The Bachelor

A hope for true love?

      The Bachelor is a reality television show that centers around one man seeking for love. The show has been around for almost more than 10 years and is currently up to its 21st season. The Bachelor is in no doubt a popular and highly viewed dating show because of the suspenseful drama it draws you in towards each and every single week a 2 hour episode is aired. The Bachelor exposes the journey of going from one stage in life to another (Mitarca). The show inspires the audience's hope for true love and exposes the bachelor's journey for love on a personal level.

      The show starts out introducing a new male bachelor every season and 25 single women who are seeking for an engagement. The bachelor eliminates several women every week after going on group dates, 1 on 1 dates and sometimes 2 on 1 dates. For a woman to survive an elimination, she must receive a rose from the bachelor, which occurs in all sort of dates mentioned before and a final rose ceremony. A rose ceremony usually occurs at the end of each episode where the bachelor gives out certain amount of roses each week and more women are eliminated to go home and his search for a fiance is narrowed down. Each week a card is delivered to the house where all the women stay and announces who is chosen by the bachelor to go on group dates, 1 on 1 dates, and sometimes 2 on 1 dates. Group dates consists of several women and one rose is given out to a woman who stands out the most and/or has the deepest connection with the bachelor and is granted immunity to continue on to the next week. Most women try to get a 1 on 1 date which is basically an intimidate date just between one woman and the bachelor and a rose is given out if the date went well. Typically 2 on 1 dates occur when two women are having drama on the show and forces the bachelor to eliminate one of the two women on this date. Every date consists of doing fun activities for both the bachelor and the women, whether it is some sort of challenge or exploring different destinations and going to different cities. The first 2 or 3 episodes consist of being in Los Angeles at The Bachelor home, but as the weeks progress, the bachelor and the contestants travel to different cities and eventually different countries. Towards the end of the season, the bachelor will visit the remaining 4 womens hometowns to meet family and explore where each contestant grew up. The final episode consists of the final two remaining women in which the bachelor may only propose to one.

Contestants, Corrine (Right) and Taylor (Left).

      During the bachelor's journey for love, a lot of drama is exposed between contestants competing for the bachelor's love. The drama pulls in viewers every week and left to wonder what will happen the next week on the show. This reality television show affects the emotions and attitudes of the audience (Specht). During the 21st season of The Bachelor, contestants named Corrine and Taylor compete for Nick Viall's love. Corrine is seen as a sex object only to win over Nick's affection by being sexually physical with him and not quite seen as someone to want to spend a life long marriage with. Taylor is a mental health counselor who believes that the bachelor, Nick Viall, should send Corrine home as she believes that she is not suitable for a marriage with Nick. The two have multiple confrontations with each other. The confrontations between Corrine and Taylor draws in viewers and the episodes play out so the climax of the arguments continues into the next episode, making the viewers want to watch next week. June Deery mentions how reality television shows include red herrings (Deery). Red herrings play a huge role in the sneak peak previews of next weeks episode of The Bachelor, misleading the audience to believe a certain situation has happened to heighten the drama.  The drama in the show increases a larger audience each season.

       Most of the audience that watch The Bachelor are not only intrigued by the drama that occurs, but the hope for true love as well. The main point of the reality television show is to show the journey for love. The audience tends to favor a particular contestant as the weeks go on and hope for that individual to end up with the bachelor. The dates and different countries that the bachelor and the contestants go on are nothing but a dream come true! The audience almost wishes that they would be able to go on these magical dates that they expose to viewers. Each season inspires viewers to want that love that is conveyed on screen.

Bachelor contestant left in tears after elimination.

      As each week goes by, the anticipation of which contestant will get booted off highly increases. The rose ceremonies are highly anticipated and viewers are left to wonder who will not receive a rose from the bachelor. Red herrings mislead the audience week to week about who may be next to get booted off the show. The audience believes that one contestant may be kicked off but were actually mislead and another contestant is actually booted off. This makes viewers wanting to watch each weeks episode to find out who is leaving and who is staying.
      The Bachelor inspires its audience for a hope for true love and is able to offer the journey for finding love on a more close up and personal level. The show offers drama which draws in many viewers and increases their curiosity about what happens each episode, leading up to who gets sent home each week. In no doubt, this reality television dating show captures the attention of people all over america and offers hope for true love.
   

Works Cited

Deery, June. Reality TV. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2015.

Mitarca, Monica. "'There's Five Girls And I Got Only Four Roses To Hand Out.' Reality, Realism And Scripted TV." Romanian Journal Of Journalism & Communication / Revista Romana De Jurnalism Si Comunicare- RRJC 11.1 (2016): 19-25. Communication Source. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

Specht, Annie R., and Brooke W. Beam. "Prince Farming Takes A Wife: Exploring The Use Of Agricultural Imagery And Stereotypes On ABC's The Bachelor." Journal Of Applied Communications 99.4 (2015): 20-33. Communication Source. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.