Thanks for your daily podcasts, I’ve been loving them! One thing I realized when you were talking about potential finale dates for the Bachelor this year is if they don’t double up they would end on Monday April 3rd which is the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. That makes me think they will double up at least one week to not compete against the championship game.
Comment: Good point. So yeah, there’s no way the finale is airing Monday April 3rd. They haven’t released anything yet, but we can probably assume that finale date is out and they’re gonna double up at some point during the season, if not twice, to finish around mid-March like they usually do.
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HI Steve:
Long time viewer of your site. Really enjoy your spoilers and podcast.
Wanted to get your thoughts on a couple of things:
Do you think Victoria is simply oblivious or is she shrewdly calculating. I agree with your assessment that Victoria was a little off base by going off with Greg to Italy before the “Tell All” episode even aired. I’m sure both she and Greg knew they would most likely get caught by someone if they strolled around Italy so why did they do it? Why couldn’t they hold off until the season ended? Is it because she really didn’t care or did she do it, knowing she would get caught, thus giving her more air time and exposure at the Tell All? My opinion is that if she would have kept the relationship with Greg in the dark she could have appeared on the TELL ALL as a woman who was mistreated and wronged and could have been in the running as the next BACHELORETTE (possibly). Love to hear your thoughts on that. I think it was calculating. Both of them knew what chances they were taking by doing that, and they clearly didn’t care. Of course they COULD have held off. That’s what most people are asking. But that’s not very Victoria-like. This was on brand for her. However, no, I don’t think anyone ever thought she’d be Bachelorette. This show really has never cast anyone for that lead role who ever had any sort of villain edit. And they probably never will.
I was talking with some friends on the state of reality television these days. I feel that the lines have been totally blurred between scripted shows and reality TV. For example, when FRIENDS was on, producers were paying the actors a million dollars an episode to say the lines they wanted them to say. Now days, reality TV, the producers only have to pay someone $100,000 for an entire season to say the lines they want them to say. It appears more and more that these reality shows are totally scripted. The only difference is the reality stars/ (so called actors) don’t get paid as much as Jennifer Aniston, and David Shwimmer. Would love to hear your opinion on the state of reality TV today (compared to when it first started 15-20 years ago). I mean, that’s been going on for a while. And yes, they have to pay them way less than scripted actors, which is why reality TV is still around. Cheap to make, easy to manipulate, and people still watch.
Finally, if Serene and Aaron were drowning in the Ocean and Brandon could only save one of them, who would he save? In other words, Is Brandon more in love with Aaron than he is Serene? My favorite comment from Brandon was when he said to Aaron “If I was a girl, I would totally go for you DUDE!!!”. Can you place odds on how long Brandon and Serene will last in the outside world?
Again, really love what you are doing. Keep it up.
Comment: I’m not sure on those two. What I do know is last seasons BIP couples have done well, so BIP doesn’t have as giant of a failure record like the main franchise does.
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Just curious on what happens with Greer who got the first impression rose? I thought FIR recipient usually makes it to final 4? Well except for Gabby’s, which we never understood to begin with.
I guess we will have to wait and see if BatchelorData puts out those stats.
Comment: Actually, the first impression rose recipient not making the final four isn’t that far fetched. Has happened quite a few times. Off the top of my head I don’t remember the exact number, but I know it has happened multiple times.
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RS,
First, I live for your daily roundups. Seriously, they are the highlight of my day.
I am a UGA fan and I’ll be honest, I agreed with your prediction of the game Saturday with TN. I just knew it was going to be neck and neck, so I was (pleasantly) surprised with the outcome. UGA and TN fans all saw this as the “game of the season” for both of them. I think everyone on both sides was surprised. What’s your take on why that game went the way it did?
Also, curious to know your predictions for the SEC championship and national championship.
Comment: Georgia’s defense was the story of the game. If you heard me on Friday, I said that Georgia hadn’t faced an offense anywhere close to Tennessee’s. And they hadn’t. Well, what I missed on was Tennessee hadn’t seen a defense close to Georgia’s all season. And that was the difference in the game. When you hold a team averaging 50 pts a game to 13, that’s dominance. And lets face it, that last TD was when it was 27-6. You held the highest scoring team in the nation without a TD until there were 4 minutes left. That was an ass kicking and that game wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, even though it was still a 2 TD difference in the final.
Georgia has the best defense in the nation. So I think they’re the obvious favorite now. It’d be tough to bet against them.
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Hi Steve,
A few times recently during daily round-ups or podcasts, you’ve mentioned aggregators, generally in terms of misquoting you. Not to appear stupid but who or what are aggregators?
Comment: Aggregators are people or websites or IG accounts, that just takes one sentence out of podcast or a column, and bases their whole narrative around that without giving it context. You just pick and choose something from a column or podcast, whether it be one sentence or two, and say “Reality Steve said this…” without giving it context. It happens a lot with me unfortunately. If you’re gonna take a quote, give the full context of something, not something that just suits your narrative.
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Hi Steve,
When you posted the teasers for Zach’s season spoilers so far you mentioned you’d share them once you know the final 4. Any update on when we can expect them now that hometowns are done?
Thanks!
Comment: Soon.
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Hi Steve!
I thought it was really funny last summer when they had David Spade as the host for a couple episodes. Do you think they will ever bring him back? Also, I keep seeing commercials for the “senior” bachelor. Is that still happening?
Thank you!
Comment: Probably not because that’s when their hosting duties were in flux. Jesse is the new face of the franchise. He’ll always be the host until he isn’t. So anything like that would just be a cameo.
I mean, if they’re running commercials again, it seems like they want to start it up. But that’s been talked about since 2019. So I’ll believe it when I see it. I really don’t know why they think there’s such high demand for that show.
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Hi!
Can you share more about podcast metrics and what helps? I always rate, follow, and positively review yours and others that I like.
But for others whose podcasts I no longer respect, do negative reviews hurt the podcast? Or does any activity (good or bad) help, kind of like IG engagement? Does the overall rating matter the most, individual reviews, or just overall downloads?
Thanks!
Comment: The biggest thing honestly is responding to the ads I read. The rates, follows, and reviews help for sure just for rankings. But it’s moreso about downloads and responding to the ads by purchasing product. My download numbers have been great since I started the Daily Roundup, since going in, I had no idea what to expect for putting something out daily. It’s exceeded my expectations. So continuing to listen every day is the biggest help you can give to the podcast, with purchasing product being second biggest.
I don’t think overall rating plays too much of a role because advertisers know there are trolls out there that love to leave negative comments. I’ve seen a few of the ones left for me and it’s comical, because it’s clearly coming from people that don’t even listen to the podcast. Because their complaints are not something I even do. So they just have a narrative in their head about me and just leave a bad rating and review because they want to, not necessarily because it’s something they heard me say. And I think advertisers get that. As long as people keep listening, that’s the best way to support the podcast. Thank you for listening.
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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.
