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Tag: reality dating show

  • I Was Brave Enough To Watch The Bachelor

    I Was Brave Enough To Watch The Bachelor

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    Okay let’s just start off by saying that I do unironically enjoy
    Love Island.I love the chaos, the characters, and shameless self-promotion. Every season, two people on average fall in love while the rest compete for screen time to land brand deals. Isn’t all drama better served in a British accent?

    While
    The Bachelorreigned in my childhood, it certainly dwindled in popularity over the years. Riddled with recent scandals, I thought they would cancel it entirely. However, the recent popularity of Gerry Turner in The Golden Bachelor launched us back in the rose ceremony swing.

    So, here I am, watching another insufferable television show for the sake of my readers. And what’s better than a little live-action commentary?

    Here is everything I thought while watching The Bachelor.

    This year’s Bachelor is Joey Graziadei, hailing from Royersford, PA. Apparently he’s the bee’s knees. Personally, my ideal man won’t simultaneously date 30 other women, but whatever — I can only hope he’s an
    Eagles fan.

    @annashellabella Girls r down bad tonight #boston #postgrad #girlsnight #thebachelor ♬ original sound – smiski

    We begin this episode with the lovely group date, which is wedding-themed. The girls are dressed to the nines in wedding gowns, and only one of them is going to fake marry Joey. This will go swimmingly, I’m sure. I can’t imagine anything more torturous than putting women
    who all share a boyfriend in wedding dresses.

    [8:21]

    Oh my goodness, they’re making them play musical chairs and already we have a girl launching herself, linebacker-style, across the table to get into a seat. The only thing holding her back was her dress. Seriously, NFL agents, you’re missing out if you don’t sign Evalin.

    [17:20]

    Now we have a cheesy, yet eloquent speech from Rachel, who is an ICU nurse. She also gets to dance with Joey. The camera people, ready to instigate drama, keep zooming in on the other brides who are mentally murdering her as she leans in for the kiss.

    Seriously, they keep kissing in front of everyone. I don’t know what I expected. I am surprised Evalin isn’t throwing herself over the table by now…I would be.

    [20:50]

    I need to be honest: at this point in the episode, I still don’t know anyone’s name. All of these girls could be named Jess and Lauren and I’d believe you. I’m trying, but I grow weary with every minute.

    I’ve learned that one-on-one time during a group date is the equivalent of a Hail Mary in football. You’ve got about 10 seconds left on the clock, you need to do something borderline insane to win the prize (Joey). If you’re not sharing your sob story, you’re going in for the kiss.

    And Joey always has the right thing to say, doesn’t he? Either he’s the best person ever or he’s been programmed by AI technology by ABC. I wouldn’t be shocked by either.

    [22:13]

    Maria sitting Joey down, “changing into something more comfortable”, and going in for the kiss is awesome. Joey is living the American dream right now.

    [36:37]

    @daisyykent I didnt know what i expected but taking it all in as the show goes on & remebering to be kind to myself. Bc we can be our biggest critic #thebachelor #bachelornation #realitytv ♬ original sound – Daisy Kent

    Now, we have the one-on-one with Daisy, where they get to go to a pseudo-music festival and dance onstage in front of the crowd. The best part is when they have to act like they know a single song by these artists. Give me “Things I Could Never Do In Front Of A Large Crowd” for 100, please.

    [50:54]

    In potentially the busiest episode in
    Bachelor history, there is a second group date. How is Joey not exhausted and, also, does he really know their names yet? More torture, the women have to compete in bootcamp and a paint battle. At least they got to see Joey shirtless for like one unnecessary second.

    This show has me questioning the things I’d do to find love. But then again, I’d probably run through a paint battle course for Harry Styles.

    [1:06:30]

    Inevitably, a bunch of women of any age shouldn’t live in the same house together and date the same man. Drama is bound to ensue. According to some women, Madina (first time hearing her name) thinks Maria made ageist comments against her…this totally won’t come up before the dreaded Rose Ceremony.

    [1:07:00]

    ….And there it is. They’re all fighting the most ridiculous battle:
    did Maria call Madina an old hag who will never be loved by Joey or not?! Even Maria says this is dumb. I agree. I think everyone’s just bored at this point…including myself?

    In the midst of it all, Lauren (who is here with her sister, no comment), declares she is leaving and she does not want to even speak to Joey because she’s in a bad mood. Poor Joey is apologizing for anything he’s done…and she’s throwing a fit because the cake she ordered was not red velvet? Wait, I need her gone, I’m getting anxious.

    [1:20:00]

    Honestly, everyone has gotten really invested in the matter of one episode. This is my level of delusion as well, so I can’t even judge them. Joey even says this is the first week of dating and we have girls clawing up the walls already.

    To quote Madina, “This has been, like, emotionally taxing with everything that’s going on,”…I need a glass of wine after this.

    via GIPHY



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    Jai Phillips

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  • The Travis Kelce Reality Dating Show He Doesn’t Want You to See

    The Travis Kelce Reality Dating Show He Doesn’t Want You to See

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    “Travis is different from anybody Taylor has dated before,” an Us Weekly source said this week of the burgeoning relationship between Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. That statement is true on a few fronts: Kelce is not only the first professional athlete to catch Swift’s eye, but he’s also the first podcast host and, perhaps most unexpectedly, only former reality dating show lead.

    Back in 2016, Kelce was being pursued on the E! reality dating series Catching Kelce—which Tom Kludt called “pretty rough viewing” in Vanity Fair’s profile of Kelce published earlier this year.

    The athlete previously addressed the series while hosting Saturday Night Live in March. “It was kind of like The Bachelor, except instead of roses, I handed out footballs, and instead of watching, people did not.” Case in point: “That show is owned by NBCUniversal, so it should be on Peacock, but Peacock said, ‘Nah, we good.’” At least, that was true until Kelce’s actual dating life heated up—and the streamer promptly made all seven episodes available.

    The renewed interest in Kelce’s backstory makes sense. But how did he get his own dating show in the first place? Well, despite a five-year, $46 million contract extension with the Chiefs—which the show frequently references as a sign of Kelce’s relevance—Kelce says that in those days he was strapped for cash.

    “I turned down the show about 100 times…it felt like,” he said on the podcast The Pivot this year. “I was having so much fun buying whatever the hell I wanted to, going wherever the hell I wanted to. I wasn’t financially looking at this as, you know, I need to have money down the line. There were times in the offseason, I was avoiding the rent lady. It was that bad.” So finally he gave in: “I heard about this situation where I could make six figures in two weeks, and I was like, Uhhh. And 50 ladies? I’m like, This is actually starting to sound a little better.”

    Like Love Is Blind’s pods or the hands-off conceit of Too Hot to Handle, Catching Kelce’s gimmick is that 50 women—one from each state—will compete for the footballer’s affections. He’s armed with guidance from manager Aaron Eanes and older brother Jason, a center for the Philadelphia Eagles and Kelce’s cohost on the hit New Heights podcast. Unlike on The Bachelor, the winner can’t expect an engagement; unlike on Love Island, there is no cash prize. They’ll only get the treasured title of Kelce’s “first girlfriend in the NFL.”

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    Savannah Walsh

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  • ‘Love Is Blind’ Season 5 Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Assault

    ‘Love Is Blind’ Season 5 Lawsuit Alleges Sexual Assault

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    Two weeks after the season five premiere of  Love Is Blind, it’s been revealed that one of its participants has filed a lawsuit against the producers of the Netflix series, claiming that an alleged attack she suffered during the show’s filming was likely captured on camera. It’s the second suit filed by a contestant of the reality dating show in recent years, following a 2022 claim of “inhumane working conditions” and substandard pay.

    According to a legal filing obtained by Deadline, season five participant Tran Dang claims that fellow participant Thomas Smith sexually assaulted her during a “Mexico vacation” portion of the series. As participants are under “24-hour surveillance” as part of the production of the series, “most if not all of these traumatic acts were filmed by the production crew and within their knowledge,” Dang alleges. 

    The premise of the series, if you’re unfamiliar with the streaming smash, is that single contestants “date” while interacting through a glowing blue wall. The couple only meets in person after they agree to get engaged; a wedding for each pair is then promised a few weeks later. According to the filing, Dang and Smith were engaged as part of the series; the alleged assault occurred on May 3, 2022 and the suit was filed on Aug. 16, 2022 but was only reported this week.

    Smith and Love Is Blind production companies Kinetic Content and Delirium TV are named in the suit, which claims that when Dang reported the incident to producers, they “made attempts to mask Plaintiff’s sexual assault by characterizing it as a lack of attraction on part of the Plaintiff.”

    In a joint statement sent to People, which was the first outlet to report the filing, Kinetic Content and Delirium TV deny Dang’s allegations, saying that they “support and stand with victims of sexual assault, but Ms. Dang’s claims against the producers are meritless. We document the independent choices of adults who volunteer to participate in a social experiment. Their journey is not scripted, nor is it filmed around the clock. We have no knowledge or control over what occurs in private living spaces when not filming, and participants may choose to end their journey at any time.”

    According to the statement, Dang “never informed the producers of any alleged wrongdoing of any kind” and “continued in the experiment for weeks after the time her lawyers now claim an incident occurred.” 

    In a separate statement, show creator Chris Coelen said that Dang “never told [us] that she felt unsafe or experienced any of the allegations that she made.” As of publication time, Smith has not publicly responded to Dang’s claims.

    Via a statement sent to Rolling Stone, Dang’s attorney, Ben Allen wrote, “The producers are throwing money at the problem by spending an inordinate amount of money on losing legal positions that do nothing but delay the parties from having their day in Court. They lost on three distinct legal issues before the trial court and then filed three separate appeals to multiply the proceedings we have to wade through before finally trying this case. We are confident that Ms. Dang’s position will be vindicated once we get there and are committed to seeing it through all of the way.”

    Dang’s lawsuit was filed shortly after season two contestant Jeremy Hartwell filed his own lawsuit against Netflix, Kinetic, and Delirium claiming that the show’s producers “intentionally underpaid the cast members, deprived them of food, water and sleep, plied them with booze and cut off their access to personal contacts and most of the outside world,” attorney Chantal Payton told Variety last year. “This made cast members hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making,” she said.

    “Mr. Hartwell’s involvement in Season 2 of ‘Love is Blind’ lasted less than one week,” Kinetic responded in a statement at the time. “There is absolutely no merit to Mr. Hartwell’s allegations, and we will vigorously defend against his claims.”

    Neither Dang nor Smith have appeared in any episodes of Love Is Blind that have aired thus far. In an interview with Variety prior to the news of Dang’s suit, Coelen said that on season five, “There were multiple other couples that got engaged that were not followed.”

    “Each season, there are lots of stories that we don’t tell, regardless of whether couples get engaged or not,” he said. “Some of them even, we will follow for a little bit and not show their story on the show… It’s a little bit of a judgment call.”

     

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    Eve Batey

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  • The Supervillain of ‘Love Is Blind’ Season 4 Has Been Revealed

    The Supervillain of ‘Love Is Blind’ Season 4 Has Been Revealed

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    Spoilers for the season finale of Love Is Blind follow.

    You never know exactly what the result of an experiment will be. The season four finale of Love Is Blind confirms that hypothesis. Three of season four’s couples ended their stories in wedded bliss, even the on-and-off again Bliss and Zach. But Paul and Micah’s wedding day ended with an “I don’t.” The most surprising thing about that twist wasn’t the outcome itself, but rather what it revealed about one of its variables. In a season chock full of villains, a supervillain emerged in the show’s final moments: Paul, the scientist.

    Some of you may chafe at this designation. How could Paul—reasonable, sensible, relatively sound of both mind and body—wind up as Love Is Blind season four’s ultimate supervillain when there were so many terrible people to choose from? There was Irina, who, upon seeing her fiancé Zach, said he “looked like a cartoon character,” then insulted him for their entire honeymoon before trying to steal her best friend’s fiancé. Who could forget Jackelina, the woman who convinced soft-hearted Marshall to fall in love with her, only to leave him for her second choice, a Drake wannabe named Josh? And let’s not count out Bliss’s dad, Shah, who couldn’t care less about criminal justice reform and also told her daughter that she was headed for divorce not 10 minutes after meeting her fiancé (also Zach).

    After watching the finale, though, Paul stands alone. His relationship with Micah began under shady circumstances, with the pair verbally committing after each leading on two other paramours. The writing was on the wall for them the moment Micah said that she wanted to split time between Seattle and her beloved Arizona. (“No,” said Paul.) But going into their wedding, there was still some semblance of hope that these crazy kids might make it, despite Micah’s bleach-blonde ASU sorority girls vibes and Paul’s penchant for “witchy” women from the Pacific Northwest who are “always in a corner making potions.” Maybe opposites attract!

    But also maybe not. On their wedding day, Paul and Micah lacked the conviction of their fellow contestants, like sleepy Tiffany and Brett. In a carefully worded statement, Micah told her bridesmaids that she was “about to get married potentially to someone that I really love” (brutal), while Paul took a straw poll of his groomsmen, asking them whether he should get married. (They all said yes, for the record). “Why the fuck don’t I know what I’m going to say?” Paul muttered to himself at one point. 

    Ever the scientist, Paul felt at sea without any empirical data to tell him whether or not he and Micah should spend forever together. “I wish I had a way to make this decision,” Paul said. “I don’t have the tools that I need.” Unfortunately for Paul, there are no beakers and bunsen burners when it comes to determining true love. 

    Still, down the aisle they went. Paul’s vows were appropriately flowery, with him telling Micah that while he “questions everything,” there was “no question in my mind about my love for you.” But in a moment of clarity (or perhaps producer intervention), Micah said that she wouldn’t say “I do” unless she heard Paul’s answer first. Ultimately, Paul couldn’t commit to a lifetime of winters in Scottsdale, and told Micah that despite his love for her he didn’t think they could “choose each other” at this time, sending Micah crying from the altar. 

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    Chris Murphy

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  • We Are All Love Is Blind’s Sleepy Tiffany

    We Are All Love Is Blind’s Sleepy Tiffany

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    Spoilers for Love Is Blind season four below. 

    Dating can be a real snooze. On the fourth season of Love Is Blind, the reality-television dating experiment series which returned to Netflix on Friday, one potential couple learned that the hard way. Contestants Tiffany and Brett are on a date something unbelievable happens: Tiffany straight up falls asleep. She passes out. She goes night night.

    And everything had been going so well for the would-be lovers! On their first pod date, Tiffany and Brett learned each of their longest relationships had lasted for just two years—what a coincidence! On their second, they discovered that they were both wearing teal outfits—now things are getting uncanny! Nothing, it seemed, could stop their connection from reaching its full fruition. Nothing, that is, except Tiffany’s REM cycle.

    As a conked-out Tiffany dreams of being let out of this Stanford prison experiment of a reality show, Brett’s anxiety rises, until he leaves the pod in disbelief. A dejected Brett returns to the villa—excuse me, the “men’s lounge”—and shares his disappointment with his fellow bros: “Our conversation was, ‘I think I’m falling in love with you.’ And then I’m telling her how I feel and then it’s quiet and then, ‘Hello?’”

    Here’s the thing, though: I think Tiffany deserves some credit. Love Is Blind shuttles its contestants like cattle from one cage to another all day, asking them to bear their souls to a relative stranger that they cannot see. I am emotionally spent after simply watching an episode of Love Is Blind, and often need to take a nap to process what I’ve seen. Now think about what it must be like living that. It’s enough to knock you out for a full month.

    And how much they drink can’t be helping. The classic Love Is Blind wine goblets—matte gold apparently so that we cannot see how full they are—made their first appearance on Tiffany and Brett’s second date, an omen of things to come. When she falls asleep, a huge bottle of Casamigos gold—thank you, George Clooney—is on the table before her. When contestants Chelsea and April arrive to awaken Tiffany with a rousing rendition of Usher’s “Hey Daddy” (an incredible deep cut), she’s got no idea that Brett is gone. 

    Now, Tiffany did make some unforced errors. Her first mistake was taking off her shoes and getting comfy on the couch. Her second? Fully lying down swaddled in a blanket. As an accidental napper myself, I knew that was a recipe for disaster. (I’m sure the second half of The Banshees of Inisherin was great, but I’ll never know for sure.) 

    “I want to be my most authentic self around someone and they not judge me, or me feeling like I have to change,” says Tiffany during one of her confessionals. And you know what? She did just that on Love Is Blind. Sometimes, your most authentic self is really, unbelievably sleepy. 

    Ultimately, Tiffany manages to spin the situation into a positive. “I passed out because I was listening to your voice and it was so soothing,” she tells Brett on their next date. “Did I just mess everything up?” Fortunately, she did not; Brett gets down on one knee and proposes to the wall in front of him Tiffany anyway. (Yes, that’s what happens on this insane show.) Blind though it may be, love apparently sometimes needs to rest its eyes for a spell. And that’s okay. Falling asleep on a date, I can understand. Proposing to someone one date after they fall asleep on you…that’s where we might have to draw the line. 

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    Chris Murphy

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