The Bachelor 10 Things About Early Seasons That Have Aged Poorly

The Bachelor: 10 Things About Early Seasons That Have Aged Poorly

After decades on the air, some of The Bachelor’s earliest seasons don’t really hold up in hindsight.

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The Bachelor has been on the air for almost 20 years with spinoffs galore to its name. The reality series, of course, has a deceptively simple premise in which a group of women dates the titular Bachelor in the hopes that they will be his perfect match. At the end of the season, one woman will enter a relationship with the Bachelor or be proposed to, and perhaps they will get married. Though honestly, history tells audiences that nuptials are very much up in the air.

Given that The Bachelor premiered in 2002, things in the world have changed, especially in the way audiences view and consume media. Looking back to the earliest seasons of The Bachelor, especially with a 2021 mindset, some aspects of the series aged poorly in hindsight.

The Message Of The Bachelor

To be fair, this isn’t something just from the early seasons of The Bachelor that has aged poorly, but of the series as a whole. Considering the concept was “handsome single guy gets together with a pretty single woman,” the show’s message hasn’t changed since 2002. In fact, The Bachelor still espouses that people need a relationship to be happy and the only relationship that audiences care about is one between two conventionally attractive people.

Between the lack of any sort of diversity in the early days of The Bachelor, it’s a message that feels dated and stale for many viewers.

Jesse Palmer Forgets Karen’s Name

Former NFL player, former Bachelor, and new host of The Bachelor, Jesse Palmer would probably wish this moment could be forgotten. In season 5, he accidentally mixed up two of the bachelorettes that were hoping to win his heart: Karen and Katie. In fact, he was apparently so flustered that he accidentally called out Katie’s name when he really meant Karen. Katie got to stay an extra week on the series for the mix-up.

The fact that Palmer couldn’t remember two of the women that he was dating at the time just feels like a big red flag and definitely would set off alarm bells in the present.

Brad Womack Chooses No One

Season 11 of The Bachelor ended with a shocker: Brad Womack didn’t choose anyone. On one hand, good for Brad for knowing his own mind and not wanting to be with someone for the sake of television. On the other hand, if he didn’t think that the women on The Bachelor were right for him, then why on Earth would he string them along over the course of the season only to tell the finalists he wasn’t interested in either of them?

Womack’s behavior at the end of season 11 does not come off well at all, especially in hindsight. As Clare Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette proves, Womack could have said something, been let off the hook, and the producers could have brought a new Bachelor on that wouldn’t have strung the remaining contestants along.

The Slut-Shaming Comments

Nick Viall would eventually become the Bachelor in season 21 of the series, but it’s his season 10 comments on The Bachelorette “After the Rose” finale that have aged pretty terribly. During the special, Viall, who was the runner-up for the season, revealed to the world that he had slept with Bachelorette, Andi Dorfman.

He said, “If you weren’t in love with me, I’m just not sure why you made love with me.” Many viewers took those comments to be slut-shaming in nature, which has been an issue with the franchise as women’s sexual histories tend to get more scrutiny than their male counterparts.

Erica Rose’s Classism

Comments from season 9 contestant Erica Rose definitely have a majorly classist bent. In a particularly infamous conversation, Rose asked The Bachelor host Chris Harrison if there were maids in the Bachelor mansion to which he replied no. So Rose, not realizing that she would have to take care of her own living space asked if she was going to have to hire one of the other girls to be her maid.

Whether or not she was that out of touch with the world or just acting, the fact that she portrayed paying one of the other contestants to be her maid just shows a very bad way of thinking. Erica certainly was not the most relatable contestant in The Bachelor.

Jake Pavelka And Vienna Girardi’s Break-Up

No one was pleased when Bachelor Jake Pavelka picked season 14 “villain,” Vienna Girardi. It turns out, however, that both of them were just ill-suited toward each other in the worst ways and eventually ended their relationship. When Chris Harrison had an interview with the split couple, it devolved into one of the most uncomfortable moments in television history.

Girardi also accused Pavelka of being emotionally abusive, which he proceeded to largely prove during the said interview. It probably shouldn’t have aired.

Jason Mesnick Changes His Mind

Break-ups are part and parcel of The Bachelor brand. In season 13, however, Jason Mesnick ends up picking Melissa Rycroft as his match. Apparently, however, he regretted that decision. During the “After the Final Rose” special for the season, Mesnick breaks up with Rycroft and then asks runner-up, Molly Malaney, for a second chance.

Molly agrees. Today, the couple is happily married with two kids in one of the weirdest success stories on The Bachelor. But Mesnick dumping Rycroft like that? It wasn’t the best start to the relationship.

Rozlyn Was With A Producer?

During the Jake Pavelka season, Rozlyn Papa was infamously sent home from The Bachelor due to having an affair with one of the producers on the show. However, according to People, Papa has said as late as 2020 that she had not cheated on Pavelka during the series filming. Former host Chris Harrison said that other women saw Papa with the producer.

The whole elimination has become very “he said, she said” since then. If it is true, there’s definitely a gross sort of power dynamic between a show contestant and a producer getting together during filming.

The Lack Of Diversity

While later seasons are sort of getting better about having a diverse group of contestants on the series, this hasn’t always been the case. In the earliest seasons of The Bachelor, the casting. on the series is still overwhelmingly white.

That’s not even really getting into the lack of a diverse “star” on both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. Again, there has been an effort made to get BIPOC cast members into the “star” seat, but it also reads as too little, too late. It’s definitely one of the more problematic aspects of the series’ legacy.

Chris Harrison

In 2021, Chris Harrison got into hot water for defending season 25 contestant Rachael Kirkconnell for participating in an Old South antebellum-themed frat formal. Harrison used the term “woke police” to justify his comments.

Matt James, the first Black man to be the Bachelor, cut things off with Kirkconnell. The couple did eventually reconcile. Harrison, meanwhile, was asked to leave the franchise following a lot of bumbling attempts to explain his comments on social media that just made things worse.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/the-bachelor-seasons-aged-poorly/

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