7 insider secrets of ‘The Bachelor’
Courtesy of ABC
You thought you knew, but you have no idea what’s it really like inside “The Bachelor” mansion.
Even having signed ironclad contracts that pretty much demand your first-born, many
“Bachelor/ette” contestants have spilled the shows’ secrets after their time searching for love. Themain takeaway? It is not all that glamorous after all!
Which conversations are staged? What trick do the cameramen use to create jealousy? Andbesides a rose, what is the other item the contestants fight over? “Bachelor” family members likeSean Lowe, Courtney Robertson and Sharleen Joynt reveal the dirty truth!
So what’s it really like in “The Bachelor” Mansion? Keep reading to find out.
1. All those “Girl Chats” are completed staged. According to Sharleen Joynt (Bachelor season18), these intimate conversations were never scripted, but always planned and set up byproducers. On her website, she writes, “Producers often ask contestants, ‘Who wants to do a GirlChat?’ and in the early stages it’s more volunteer-based; if a contestant doesn’t want toparticipate, they can usually say no. Later on it’s no longer optional, as naturally there are fewergirls to go around. Girl Chats are different than natural conversations caught by a zoomed-in,often unseen camera.” In a recap of last week’s episode, she elaborated on these Girl Chats. “Aproducer typically peppers them with topics, usually pertaining to the girl currently on a date andwhether or not they think she and Ben have a ‘connection,’ whether or not she’ll come home,etc.” she said.
2. The fashion gets worse as the show goes on. Fashion and TV blogger Dana Weiss ofPossessionista explained to Mic.com that many of the women “front-wear” their clothes,meaning they wear their best clothes early on in the season, as they have no idea when they’ll besent home. “By around week six or seven, they start wearing their old ugly dresses from highschool.”
3. The cameramen and camerawomen are the masterminds of creating jealousy. In a recentepisode recap on her blog, Sharleen provided an insider’s look at Ben and JoJo’s recent LasVegas date, which all the other contestants “watched” from their hotel room window. “It’s notlike the women sit around looking at the window, searching for helicopters and watching eachother’s one-on-ones,” she said. “The room often has three or more cameramen (and women!) in it, so when a camera is focusing on something happening outside—or, say, on a biplane flyingoverhead—it’s safe for the girls to assume something’s up.”
4. You must pass a series of tests. Before you are officially cast on the show, contestants undergoa three-day psychiatric evaluation. (So no one is every *really* crazy!) In her book, Season 16winner Courtney Robertson said she was given an STD test and asked if she was on birth-controlpills. After all those tests, only then is the woman checked for being photogenic!
5. Alcohol is always a-flowing, according to Leslie Hughes, who had hoped to find love withSean Lowe. And for good reason—it certainly helps in making contestants more talkative andemotional, she said.
6. Mirrors are prized commodities! And they are hard to come by in that massive mansion. In herblog recap, Sharleen applauded the contestant who brought along the personal mirror whereLauren B. was filmed getting ready for her one-on-one date. “There is a noticeable lack ofmirrors in ‘The Bachelor’ mansion,” she said. “I know that sounds weird, particularly becausethere’s so much emphasis on our looks, but it’s totally true. After we complained for days—andsurvived with the mirrors in our compacts!—a handler finally delivered one of those flimsy—butfunctional—small-ish full length mirrors. It wasn’t uncommon to see us clustered around it in asort of totem pole formation so we could all see our reflections simultaneously. Just trust me when I say, when all the women are getting ready for something at the same time, mirror space isprime real estate.”
7. Those rose ceremonies last hours—and sometimes all night. Ever notice how, in one episode,one contestant leaves during the day while another leaves after the sun has gone down? SeanLowe explained in his book that one of his ceremonies didn’t end until 6 a.m. And to make upfor that, Chris Harrison hopped into the kitchen to make breakfast burritos for everyone. What agreat host!
