It goes without saying that the men and women on ABC's The Bachelor have their fair share
of secrets.
"Like people have written blogs, that I have cankles.
And… sorry."
But they're not the only ones trying to hide something.
The producers of the show have their own mysteries they'd rather keep hidden.
"Don't.
Don't grab his ass.
That's the wrong messag.."
"It's OK if I do it to you?"
"Yea."
Here's a look at the untold truth of The Bachelor.
Backstage scandal
Season 16 contestant Jamie Otis told Women's Health, "There are more of these producer/contestant
relationships than viewers realize — they're always kept hush-hush."
She bases this on the fact that she bumped into another contestant, who she didn't name,
with one of the producers.
This occurred as Otis was on her way to conduct one of her interviews for the show.
According to Otis, the other contestant's face "turned bright red — total giveaway
that something scandalous had gone down!"
That wasn't the first time, either.
In season 14, Rozlyn Papa was kicked off the show after she was caught in a relationship
with one of the show's producers, who was subsequently fired.
"You entered into an inappropriate relationship.
With one of our… with one of our staffers.
That staffer is no longer working with us.
Because of what happened."
Host Chris Harrison told People, "She had a physical relationship with a producer on
our show.
You cannot do that.
There is no gray area … Other girls on the show saw it.
The producer confessed more than once and to more than one person."
Con-TEST-ants
According to Dr. Catherine Selden, resident psychologist on The Bachelor, all 50 finalists
must complete a lengthy psychological evaluation.
She explained, "We want to make sure that people are going to be OK with coping with
the stress involved, and make sure that they are going to be offered the help that they
need if it's the case."
So if you think any of the ladies are crazy, know that a psychiatric-health professional
has verified that they are not.
Season 16 winner Courtney Robertson revealed in her tell-all book I Didn’t Come Here
to Make Friends: Confessions of a Reality Show Villain that she was even given an STD
test and was "asked point-blank if she was on birth-control pills."
After this battery of tests is complete, each woman is then taken for camera tests to see
how photogenic she is.
The women are plied with alcohol
Many of us know that alcohol makes people more talkative and emotional.
That must be why the producers of The Bachelor make sure that the women on the hit show have
plenty to drink.
Season 17 contestant Leslie Hughes revealed to The Daily Beast,
"When I came in for the producers' weekend, I remember it was like 12 noon, and they were
like, 'You want some champagne, wine?'
And I was like, 'It's 12 p.m., noon!'
And they're like, 'Welcome to the Bachelor family.'"
All that booze has an even bigger effect because producers don't actually let the contestants
eat during their dates.
All those fancy dinners you see on screen?
They're just for show according to former Bachelor Sean Lowe, who revealed in his book,
For the Right Reasons, that producers faked it, because "no one looks good eating, and
microphones pick up all kinds of chomping."
Don't worry, though, the contestants aren't actually starved; they get room service offscreen
before the date to make sure they aren't too famished.
By any other name
The producers don't stop at just deciding who does and doesn't appear on The Bachelor.
In addition to that, they have a say in how the rose ceremony is presented.
Lowe revealed in his book that the show "likes to put the most obvious choices first so that
drama builds towards the end of the ceremony with the rest of the women who are unsure
of their status."
"Julia.
Juliet."
"Sorry.."
(cackling laugh)
That makes sense, but one shocking detail you may not believe: those roses are actually
fake.
Which… actually seems pretty appropriate if you think about it...
All night long
If it ever seems like some contestants leave while there's still light out and others leave
after the sun has gone down during the same episode, that's not your eyes playing tricks
on you.
Sometimes, filming those ceremonies takes forever — or at least it seems like it.
Lowe revealed in his book that one of his rose ceremonies didn't end until six o'clock
in the morning.
Being awake and having to wait that long, it's no wonder the women cry when they don't
get a rose.
And that’s par for the course.
Bachelor director Ken Fuchs told The Hollywood Reporter that all rose ceremonies go into
the wee hours of the morning.
"There's a lot of women that the bachelor needs to meet.
Forget about doing a TV show, if you were in some situation where you were going to
meet 25 women and at the end of the night select a handful to go home, you want to sort
of get a sense of who's who and what's what, so that takes time."
No wonder some of them don't make it.
"Wait.
Where's… where's Corrine?"
"She's not here."
"No, but seriously, where is she?"
"Upstairs.
She's Upstairs.
Resting."
(heavy snoring)
Evil producers
Tears equal drama, and drama equals good television.
So it's not that surprising to learn that producers want to make sure tears flow.
Former Bachelor producer Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, who created the Bachelor-inspired comedy UnREAL,
revealed in The New Yorker that her job was to get the contestants to open up to her — and
then give them terrible advice, as well as to deprive them of sleep.
She said that she sees it now as a "complicated manipulation through friendship."
Before the final rose ceremony, Shapiro described how she would raise the hopes of the ultimate
loser.
"The night they were going to get dumped, I would go to the hotel room where they were
staying and say, 'I'm going to lose my job for telling you this, but he's going to pick
you — he's going to propose.'"
Shapiro did whatever it took to get a contestant to cry in the limo after being eliminated.
"I'd have arranged with the driver to have the song play just until I got a shot of her
crying — then cut the music so I could start the interview.
They'd often tell us to drive up and down the 405 until the girls cried — and not
to come home if we didn't get tears, because we'd be fired."
Season-five contestant Jessica Holcomb told Cosmopolitan that Shapiro viciously destroyed
Holcomb's self-esteem in order to get some cheap tears.
"What I remember her saying was, 'You've been very honest about all the girls here being
so much prettier than you and skinnier than you and better than you.
How does it feel to know that you were right?'
"…It was very shocking.
And then she just kept going on and on.
It was just the meanest stuff ever."
Make it work
If you ever wonder where the women on The Bachelor gets their outfits, the answer may
surprise you: they all bring their own clothes.
And that has caused some contestants to suffer some serious financial difficulties.
Fashion blogger Dana Weiss told Mic that "there are women in the past who cashed out their
401(k)s for the show," adding "some have gone into serious credit card debt."
Jillian Harris, the former Bachelor contestant turned Bachelorette, confirmed this on her
blog, saying "The girls do have to bring all of their own clothing and of course, they
want to be wearing the best clothes ever to be seen on TV in!
I had re-mortgaged my house and I spent something like $8,000 on clothing."
Bling-bang
According to Us Weekly, the ring Jef Holm gave to Emily Maynard cost $68,000.
Sean Lowe revealed in his tell-all book that Catherine's ring cost $75,000.
And the ring Chris Soules gave to Whitney Bischoff — the one with the 3.6 carat diamond
— cost in the neighborhood of $92,000, according to Us Weekly.
Bustle reports, "the exact details of the ring have always been shrouded in mystery.
It's not known for sure whether Neil Lane "donates" the rings in exchange for the promotion,
or if ABC foots the bill, but one thing is for sure: the contestants definitely don't
have to put any money down."
Whitewashing
Season 17 contestant Leslie Hughes told The Daily Beast that she was glad to help break
down barriers, especially since The Bachelor has a pretty spotty record when it comes to
casting minorities.
"From watching it from day one, there wasn't a lot of diversity, [contestants] were always
Caucasian, blonde, blue eyes … It was always the same."
And she's not the only person to notice this.
In 2012, two men named Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson filed a lawsuit against
the show, alleging that its creator "knowingly, intentionally, and as a matter of corporate
policy refused to cast people of color in the role of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette."
The lawsuit has since been dismissed, and the show's producers announced in February,
2017, that former Bachelor contestant Rachel Lindsay had finally been cast as the franchise's
first non-white lead.
Bad decisions
When asked in an interview with Us Weekly if he ever thought any of the bachelors made
the wrong decision, Bachelor and Bachelorette host Chris Harrison said, "You bet."
He elaborated, citing season 10 Bachelorette Andi Dorfman, who split from fiancé Josh
Murray just five months after the world watched them get engaged.
Harrison said, "She was happy for a while, but obviously I think she ended up probably
with the wrong guy."
Another match that was certainly not made in heaven was season 14's Bachelor Jake Pavelka
and his now-ex-fiancee Vienna Girardi, who had a famously public breakup.
Harrison said about the pair, "Obviously they were a little bit like oil and water.
They did not get along very well together."
"So you're done talking?
Is there any part of you..."
"That's a first."
According to Ali Fedotowsky of season 14, "You spend so little time with the person
you choose before the final rose ceremony.
I would say you probably spend about 72 hours tops with the person you wind up choosing,
and 12 of that is spent 'sleeping' in the fantasy suite.
You can't really get to know a person in that time frame."
But probably the worst decision all of these people made?
Agreeing to appear on The Bachelor in the first place.
"They said Terry you have a sparkle.
Do not let those girls take that sparkle away."
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