the show moves on. You don’t watch the show because of who the host is. Jesse will be fine in that role. Come football season in fall of 2022, he’ll be on the same schedule. When filming is still in the states, he’ll be on ESPN on Saturdays. Once they move out of the country, those are the weeks he’ll be off.
-I liked the fact that Clayton acknowledged during his intro package that he got 8 minutes of screentime on Michelle’s season. At least he’s self aware enough to admit that and have fun with it. No one’s pretending that he was their ONLY choice from Michelle’s season and it had to be him or nobody. ABC will never acknowledge publicly why they chose him over others, but reading between the lines, it’s not too hard to realize why they did. He’s safe, he’s basically a combo of all the other previous Bachelors combined (minus Matt James), and they’re the bosses. Whoever they choose, the audience just has to accept. They’re choosing based more on their formula for the show than anything else, since they know the women contestants are the ones who make the show, not the lead. I say it every season. When you’re talking to your friends the next day about the episode the night before, very rarely are you talking about what the lead did. It was all about the drama, the cattiness, the crying, etc in the house.
