Reality TV - The Bachelor:: (new season starts Sept. 22)

¤}{îÖ¤ · 09-23-2004, 12:09 AM

Today starts the new season of The Bachelor. There is a new rule in the show: the bachelor must propose at the last episode or walk away alone.

Also there are two bachelors available for the girls to choose from before their own very first rose ceremony:

Byron, pro fisherman

Jay, entrepreneur

The premiere just started airing 10 minutes ago... come back for some discussion!

dariah · 09-23-2004, 01:28 AM

I liked Jay.

He was definitely more my type, successful, businessman, urban, city guy - plus, I really just thought he was better looking.

I don't know if Byron can carry a show, I'm disappointed he was selected.

My mom teaches in the same school system as Lisa, hehe.

Amanda resembles of Estella. Ashley kind of reminds me of Jen.

And I see Krysta being the crazy one this year.

Time for "the most dramatic rose ceremony ever, to see which girls home brokenhearted."

¤}{îÖ¤ · 09-23-2004, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by dariah
Time for "the most dramatic rose ceremony ever, to see which girls home brokenhearted."

i don't get why they were crying already. you've known him for less than 3 days. geez.

i didn't really care who was picked as the bachelor. i'd watch the show either way, i'm addicted to it.

lizzie2000 · 09-23-2004, 04:03 AM

I know for sure now that i wont watch the season because i wanted Jay to become the Bachlor. No offense he seems perfect and he seems ready to settle down.

**Quarterley** · 09-24-2004, 03:03 AM

I remember doing this:

a lot when the women talk or shriek or cry over nothing.

¤}{îÖ¤ · 09-24-2004, 06:57 PM

Episode 1
Air Date: 09/22/2004

The hardest part about tonight was watching the expressions on the women's faces while I was handing out the roses. They had this look of anticipation and hope, and it just killed me knowing that I couldn't ask them all to stay, but I know they understood how I felt. Last night when the women were deciding between Jay and I, we both had that same look of hope in our eyes. They chose to send Jay home, and tonight, I had to send 10 of them home. It wasn't easy.

There were a few tears tonight. Abby looked especially sad, and that was difficult. But there were also some great moments. Cindy was among the women who looked thrilled when I called her name. I have no doubt that I chose the best 15 women for me. They are beautiful, intelligent, fun and I can't wait to get to know them better.

At this point, I feel like I got over the first two big hurdles. The rose ceremony with me and Jay is over. The first rose ceremony with the women and me is over. Now it's time to really get to know these 15 women, and I can't wait.

¤}{îÖ¤ · 09-24-2004, 07:12 PM

Amanda

Andrea

Ashley

Chereesse

Elizabeth

Jayne

Kelly

Kristie

Krysta

Leina

Natalie

Suzi

Tanya

Wende

i'll be back later tonight with some disscussion questions...

mollymac · 09-24-2004, 09:12 PM

Well, as someone already mentioned, Amanda reminds me of Estella a lot! I also think Jayne looks a little like Sheryl Crow. I really like Wende- she seems very spunky. And I think we can all guess Krysta will be causing a lot of tension. And man, that chic that started crying during the party before the rose ceremony!!? She felt so overwhelmed? And the girls crying at the end her were given the boot? How do they get so worked up. They hardly know this guy and are crying over him? I don't get it. Must be more about being rejected on tv.

¤}{îÖ¤ · 09-25-2004, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mollymac
They hardly know this guy and are crying over him? I don't get it. Must be more about being rejected on tv.

that's a good point. i think that'd be the only reason i'd cry over someone i don't know on tv.

¤}{îÖ¤ · 10-01-2004, 11:02 PM

‘Bachelor’ relationships are 0-for-5
But the Bachelorettes seem to have found mates

Feature Photo Service
Former "Bachelorette" Meredith Phillips and her fiance Ian McKee have stayed together — so far.

By Linda Holmes
MSNBC contributor

Updated: 8:06 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2004On Sept. 22, ABC kicked off the new season of "The Bachelor," featuring two Bachelors. The assembled women eventually chose Byron, the professional bass fisherman, sending home gray-haired Jay. Except for that, there has been little news from the show since the traditional end of a "Bachelor" season — the announcement that the Bachelor and his chosen one have given up, bid each other adieu, and moved on to dating entirely different, also barely famous people.

Alex did not stay with Amanda, after all. Aaron did not stay with Helene. Andrew did not stay with Jen, Bob did not stay with Estella, and Jesse did not stay with Jessica. What's more, the show has nearly given up on the very notion of ending in a proposal, as the men now usually end with something like, "I choose you. You are the one. I want the two of us to . . . go to the movies."

A show that has an 0-for-5 record of matching men with prospective mates would, one would think, begin to wonder whether it really should be billing itself as the world's most romantic reality show, rather than the world's most wretchedly incompetent dating service.

Of course, the current "Bachelor" season, the show will return to its "Bachelorette" incarnation. That show will bring back Andrew Firestone's castoff Jen Schefft, hoping that she will be luckier in love than she was during the Days of Wine and Steel-Belted Radials.

And while the sample is still small, it's interesting to note that Jen has reason to rejoice: while the Bachelors unfailingly ditch their beloveds before anyone has a chance to even take bets on their odds, the Bachelorettes have fared better. Alex failed to select Trista, but when she returned, she hooked up with Ryan, and they're already married. Bob rejected Meredith (and her Nana), and she later returned to land Ian — and while they're not married yet, that appears to be the plan.

Glamour vs, nice, stability vs. flash
Admittedly, it might just be coincidence, but it does tempt armchair cultural anthropologists to wonder: why do the men's relationships go belly-up while the women's thrive?

It's tempting to go with some sort of simplistic explanation relying on the mythical tendency of men to choose looks or other surface characteristics above the kind of character traits that might lend themselves to long-term relationships. After all, Trista probably wouldn't be married now had she chosen studly, oily Charlie instead of Ryan and his agonizingly bad poetry.

The problem with that theory is that Firestone, for instance, didn't go with the glamour queen — of the women left on the show near the end, Jen was the nice girl. Andrew, in theory, went for substance. And still, no dice.

And relatively speaking, Meredith did not go for stability, which was represented more thoroughly by Matthew than by Ian. Meredith went for flash, and she still won.

Perhaps the women have had better luck because they have done a better job of culling the group in the early stages and narrowing it down to an appropriate set of choices. Maybe the men don't leave themselves anyone good to choose at the end because they don't do well at the beginning.

Of course, the fact is that the majority of the people who are offered up at the beginning are impossible to distinguish from each other. It's hard to do a "good job" or a "bad job" at winnowing a group that looks like a multi-limo blur of good looks and wacky occupations. (Get her! She's an insurance adjuster!) That's not to even mention the fact that while Trista did all right in the end, she inexplicably kept Creepy Creepy Russ until very late in the game, showing many other qualities a heck of a lot more than an early eye for quality.

Give it some thought, guys
Maybe it's the particular people they've chosen. Meredith was certainly among the most down-to-earth of the women who have ever walked across the "Bachelor" stage, and Trista probably had the most marriage-minded outlook of any of the eligibles.

It may well be that Trista and Meredith's experiences with that sad limo ride home alone somehow convinced them not to play the game in the silly way it was approached by people like Aaron and Anomaly Bob.

On the men's team, by contrast, you will find good old Bachelor Bob Guiney, who was sold as some sort of underappreciated "nice guy" and turned out to be quite possibly the biggest slimeball the show ever produced. Alex and Aaron were flat-out jackasses, Andrew was an agreeable dullard, and whatever Jesse Palmer was aiming for, it didn't seem to be "get married."

As appealing as this theory is, it's hard to argue that nice people have an easier time remaining together. Everyone knows some very nasty married couples who have been together for years.

And besides, overbroad generalizations and reckless speculation are fun, which brings us to perhaps the most intriguing theory. Aside from Bachelor Bob, who has to be written off as an anomaly because his particular brand of insufferable slickness was concealed until fairly late in the game, the women have been previously rejected candidates, while the men have not. It may well be that Trista and Meredith's experiences with that sad limo ride home alone after not receiving roses somehow convinced them not to play the game in the silly way it was approached by people like Aaron and Anomaly Bob.

Could it be that being a good Bachelor/ette requires, of all things, gravity? Or at least a spark of understanding that it's no fun to be sent home, so the choice deserves a little more thought than Jesse gave it when he handed a rose to a girl other than the one he intended to have it?

It's probably too much to hope that reality dating shows would teach anything quite that interesting. In all probability, what is relevant is not that the show has a zero-for-five record with men and a two-for-two record with women, but that it has a rather anemic two-for-seven record overall. Perhaps fisherman Byron will have the same odds Jen will have when she ultimately shows up, which is to say: don't throw away that address book yet.

dariah · 10-03-2004, 08:26 PM

It's good to see Meredith and Ian still together.

And, as much as I look forward to Jen's The Bachelorette...when will they cast an unknown, for Pete's sake?

mollymac · 10-06-2004, 12:41 PM

Thanks for that article, Xio. I'm happy for Meredith and Ian. They are sweet. I too, wish they'd pick an unknown bachelorette.

I am wondering who the two girls are that they keep showing on previews for the next episode. Something tells me they are either well known or somewhat known, otherwise why would they blur out the faces. If they were just 2 nobodies they probably wouldn't go to all the trouble.

dariah · 10-09-2004, 06:40 PM

I definitely didn't need to see much more of Heather from Texas, though she did look a lot better this time around.

I don't blame Byron for not keeping her around, hehe.

Krysta is really getting annoying now.

mollymac · 11-04-2004, 06:23 PM

Wow, big shocker that Byron didn't keep Chereese. She was the only one who didn't invite Byron to stay in the special suite. How did I know he'd cut her? Oh well. Is anyone even watching this anymore? Don't see a lot of commenting.

Cindy is way too hard for me to watch. He weird googly eyes and strange expressions all the time.

dariah · 11-17-2004, 02:50 AM

Yeah, Cindy's definitely had some plastic surgery.

I've come to the conclusion that being forthcoming and assertive is the kiss of death on this show; happened with Chereese, and Cindy, not to mention others from previous seasons.

Down to Mary and Tanya - I don't see anything between Byron and Tanya, therefore I'm putting money on Mary.

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