Why is The Bachelor Such a Popular Show?
“Why?”
PRINCE IN DISGUISE
by Stephanie Kate Strohm
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion (December 19, 2017)
Language: English
Goodreads | Amazon
by Stephanie Kate Strohm author of PRINCE IN DISGUISE
“Why?”
I guarantee you that everyone who watches The Bachelor has been asked that question at some point. “Why would you watch this stupid show? Isn’t it demeaning to women? Is any of it even real? WHY ARE YOU WATCHING THIS?! WHY?! TELL ME! WHY?!”
My first Bachelor Nation experience came midway through Deanna Pappas’ season of The Bachelorette in 2008. I was living in New York right after graduation, and my friend Rachel Ann was desperate to watch The Bachelorette but didn’t have a TV. My apartment may have been the size of a large suitcase, but it did have a TV, and we watched the last couple episodes together, but I didn’t really get invested until we watched the next season of The Bachelor, starring single dad Jason Mesnick.
Jason Mesnick is known for two things. One: collapsing on the balcony in tears. This balcony-crying-maneuver would go on to be called “Pulling a Mesnick.” Two: Although Jason proposed to Melissa Rycroft on the last episode, he then dumped Melissa on After the Final Rose (kind of like a Where Are They Now? wrap-up special) and told runner-up Molly Malaney that he wanted a second chance. Unbelievably, Malaney took him back, and they’re now married with kids! As host Chris Harrison likes to say, it really was the most dramatic season ever.
I’m sure a lot of people watch for those “I can’t believe that just happened!” moments, whether it’s something as dramatic as a Bachelor choosing no one at the final rose ceremony (that’s right, Brad Womack) or as harmlessly bonkers as a guy rolling up on the first night dressed like a cupcake (that’s right, guy-whose-name-I-forgot-because-everyone-just-called-him-Cupcake.)
Personally, I love the over-the-top dates, even though helicopters make me nauseous and I roll my eyes anyone says something like “Bungee jumping off this building is just like falling in love!” I love being able to vicariously travel all over the world and see all of these beautiful locations – who knows if I’ll ever get to cuddle puppies in Finland?
I’ve read articles suggesting that we love The Bachelor because it’s a sociological barometer for how Americans view love and sex, because it lets us feel superior, because it makes love seem simple, or it makes real love seem simpler than “reality” love. But that’s not why I’ve kept watching for almost a decade. Nope, it’s because there is part of me that truly believes, even despite the show’s absolutely abysmal track record, that love can be found in the most unlikely of places.
Even on reality TV.
My first Bachelor Nation experience came midway through Deanna Pappas’ season of The Bachelorette in 2008. I was living in New York right after graduation, and my friend Rachel Ann was desperate to watch The Bachelorette but didn’t have a TV. My apartment may have been the size of a large suitcase, but it did have a TV, and we watched the last couple episodes together, but I didn’t really get invested until we watched the next season of The Bachelor, starring single dad Jason Mesnick.
Jason Mesnick is known for two things. One: collapsing on the balcony in tears. This balcony-crying-maneuver would go on to be called “Pulling a Mesnick.” Two: Although Jason proposed to Melissa Rycroft on the last episode, he then dumped Melissa on After the Final Rose (kind of like a Where Are They Now? wrap-up special) and told runner-up Molly Malaney that he wanted a second chance. Unbelievably, Malaney took him back, and they’re now married with kids! As host Chris Harrison likes to say, it really was the most dramatic season ever.
I’m sure a lot of people watch for those “I can’t believe that just happened!” moments, whether it’s something as dramatic as a Bachelor choosing no one at the final rose ceremony (that’s right, Brad Womack) or as harmlessly bonkers as a guy rolling up on the first night dressed like a cupcake (that’s right, guy-whose-name-I-forgot-because-everyone-just-called-him-Cupcake.)
Personally, I love the over-the-top dates, even though helicopters make me nauseous and I roll my eyes anyone says something like “Bungee jumping off this building is just like falling in love!” I love being able to vicariously travel all over the world and see all of these beautiful locations – who knows if I’ll ever get to cuddle puppies in Finland?
I’ve read articles suggesting that we love The Bachelor because it’s a sociological barometer for how Americans view love and sex, because it lets us feel superior, because it makes love seem simple, or it makes real love seem simpler than “reality” love. But that’s not why I’ve kept watching for almost a decade. Nope, it’s because there is part of me that truly believes, even despite the show’s absolutely abysmal track record, that love can be found in the most unlikely of places.
Even on reality TV.
by Stephanie Kate Strohm
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion (December 19, 2017)
Language: English
Goodreads | Amazon
Someday I want to live in a place where I never hear "You're Dusty's sister?" ever again.
Life is real enough for Dylan-especially as the ordinary younger sister of Dusty, former Miss Mississippi and the most perfect, popular girl in Tupelo. But when Dusty wins the hand of the handsome Scottish laird-to-be Ronan on the TRC television network's crown jewel, Prince in Disguise, Dylan has to face a different kind of reality: reality TV.
As the camera crew whisks them off to Scotland to film the lead-up to the wedding, camera-shy Dylan is front and center as Dusty's maid of honor. The producers are full of surprises-including old family secrets, long-lost relatives, and a hostile future mother-in-law who thinks Dusty and Dylan's family isn't good enough for her only son. At least there's Jamie, an adorably bookish groomsman who might just be the perfect antidote to all Dylan's stress . . . if she just can keep TRC from turning her into the next reality show sensation.
STEPHANIE KATE STROHM is also the author of Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink, Confederates Don’t Wear Couture, The Taming of the Drew, and It's Not Me, It's You.
She works as an actress and teacher in Chicago.
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