The ABC network produces and airs a television show called “The Bachelor,” where one man goes into a house and meets 32 different women, eliminating them weekly based on the weakness of their relationship. This continues until he is down to one woman to propose to, and if all things go well, eventually marry (which is very rare if you look at their track history). This show had so much popularity that it lead to two different spin-offs, “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise.”
“The Bachelorette” is essentially the same idea as “The Bachelor,” but instead it’s a woman choosing a husband rather than a man finding a wife. However, “Bachelor in Paradise” is a totally different concept: it contains the favorite (and least favorite) men and women who were not lucky enough to be the one who gets engaged. But America loved them, and in search of ABC gaining more and more ratings, they decide to send them all down to a resort in Mexico to discover relationships.
How the show works is they send in an uneven amount of men and women from previous seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” and really all they do is mingle, lay in the sun, and drink. Each week, two episodes premiere, one filled with a date where two people will leave their secluded resort and go on a date in Sayulita, Mexico. Every date is different and extremely unrealistic compared to something someone would actually do as their first date. For example, going zip lining and cliff jumping through the jungles in Mexico isn’t exactly what crosses your mind when you think “first date.”
The next episode is what they call The Cocktail Party and The Rose Ceremony, which is where the gender with a larger number have to compete for the other one’s affection to stay. For example, if there were 11 men and seven women, four men will be going home, and whoever stays will continue to work on and grow a connection, which — trust me — changes literally every week. And without a doubt, each episode is filled with drama, tears, and lots of deep and scripted conversations at the bar, because you know you really become attached to someone after one date and talking with them for a solid three days.
The shows are as brain-numbing as they are entertaining. I look forward to when any of the three shows are on just because it’s something that I don’t have to pay a lot of attention to, but can still watch and just relax in front of after a long day of school and practices or sometimes games. The reason the shows are so successful and popular is because they check off all the boxes for classic reality TV: the private room confessionals with the cameras, the romance, the occasional brawl. Also to top it all off, there is a one-hour episode after each season finale where all they really do is talk about problems that occurred while filming such as cheating rumors or a fight between two guys over a girl or vice versa and the conversation just becomes heated and people are yelling. The crowd absolutely eats it up.
The show just wrapped up season five of “Bachelor in Paradise” and will be airing season 23 of “The Bachelor” on January 7, 2019.
