Season 20: Spoilers and Speculation

[Melonie77]

Talk about the upcoming season of the Bachelorette has started up along with plenty of rumors over who will be the lead!

Reality Steve is claiming that the current season of the Bachelor will most likely double up on episodes for one week in order to end the season in time to start filming the Bachelorette on schedule in mid-March. According to Steve they always finish airing the Bach before they begin filming the Bachette.

On his site today he reported that the new lead has been chosen. Although he does not yet know who it is he feels it's someone from Zach's final four. Out of all the Bachette seasons, the leads were never outside the top 4 with the exception of Hannah Brown who finished 7th, and Katie Thurston who finished 11th.

When looking at other recent seasons, the final 4 ladies are not available to be the lead. They are either in relationships or have already been the Bachelorette.

There have been rumors that Clayton's ex Suzie was going to be asked but he thinks this is not true based on recent interviews.

Taking a look around social media I've seen people suggesting Kaity, Kat, Gabi, Ariel, Charity, Brooklyn, and Christina!

[Melonie77]

Does anyone have any guesses or preferences for the next Bachelorette?😊

I'm figuring that despite what the statistics have been from the past, the show will always do what it wants to when choosing the lead.

Depending on who Zach picks, I would love to see Kaity or Kat. And I think Christina would be a wild Bachette too! I've peeked at her Instagram and she seems to be a lot of kooky fun. She's stunning as well as sexy and would have the men wrapped around her finger. Kat is also beautiful but I think it might be more entertaining to see the guys trip over each other to get at Christina who I think has more allure, and spunk, and is very outgoing.
Christina also seems to have a lot of fan backing for the role...despite having been sent home early. And she has the famous family too. Some people think she will get the role because they believe the show wants to do a parent lead.

I also thought Bailey might be an interesting lead. She's another gorgeous contestant from this season.

[phlebas]

4 hours ago, Melonie77 said:

I've seen people suggesting Kaity, Kat, Gabi, Ariel, Charity, Brooklyn, and Christina!

A Christina season would be super fun, if they didn't let her get too drunk :) 

I'd be up for any of the rest except for maybe Brooklyn. She seems nice, but we haven't seen much to make her stand out. Sort of a sequel to Tia.

4 hours ago, Melonie77 said:

Depending on who Zach picks, I would love to see Kaity or Kat. And I think Christina would be a wild Bachette too! I've peeked at her Instagram and she seems to be a lot of kooky fun. She's stunning as well as sexy and would have the men wrapped around her finger. Kat is also beautiful but I think it might be more entertaining to see the guys trip over each other to get at Christina who I think has more allure, and spunk, and is very outgoing.
Christina also seems to have a lot of fan backing for the role...despite having been sent home early. And she has the famous family too. Some people think she will get the role because they believe the show wants to do a parent lead.

I wonder how many guys would be freaked out by her having a kid.  

[chocolatine]

I'm against Christina because the show would probably spin her as the poor man's Emily - blonde, Southern single mom. Of all the options I'd prefer Ariel, and I think the men would go gaga for her. As long as she doesn't do her own makeup.

[Kiss my mutt]

I don’t like parents on these show so much. I’d probably prefer Ariel too. 

[Melonie77]

35 minutes ago, Kiss my mutt said:

I don’t like parents on these show so much. I’d probably prefer Ariel too. 

I agree - I don't necessarily mind but there ends up being too much focus given to the parenting part. I do think however that the showrunners are looking for this as a theme. It's supposedly why they were considering Nate.🤷🏻‍♀️

3 hours ago, chocolatine said:

I'm against Christina because the show would probably spin her as the poor man's Emily - blonde, Southern single mom. Of all the options I'd prefer Ariel, and I think the men would go gaga for her. As long as she doesn't do her own makeup.

I'll have to pay more attention to Ariel during the rest of the Bach season. So far I can't seem to get past being reminded of Lillith Crane from Fraiser/Cheers.🙃I think I'd prefer Ariel before Gabi though.

Edited February 23, 2023 by Melonie77

[Melonie77]

7 hours ago, phlebas said:

A Christina season would be super fun, if they didn't let her get too drunk :) 

I totally agree...I'm a woman who likes men but I recognize that C is quite sexy and I'd love to watch her work the men!
Check out her Instagram account - she's very dramatic.
https://www.instagram.com/christinamandrell/?hl=en
She's able to laugh at herself and her time on the show. I noticed there are a lot of people asking for her to be the bachelorette in the comments on her insta. In one of her posts, she claimed that she wasn't drunk all the time - she said that her personality is 'a lot'. I do think however that she was drunk at least some of the time - like when she cried on the steps!

7 hours ago, phlebas said:

I wonder how many guys would be freaked out by her having a kid.

One of the ads that Jesse did during commercials was for men with children. That's one of the reasons why some people think they want C as the bachelorette. I meant to mention earlier that Floppy-hair Nate was heavily supporting Christina on SM as a fellow bach nation parent. I'm sure he also thinks she's hot!

Whoever they pick they will have to stack the cast with hot men to meet the level of this cast of ladies!
Maybe they can get the gorgeous Aussie surfer dude who was wasted on BiP. 

[Back Atcha]

12 hours ago, Melonie77 said:

And I think Christina would be a wild Bachette too! I've peeked at her Instagram and she seems to be a lot of kooky fun. She's stunning as well as sexy and would have the men wrapped around her finger

If they want a Manipulator (yes, capital "M") who gets herself in trouble with alcohol (another main character on this show), Christina is their girl.  Isn't she just another wannabe from a famous family who is doing anything to get a "career" in showbiz (with their help)?  

[Melonie77]

5 hours ago, chocolatine said:

I'm against Christina because the show would probably spin her as the poor man's Emily - blonde, Southern single mom. Of all the options I'd prefer Ariel, and I think the men would go gaga for her. As long as she doesn't do her own makeup.

I didn't start watching the show until after Emily's season although I've seen pics and clips of her. Do you think she's better looking than Christina or is it a matter of charisma? Based on when I started watching the show, I think Christina might be the best-looking woman to ever be cast and she's very magnetic as well as a whole lot of fun. She was very relaxed with Z's family and she made me laugh a number of times including at the football game when she beat her chest yelling "woot woot woot"!
But I've been meaning to watch Emily's season and will do so at some point. I like when the lead is very desirable! It makes the show so much more interesting.😊

What do you think of Kat/Katherine as the bach? She could make a beautiful, intelligent and elegant lead. I'd love to see her too.

I was also originally pulling for Charity but not after the sneaky sabotage she exhibited. And I was thinking Kylee would be great until the K vs Anastasia episode. Kylee is gorgeous and talented, is one of the many nurses we have this season, and I don't think we've ever had a Latina lead before.

[chocolatine]

4 hours ago, Melonie77 said:

I didn't start watching the show until after Emily's season although I've seen pics and clips of her. Do you think she's better looking than Christina or is it a matter of charisma? Based on when I started watching the show, I think Christina might be the best-looking woman to ever be cast and she's very magnetic as well as a whole lot of fun.

Emily was both gorgeous and charismatic. She looked very high maintenance - fake hair, teeth, and boobs, and a clothing budget that was larger than most of the previous bachelorettes' entire pay - but she was very classy and well spoken. Plus, she had the tragic backstory of her child's father dying in a plane crash the weekend that she found out she was pregnant. She was in a league of her own, IMO, and there's no way Christina could measure up. I think she's a lot better suited for BIP, and I hope TPTB have already locked her down for that.

4 hours ago, Melonie77 said:

What do you think of Kat/Katherine as the bach? She could make a beautiful, intelligent and elegant lead. I'd love to see her too.

Yes, I agree, and I think she would make a better bachelorette than Christina.

[call me ishmael]

I don’t think I could take Christina,  It would be similar to having Demi but with a kid.

I think Ariel would be good.  She seems very much in control of herself and strong enough to handle the 30 toddlers she would have to choose from.  She’s also been pretty nice to everyone and has a sense of humor.

[Kiss my mutt]

Emily also wasn’t sloppy or drunk. She didn’t do anything that would embarrass herself or set a bad example for her daughter either. She kinda acts like Tennessee trailer trash. I don’t have a real strong opinion on Kat and keep mixing her up with Kaity, but I think she’d be fine as as Bachelorette. 
I was rooting for Charity in the beginning but I’m leary of her and think she’s probably just like all the other mean girls. I don’t trust her. Her facial grimaces are odd and distracting. 

[DEL901]

1 minute ago, Kiss my mutt said:

Emily also wasn’t sloppy or drunk. She didn’t do anything that would embarrass herself or set a bad example for her daughter either. She kinda acts like Tennessee trailer trash. I don’t have a real strong opinion on Kat and keep mixing her up with Kaity, but I think she’d be fine as as Bachelorette. 
I was rooting for Charity in the beginning but I’m leary of her and think she’s probably just like all the other mean girls. I don’t trust her. Her facial grimaces are odd and distracting. 

Yeah, Charity has been a disappointment.  I think they will pick one of Gabi, Ari or Kaity, depending on who the winner is, of course.  

[JenE4]

If she’s not the outright winner, I feel like Kaity is getting a lead edit. Out of all of the nurses, Jesse asked her as a nurse what she thought about Zach having COVID—then they gave her that gift basket to deliver to him. She’s gorgeous and has always been shown to be very kind and magnanimous to the other women. But if she’s second place, then they never have that person, right? It’s always F3 or F4? In that case, I’m rooting for Kaity to get dumped after hometowns, lol.

Edited February 24, 2023 by JenE4

[dleighg]

Just now, JenE4 said:

If she’s not the outright winner, I feel like Kaity is getting a lead edit.

I agree with you, but wasn't the editing complete before the Bachelorette was chosen? I confess I'm no expert on the "inside baseball" stuff in Bachelor world.

[JenE4]

1 hour ago, dleighg said:

I agree with you, but wasn't the editing complete before the Bachelorette was chosen? I confess I'm no expert on the "inside baseball" stuff in Bachelor world.

What was that Bachelor spoof show that was on Lifetime or some such network like well over a decade ago?* I always think of that when they said some women are chosen for the “wifey” edit and others are chosen for the villain edit. Kaity is a wifey, all the way. Then again, that long ago the “wifeys” went on to be the lead. Somewhere around Hannah Brown and Katie Thurston, they started going with the “I’m a strong, outspoken woman who don’t need no man” leads. I think those two in particular ended up being terrible. Also Zach has cut the “strong outspoken women” the second they speak up. But I guess there’s still time for one of these finalists to stand up for herself in a way that will make the women in the audience go, You go, girl! (Or whatever the equivalent is 15 years later. I think Yaaaas, queen! is over, too, lol.)

*ETA: The show was called Unreal.

Edited February 24, 2023 by JenE4

[Back Atcha]

6 hours ago, JenE4 said:

What was that Bachelor spoof show that was on Lifetime or some such network like well over a decade ago?

More about "Unreal."  Unreal (stylized as UnREAL) is an American drama television series that premiered on Lifetime on June 1, 2015. It stars Shiri Appleby as a young reality television producer pushed by her unscrupulous boss (Constance Zimmer) to swallow her integrity and do anything it takes to drum up salacious show content. The show was created by Marti Noxon and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, and was inspired by Shapiro's award-winning independent short film Sequin Raze.

It was a great little series...I think it lasted more than one season.

[SallyAlbright]

On 2/23/2023 at 3:45 AM, Melonie77 said:

Does anyone have any guesses or preferences for the next Bachelorette?😊

I'm figuring that despite what the statistics have been from the past, the show will always do what it wants to when choosing the lead.

Depending on who Zach picks, I would love to see Kaity or Kat. And I think Christina would be a wild Bachette too! I've peeked at her Instagram and she seems to be a lot of kooky fun. She's stunning as well as sexy and would have the men wrapped around her finger. Kat is also beautiful but I think it might be more entertaining to see the guys trip over each other to get at Christina who I think has more allure, and spunk, and is very outgoing.
Christina also seems to have a lot of fan backing for the role...despite having been sent home early. And she has the famous family too. Some people think she will get the role because they believe the show wants to do a parent lead.

I also thought Bailey might be an interesting lead. She's another gorgeous contestant from this season.

I kind of hope they skip the girls from this season (though I like a lot of them) and go with Susie. She is so pretty and seems like so much more fun than we got to see on Clayton's season, based on her interviews and social media. 

From this season's group, I could see Charity (although I wonder if she's a bit too reserved), Kaity or Kat. 

[DEL901]

18 minutes ago, SallyAlbright said:

I kind of hope they skip the girls from this season (though I like a lot of them) and go with Susie. She is so pretty and seems like so much more fun than we got to see on Clayton's season, based on her interviews and social media. 

From this season's group, I could see Charity (although I wonder if she's a bit too reserved), Kaity or Kat. 

I would skip a Susie season.  I questioned her judgement getting back with Clayton, but the sitting on the toilet photo?  Nope.  And I think that may be a disqualifier as it isn’t the kind of image they would want for their Bachelorette.  

[Melonie77]

1 hour ago, SallyAlbright said:

I kind of hope they skip the girls from this season (though I like a lot of them) and go with Susie.

 

1 hour ago, DEL901 said:

I would skip a Susie season.  I questioned her judgement getting back with Clayton, but the sitting on the toilet photo?  Nope.  And I think that may be a disqualifier as it isn’t the kind of image they would want for their Bachelorette.

Yeah, I agree with @DEL901 on Susie. I had actually really hoped for her as the last bach prior to the surprise reconnection with Clayton but that whole episode was a disappointment. And I too remember the toilet scene - it was filmed by Clayton when they were first sort of showing off their relationship. He apparently actually took footage of her urinating.🤷🏻‍♀️

I think they have a great group of girls fresh in the audiences' memories to pick from this season and I doubt they will stray from choosing among them. But I think they will not hesitate to pick someone from outside the top 4. There are just too many good ones who finished all along through the season. Perhaps the only ones not considered would be those who went home the first night. Some of those might show up on BiP though!

I'm sure all the women I listed at the top of the thread could show up to BiP if they wanted to. Christina would make a great paradise cast member if she doesn't get the lead for bachette. So would Kylee and Brianna! Or - I wonder if the producers may have fallen for Brianna's victim narrative and picked her to be the bachelorette? 😱 Now that would be a shock selection since she stomped off the bachelor show. Or maybe they could choose Cat and do a theme on the many faces of the bachette.🙃

Edited February 25, 2023 by Melonie77

[Melonie77]

12 hours ago, dleighg said:

I agree with you, but wasn't the editing complete before the Bachelorette was chosen? I confess I'm no expert on the "inside baseball" stuff in Bachelor world.

I guess so...I don't know when Steve found out but he just reported this week that he heard the lead was chosen. I don't know if during the season they still edit episodes according to how things may shake out week to week.
I agree with @JenE4 that Kaity is getting either Zach's final pick edit or the Bachette lead edit. But I too seem to remember that they don't usually pick the runner-up. Although I can think of at least one - Ben Flapjack.

I too enjoyed the show Unreal. Someone who used to work on the Bachelor was involved in that show. It ran for two seasons I think. And it showed the reality dating world to be heavily scripted.

Does anyone know if this seems early for them to already know who they want for the lead?
I'm wondering if they will announce it at the WTA filming tonight?
But I guess not if they chose a person who is still in the show as they would then be spoiling themselves.

[SallyAlbright]

1 hour ago, DEL901 said:

I would skip a Susie season.  I questioned her judgement getting back with Clayton, but the sitting on the toilet photo?  Nope.  And I think that may be a disqualifier as it isn’t the kind of image they would want for their Bachelorette.  

Okay gross, somehow I missed that one. Next! 

[phlebas]

On 2/24/2023 at 6:58 AM, dleighg said:

I agree with you, but wasn't the editing complete before the Bachelorette was chosen? I confess I'm no expert on the "inside baseball" stuff in Bachelor world.

I *think* they get to the end before they start editing. How the season ends has to inform how they edit the season.

I bet they revisit the edit while the show is airing too. I suspect we might have seen a different side of Greer if we didn't learn about some potentially problematic things in her past at the beginning of the season. She and Zach seemed to hit it off so well night one, then she mostly disappeared until her one-woman show "I Told Him I Love Tea" - they had to have some other interactions and ITMs in there.

Edited February 26, 2023 by phlebas

[Melonie77]

No word from Reality Steve yet on info from the WTA taping. He was hoping to learn who the new bachette will be.
The only new (tiny) piece of info I learned from him is that 2 of Zach's women were NOT invited to the WTA show....Bailey and Davia. I wonder why they would choose to leave anyone out. The more the merrier. And why these two? 
I guess this means they would not be considering either of these two girls for Bachette or BiP if they didn't invite them to the taping of WTA.

[phlebas]

5 hours ago, Melonie77 said:

No word from Reality Steve yet on info from the WTA taping. He was hoping to learn who the new bachette will be.
The only new (tiny) piece of info I learned from him is that 2 of Zach's women were NOT invited to the WTA show....Bailey and Davia. I wonder why they would choose to leave anyone out. The more the merrier. And why these two? 
I guess this means they would not be considering either of these two girls for Bachette or BiP if they didn't invite them to the taping of WTA.

That is odd. Neither of them seemed problematic. I actually liked them both.

Mostly I just wanted to see what Davia was wearing. She has excellent style.

If they wanted to leaves people out, lose everyone from night one except the one who forced the kiss (Meredith?)

EDITED TO ADD: Not Meredith. Madison!

Edited February 26, 2023 by phlebas
Madison

[Melonie77]

1 hour ago, phlebas said:

That is odd. Neither of them seemed problematic. I actually liked them both.

Mostly I just wanted to see what Davia was wearing. She has excellent style.

If they wanted to leaves people out, lose everyone from night one except the one who forced the kiss (Meredith?)

EDITED TO ADD: Not Meredith. Madison!

And they had Bailey featured both on the WTA where she met Zazh ahead of time and then she got one of those special highlight video intros during the first episode! It is indeed odd. RS specifically said they were not invited. Maybe they complained behind the scenes?

There's also the one that interrupted the rose ceremony to complain that she never got to speak to Zach - I think it was the ear licker!🤣

[phlebas]

They'll probably say something on insta after it's airs. I'm going to assume they told production to not bother -- maybe they both had conflicts already, or maybe they are just DONE. But it's not like we have enough information to really guess intelligently.

The ear licker needs a hot seat and to be holding an ear-shaped lollipop

[dleighg]

21 hours ago, phlebas said:

I suspect we might have seen a different side of Greer if we didn't learn about some potentially problematic things in her past at the beginning of the season.

What was that? I seem to have missed it.

[phlebas]

22 minutes ago, dleighg said:

What was that? I seem to have missed it.

Someone check my memory on this...

Part of it was pictures of her in a bunch of MAGA gear. I don't personally think that's something we should go after her for --  she was 18 in 2016 and had probably spent her entire life in Texas hearing that Hilary Clinton was evil. 

But the larger problem was her defending a friend who had gone to a party or something in blackface. Some pretty ignorant posts from a high school agreed Greer surfaced.

She did apologize right away when it blew up after the first episode, but you can kinda tell she didn't have help writing it.

I have no idea how she feels about any of this stuff now (though I don't think it excuses Zach being a jerk to her).

[Kerri Johnson]

I don't see any standouts this season.

Reddit seems to love Ariel for her large breasts, I don't see any other redeeming qualities.

My personal pick is Susie. 

[Kerri Johnson]

On 2/23/2023 at 2:23 PM, Melonie77 said:

I don't think we've ever had a Latina lead before.

We've had 3 already

Clare, Tayshia and Gabby are Mexican.

[JenE4]

On 2/25/2023 at 3:24 PM, Melonie77 said:

No word from Reality Steve yet on info from the WTA taping. He was hoping to learn who the new bachette will be.
The only new (tiny) piece of info I learned from him is that 2 of Zach's women were NOT invited to the WTA show....Bailey and Davia. I wonder why they would choose to leave anyone out. The more the merrier. And why these two? 
I guess this means they would not be considering either of these two girls for Bachette or BiP if they didn't invite them to the taping of WTA.

Maybe the show staff in charge of arranging the transportation and accommodations also couldn’t remember Mornin’ Bailin’s actual name. Likewise, Davia who?

[phlebas]

Do we know they specifically weren't invited, as opposed to just being absent?  

[dizzyd]

The next bachelorette

Meh, didn’t find anything interesting about her so far on the Bachelor. I’d have preferred Christina or Ariel. Not sure what criteria they use to pick the next lead but I’m expecting another rinse and repeat of the same old formula 😏 Seems like the franchise is on its last leg, such a shame. 

Edited March 6, 2023 by dizzyd

[dleighg]

7 minutes ago, dizzyd said:

Meh, didn’t find anything interesting about her so far on the Bachelor. I’d have preferred Christina or Ariel. Not sure what criteria they use to pick the next lead but I’m expecting another rinse and repeat of the same old formula 😏 Seems like the franchise is on its last leg, such a shame

Yeah, I imagine we'd hear tons of sincere expressions about "my journey" 

I haven't seen much in the way of personality from her. She's very pretty. And.... that's all I've got. 

[call me ishmael]

☹️

[DEL901]

Ugh.  My least favourite of the top 4. 

[LakeGal]

She is very pretty.  But her personality turned me off earlier this season.  

[Melonie77]

Wow, what a huge disappointment!
Her constant tears and self-pity are off-putting - and tonight while in the midst of one of her frequent teary, sniffily, tissue-fueled pity parties, I noticed a phony quick shift to all smiles when Zach entered the room.
She is also kind of dull.
Plus she's a secret saboteur!

Out of all the interesting picks they had!
What about Ariel!?
Gabi would have been more fun than Charity.
And Christine would have been the wildest bachette to ever hit the screen.

I'll be skipping this season just like I skipped Katie's and the virgin guy whose name escapes me right now.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Melonie77

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, Melonie77 said:

Out of all the interesting picks they had! What about Ariel!?

The only way this makes sense is if they offered the gig to Ariel first and she turned it down.

[Melonie77]

46 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

The only way this makes sense is if they offered the gig to Ariel first and she turned it down.

There are people on Reddit always calling for a POC lead and a lot of them were asking for Charity. I thought she might make a nice lead at the beginning of this season until I saw her shaft some of the other girls. The show can be boring at times so why they chose a lead with a monotone voice is beyond me!🙃

Edited March 7, 2023 by Melonie77

[phlebas]

3 hours ago, chocolatine said:

The only way this makes sense is if they offered the gig to Ariel first and she turned it down.

That was my first thought. I can imagine Ariel being over it. Maybe she likes her job enough to not take more time off? Maybe she met someone? Or maybe ABC finally figured out how to feed misinformation to Reality Steve? I guess we'll find out soon enough.

[JenE4]

I have no doubt in my mind that they’re “saving” Ariel for Paradise, where she can frolic in bikinis 24/7 and have the men falling all over themselves to try to break through her somewhat stand-offish and snarky exterior.

[phlebas]

I wonder how Ariel would feel about being ogled by the morons they're likely to cast as potential hookups? As opposed to someone like me who will ogle her through the TV

I'm not ready to think about Paradise.  I think they have burned through anyone I'd be interested in seeing, except for a few of Zach's women who escaped his attentions.

[call me ishmael]

5 hours ago, JenE4 said:

I have no doubt in my mind that they’re “saving” Ariel for Paradise, where she can frolic in bikinis 24/7 and have the men falling all over themselves to try to break through her somewhat stand-offish and snarky exterior.

I have hopes that Ariel might not be willing to go to Paradise.  She has a real job and a brain.  And they could have had a whole season of international travel to bathhouses if they wanted her in a bikini all the time.   

[Melonie77]

7 hours ago, phlebas said:

Or maybe ABC finally figured out how to feed misinformation to Reality Steve?

Steve not getting it right is a somewhat decent hope to grasp onto...he did say he is not certain yet. Charity is who he has heard got the role but then again for quite some time he thought the bachelor role was going to Nate last year.

They will probably make the announcement revealing the next bachelorette at the woman-tell-all. It's strange that Steve hasn't been able to get any info about what happened at that taping.

18 minutes ago, call me ishmael said:

I have hopes that Ariel might not be willing to go to Paradise.  She has a real job and a brain.  And they could have had a whole season of international travel to bathhouses if they wanted her in a bikini all the time.   

With the way BiP has been in the past few seasons, I can't imagine Ariel and some of the other girls from Zach's season participating in that show. Will they roll the beautiful and brainy Ariel into a human burrito? Would gorgeous Kat agree to be the main course in a crunchy taco? Can you imagine sweet Jess participating in yoga sex inside a sweat hut?

Just the location alone.....the crabs, the lack of AC, and that giant snake that was wrapped around the beams over Andrew's bed last season are all the stuff of nightmares, not paradise!🤣

Edited March 7, 2023 by Melonie77

[call me ishmael]

25 minutes ago, Melonie77 said:

They will probably make the announcement revealing the next bachelorette at the woman-tell-all. It's strange that Steve hasn't been able to get any info about what happened at that taping.

If they do make it at WTA then it most likely will be Charity won't it.  The person would have to be off the season by then and she doesn't make it to the final three I don't think.  The only hope for Ariel is if they wait till ATFR.

[Melonie77]

11 hours ago, chocolatine said:

The only way this makes sense is if they offered the gig to Ariel first and she turned it down.

The more I think about this, the more I agree. She would have been great! Gorgeous, a nice person, has a good job, is articulate, good sense of humor, is sexy, and would satisfy some need for diversity as they have not had many Jewish leads.

[Melonie77]

1 hour ago, call me ishmael said:

If they do make it at WTA then it most likely will be Charity won't it.  The person would have to be off the season by then and she doesn't make it to the final three I don't think.  The only hope for Ariel is if they wait till ATFR.

True. They would have to wait until the ATFR I guess. I think they have announced the lead on either of those nights in the past.
 

I just thought of something else regarding the timing of the remaining girls' exits.
As we've discussed sometimes it seems like the producers don't care about where the next lead landed in the previous season's exits. But most of the time they seem to pick from the top 4.
And quite often it appears as if they involve the current lead in orchestrating the exits so they can get a new lead who has the "final 4" badge of honor and the producers can get started filming their new 'star' asap.
In other words, if the current lead already knows at this point who he wants they might ask him to keep someone else the producers want for the next lead to a certain point to make them a top 4 person but let them out early enough to start working on their own season.............

.........did anyone get the idea last night that Zach might have preferred to keep Kat rather than Charity?
I think he likes both girls but I saw more chemistry with Kat throughout the season and not all that much with the rather dull Charity. He mentioned several times thru the season how Kat was so pretty, looked like a model and that she made him flustered. I had thought Kat would be a great Bachelorette until the show decided to give her a bad edit. (I'm sure the producers suggested she grab Zach before his date with Charity.)
So I'm thinking that since Zach may know who he wants as final (I'm assuming everyone reading here knows the answer to who that is) he still has to bring his remaining small group of girls through hometowns and final dates. I'm guessing that he would have preferred Kat as one of his final four rather than Charity. 
BUT If the producers wanted to stick with their usual pattern of picking the next lead from the top 4 they may have asked Zach to choose Charity instead.
This theory supports the idea of Charity getting the role.

Reality Steve has said they are somehow behind this year and need to get started filming the bachette asap. So, I could also argue that landing in 5th place is close enough for the producers and that they need their lead available right away therefore they have chosen KAT as their next Bachelorette. They asked Zach to let her go last night since he knows she won't be his final one but because she was still one of his favorites he was upset to see her leave.

Of course, we all know the taping of the Bachelor season was completed long ago before the show started airing, but Reality Steve has said that they do not start filming the Bachelorette season until the Bachelor is finished airing. They don't want to give away secrets from the Bach's season by getting caught filming one of his women for the next lead.
And whether or not it's true that they need to start filming a little earlier, I'm sure they can shoot intro scenes of the lead at home, start working on wardrobe, and set up other necessary segments for the show.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Melonie77

[Melonie77]

2 hours ago, call me ishmael said:

I have hopes that Ariel might not be willing to go to Paradise.  She has a real job and a brain.  And they could have had a whole season of international travel to bathhouses if they wanted her in a bikini all the time.   

And they could also plan a few stops at topless resorts and nude beaches.🤣

Although I expect her bikini would stay firmly in place the men would be driven mad hoping for a different outcome.