If Clayton ending up with Susie wasn’t a surprise enough, the fact we got both Rachel and Gabby as Bachelorettes was another shocker as well. This is not going to be a Kaitlyn/Britt season for those that maybe weren’t paying attention. The guys aren’t choosing who they want as their Bachelorette. Rachel and Gabby will be Bachelorettes throughout the course of the ENTIRE season. Something they’ve never done before. Hey, 20 years and 46 seasons, you gotta change things up once in a while. Just had a first with the Bachelor leaving the final rose ceremony single, and now we’ve got a double Bachelorette season. I like it. After last night, and the performance that both of them gave on stage and how both of them stood their ground, it would’ve been really hard to choose one over the other. I have no idea when that decision was made, or when Rachel and Gabby actually knew, but my guess is they knew before last night started. How could they not? They need to get styled, fitted, etc with filming beginning in a few days. Once everyone in the audience and watching at home was cheering for them after their couch confrontation with Clayton, and Jesse gave the ol’ “The Bachelorette is not Rachel. Or Gabby” I knew it was both. Why else would he kill everyone’s hopes at that point when those were the only two on peoples minds at that point.
With this being the first time the US franchise has done this, there’s gonna be so many questions we all have that we aren’t to know or get answers to until filming begins. One thing they announced last night was that it premieres on July 11th, which is a good 6-8 weeks later than “Bachelorette” usually premieres. All this means is Paradise will end airing in November now, that’s all. “Bachelorette” is still beginning filming this weekend like it usually does. Maybe it takes a little longer to film and ends mid-late May instead of first week of May? But Paradise films for mostly the month of June. I don’t see how that changes other than maybe it gets pushed back a week or two, depending on how long “Bachelorette” filming runs now with two women. But with “Bachelorette” premiering on July 11th, assuming it runs its normal 11 weeks with no off weeks, that just means the earliest BIP can premiere would be Sept 26th. And if it premieres then, then it’s running into November. Which is fine. Michelle’s season (and Tayshia’s the year before that), ran until the week of Christmas. I just think Paradise might air on Tuesdays like Tayshia and Michelle’s season to avoid going head to head with Monday Night Football. We’ll see. But don’t be alarmed at anything. All this does is just kinda push stuff back a few weeks. It’s still filming in the exact same time it always does. It’s just airing later.
As for filming itself and how it’ll play out, we just don’t know a lot until it gets underway. They haven’t ever done this on the US show. I know one of the overseas version did, but I didn’t watch or know how they did it. Now, “Joe Millionaire” just had two leads and we saw how they did those dates. When it was a group date in the beginning with a lot of the women, both guys were part of it. Then when the women dwindled down, one of the guys took a group of women to do one thing, and one guy took the remaining women to do another thing. And each had 1-on-1s mixed in as well. It was established fairly early on which girls were into which guy, and while Gabby and Rachel will probably have a couple guys they’re both into (and vice versa), I think as the group starts getting smaller, there will be a clear delineation into which guys left are for Rachel and which guys left are for Gabby. HOWEVER…
Knowing the way this show works and how stuff is storyboarded before the season even begins, is it REALLY that much of a stretch to think there will be one guy this season that Rachel and Gabby are both SUPER into, they each get 1-on-1’s with him at some point, even HE can’t decide which one he likes more, and that guy actually gets an overnight date with both? I certainly can see it happening. Hell, if I were a producer, I would make SURE it happened. It’s too good of a storyline to pass up. And not to pit Rachel and Gabby against each other. Just more for dramatic purposes where this guy will end up having to ultimately choose as we get closer to the end. We’ll see. A lot of possibilities this season.
Here’s another one: How the hell are they gonna do hometowns? On “Joe Millionaire” for hometowns, I can’t remember how many were left at that point, but I wanna say at least 8, they brought all the families to one location, and they each got time with each guy. If the “Bachelorette” doesn’t do that, and we keep our standard four hometown dates, are you telling me Rachel and Gabby are gonna film 8 separate hometown dates? That seems a bit much and would most certainly extend filming. So that would happen towards the end of April. Sooooo early to say right now what’ll happen, but I have a feeling as filming goes on, just like all non-COVID seasons, I’m gonna find stuff out to spoil, I’ll start hearing more stuff about filming, pictures we’ll get out, and I can begin piecing what I hear together with any photo/video evidence.
In terms of locations, one place I heard they were going this season was Paris. Not sure when, but that’s one place I heard they’re headed. Now there’s also this email floating around that was sent to me about Virgin Cruise Lines cancelling cruise destinations for 3 weeks in April due to “lack of sales.” The email also states that Virgin was approached by an American TV company who are willing “over the odds for the entire ship for 3 weeks.” It fits with the “Bachelorette” timing, it would definitely be something new and different, but I haven’t heard if this is 100% the “Bachelorette” that contacted Virgin Cruise Lines. Sounds like it could be, but nothing confirmed yet. If it IS true, that opens up so many possibilities:
-Would all the dates be on the cruise? (Shuffleboard, anyone?)
-Would the cruise just take them to destinations and all the dates would be on land and just maybe rose ceremonies on the ship?
-Where does someone go after they get eliminated at a rose ceremony? Thrown overboard?
-What if it hits an iceberg and Jack can’t save Rose?
The questions are endless for this thing if it is true. Again, when you’re this far into a franchise, you gotta try mixing things up. They are certainly trying their damndest.
All in all, the shock factor for the average fan tonight was through the roof. If you’ve read every post, tweet, DM, and all the crazy ass theories online since November, then no, all the hype tonight was probably a lot of hyperbole to you. But remember you die hards are a small, small percentage of their overall audience who watches the show for 2 hours every Monday night then shuts off their brain for a week until it airs again. So to those people, yeah, tonight was a pretty boffo ending. Clayton leaving single (never happened), Susie coming back after all that (they didn’t see that coming), and a two Bachelorette announcement (never happened). I’m looking forward to it because it is gonna be different, and that’s what this franchise needs. Thanks to all of you who followed and supported this season. Wouldn’t be here without you. Follow on social all through the weekend for updates on the “Bachelorette” men and anything else I may find out about the beginning of filming. Talk soon and go Jackrabbits! (And Hokies).
Send all links and emails to: steve@realitysteve.com. To follow me on Twitter, it’s: www.twitter.com/RealitySteve. Instagram name is RealitySteve, or join my Reality Steve Facebook Fan Page. Talk to you tomorrow.
