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Why The Bachelor had to destroy Juan Pablo Galavis | Why The Bachelor had to destroy Juan Pablo Galavis |
(6 months later) | |
We know the story: boy meets girl. Boy meets another girl. Boy meets 20 girls and whittles that number down until he’s left with only two girls and one rose. Then he makes a choice, we applaud or condemn it, and the cycle begins all over again. | |
ABC’s The Bachelor and sister show The Bachelorette have been a bankable franchise since 2002, and continue to be hugely popular with viewers and on social media, despite increasing ridiculousness. This season has been one of the most successful so far, with its three Sunday night specials resulting in a three-year ratings high for the season premiere. While it was down 8% from the season before, last night’s finale still drew 9.6m viewers and a 3.2 rating. | ABC’s The Bachelor and sister show The Bachelorette have been a bankable franchise since 2002, and continue to be hugely popular with viewers and on social media, despite increasing ridiculousness. This season has been one of the most successful so far, with its three Sunday night specials resulting in a three-year ratings high for the season premiere. While it was down 8% from the season before, last night’s finale still drew 9.6m viewers and a 3.2 rating. |
Over the past 12 years, however, we’ve seen almost all possible versions of the drama it produces, which is why, in its 18th season, The Bachelor had to destroy its prince. | |
Fortunately, with Juan Pablo Galavis, this was not difficult. After making homophobic remarks in January, he had to back-pedal from the very beginning, with ABC forced to issue an embarrassed statement distancing the network from his comments. He went on Facebook to apologize, but it was too late: The Bachelor now had a villain. And for the first time, it wasn’t any of the contestants. | |
Arguably, everything Galavis did was his own fault. He was narcissistic, sexist, and he slut-shamed Clare after the two hooked up in Vietnam. He painted himself as manipulative and cruel. He showed little to no remorse for hurting the women he supposedly cared about, and at one point refused to kiss Renee because she has a son – despite, of course, that he has a daughter. He used this fact to draw women closer, only to push them away when he was done toying with them. | |
And none of this was edited out. While Galavis was hardly the first Bachelor to act questionably, the show didn’t exactly have his back. It wanted us to watch him showing his true colours. They even kept Andi’s break-up speech in full, in which she said exactly what viewers were surely thinking. “Do you have any idea what religion I practice?” she asked him. “What my political views are? My views on social issues? Things that matter? Do you have any idea how I want to raise my kids?’ | |
Well, no, because they’re strangers. And watching one stranger claim to fall in love with several other strangers is as boring as it is to watch adult women compete over a man as if his affections determine their worth. The Bachelor knows this. It’s a ratings beacon for a reason: it knows what draws viewers in, and it knew it was time for the formula to change. For the first time, contestants and their viewers were united in hate. Juan Pablo Galavis wasn’t a white knight: he was the enemy, and if ABC hadn’t portrayed him that way, they would have been backing an ignorant villain. | |
Here’s hoping we see further change in structure next season – changes within The Bachelor, perhaps, that make us question the premise of The Bachelor even more. | |
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