A Happy Ending
Benefits from The Bachelor
The Bachelor is a reality television dating show that revolves around one male. The Bachelor is on its 21st season starring Nick Vial. Every other year there is a bachelor, because the other years there are bachelorettes, where instead of 25 women there's 25 men trying to get a rose. The show starts out with 25 single women who are battling their chance to find love. Each week, there are a certain amount of roses that the bachelor gives out to the women, so some women are sent home each week. The weeks consist of one on one dates, and group dates where the women get to show the bachelor their true selves trying to gain his attention. The bachelor spends time connecting with the women, and his connections with them determines who will get a rose, or be sent home. The viewers get to see the dates on more of a personal level, getting the chance to relate, but also judge the women. The show is very relatable but entertaining which draws the viewers in each week.
For starters, The Bachelor is a very engaging show where the viewers get to see sides of the women in the house that make it easy to judge and share opinions. The contestants are non- celebrities and average people just like most of the viewers, which also helps when watching because it's more relatable. The show brings bonds together between families and friends. When I'm at home my whole family watches it, including my dad, which is very entertaining to see his opinions. It also helps when I'm away at school to share my opinions with my family and keep the group chat alive. Friends get together and watch it where they share their opinions about who they like, dislike, and who they think will win. There recently has been a new trend happening where groups of friends and families have a bracket with who they think will make it to the end. This also brings bonds together because it's almost like playing a game for the whole season. The show gives a bonding experience, especially for women because of how the producers show the drama that happens. Most people enjoy watching drama and talking about other people who they believe are below them. The bachelor producers are great at editing the show to have drama fill most of the episodes to get viewers to watch and talk about the show. Bonds definitely happen because people talk about how they would never do certain things that the girls do. For example, in Nick Vials season, the drama revolves around a girl named Corrine, who does inappropriate actions such as steal Nick away from the other women and have whip cream waiting for him in front of the other women. This makes the viewers talk about the show and keep watching to judge the woman and sort of make themselves feel better about themselves. Of course, the producers edit the episodes to only show bad parts of the "villain" of the season which makes people want to keep watching.
As a young female, I obviously have hope for love in the future and am a fan of the whole fairy tale happy ending story. Growing up, we watch Disney movies with princesses and fairytales which all end in a happy endings mainly revolving around love. Watching The Bachelor gives people the feeling of going through the process of falling in love while not actually being the one falling in love. It's almost like as a viewer, I'm living through the women going on the one-on-one dates.. The season is about a month long and while watching, I almost feel like I get to know the women competing on a personal level. Having this feeling of knowing them on a personal level makes the ending more special when the ones I like win and get proposed to. June Deery mentions how the characters in reality television have "real emotional responses" and I think because the show is so relatable when it comes to emotions, makes viewers connect with it so much more. Even the males on the show cry, which really just hits the viewers on a personal level. We see the behind the scenes of the real laughs, tears, and heart breaks, which is relatable. As a viewer, I can connect to the women who get their heart broken, or relate to how the women respond to issues that occur in the house. On a recent episode, the women had a group date with Nick at the beach where all they did was play volleyball and never spent time with Nick. I was able to connect with the women and felt anger for them, even though I wasn't even there experiencing it. As viewers, we get to experience the realness of the dates and can really see how the women are truly falling in love, which is want most people in the world want. We get to watch the bachelor pick out the ring and watch him propose which gives people a chance of hope for love and feel that little kid princess fairytale feeling.
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| Nick Vial getting emotional. |
While watching the bachelor does make us hopeful for love, it gives us a superior feeling as well. While watching the show, I laugh at the contestants fighting for love and just think "I'm glad that's not me." I think I can speak for most people when I say that feeling superior to other people makes us feel better about ourselves. When watching The Bachelor, it's so easy to find the negatives in people and laugh at how embarrassing they look. The girls in the show get their heart broken, go on awkward dates, and curse on television, which are all actions not many women want to go through especially not on TV. The show makes it so the main parts that the viewers see of the women make the viewers cringe while watching. For example, the women who are not liked will say things like "I am blessed with eloquence," she said. "And I'm articulate and I use a lot of big words because I'm smart." (Oldenburg, par.8). The producers emphasize when the girls say stuff like that to make her judge them easier. In this season, Nick went on a one-on-one where him and a contestant named Vanessa experienced zero-gravity together. The date went very well for the most part, except for the part where Vanessa got sick and was throwing up. Instead of showing the great parts of the date, the producers only focused on the part where Vanessa had gotten sick. While watching, obviously as a viewer I felt embarrassed for Vanessa, which made me feel superior and better about myself. The producers sort of show scenes of the women that make it easy for the viewers to feel better about themselves. Women in the house obviously get in fights, considering it starts with 25 strangers. When the women get in fights and get angry over rediculous actions that occur, such as one of the girls asking to speak to Nick more than once makes the people watching feel better about themselves for not being that "crazy."
Ultimately the goal of The Bachelor, like any reality television show is to gain viewers. Besides love, the show comes with Drama, heartbreaks, and plenty of entertainment. When it comes to the entertainment, bonds occur between families and friends, viewers live through the women and hope they find love while at the same time feeling superior to the "villains" of the show. It's a show that gives hope for love and I think will continue to have many viewers throughout the years.
Works Cited
Cloud, Dana. "The Irony Bribe And Reality Television: Investment And Detachment In The Bachelor." Critical Studies In Media Communication. 413-437. 8 Feb. 2017
Nahas, Alli. "The bachelors Nick Vial" 'I Fell For More Than One Woman!'." People 87.2 (2017): 58-59.
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