At long last, we’re nearing the end of Peter’s season of The Bachelor. It’s been a season jam-packed with drama, but not for the better. In the past seven weeks, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, and we’ve prayed for it to be over. While we’re still waiting to see if he proposes to one of his contestants or ends up with a producer, it’s time to start looking ahead at better things to come, namely, who will be the next Bachelorette.
It will be a few months before The Bachelorette premieres, but filming will likely start within the next few weeks, so it’s time to think about who could be tapped as the star. The pickings from the current season are pretty slim, so this could be a chance for ABC to get a little creative, but they’ve let us down before. So let’s run down all the logical possibilities for the next Bachelorette, because we all need something to look forward to.
Hannah Ann or Madison
As of right now, both of these women are still in the running on Peter’s season, but they would both be logical choices for The Bachelorette if they don’t win. They both have a ton of followers on Instagram, have generally avoided making themselves villains this season, and are bland enough that ABC wouldn’t be freaked out about giving them a show. I think messy queen Victoria F is a little too toxic at this point, even though I think she would be a beautiful disaster on this show.
Personally, I really hope they don’t go with Madison, because I can’t watch another season where they pretend that being a virgin is a personality. It was one thing with Colton just being like, shy or whatever, but are they really gonna find Madi 30 dudes who are down to wait for marriage? Seems unlikely.
Kelsey
Despite being pretty heavily involved in the drama this season, it seems like Kelsey is still on the producers’ radar. In Reality Steve’s rundown of what happened at the Women Tell All taping last week, he said that Kelsey’s hot seat interview came off like a “Bachelorette audition.” The tidbit about Ashley I giving her champagne and praising her for being open with her emotions is actually so funny. Like, does Ashley really have nothing better to do?
Kelsey on the hot seat talked about her journey, her being very emotional, seemed like a "Bachelorette" audition, & Ashley I came out of the audience and gave Kelsey a giant bottle champagne and praised her for being open w/ her emotions.
— RealitySteve (@RealitySteve) February 22, 2020
Similar to Madison and Hannah Ann, Kelsey would be an easy, generic choice, but I don’t feel like the fans actually love her that much? Like, with Hannah B and Becca, both of them were pretty big fan favorites from The Bachelor, and honestly, I’m just not sure this season really has any favorites.
Kelley
Kelley seemed like one of the few women from this season who would’ve actually made a good Bachelorette, but it’s probably not gonna happen. In the Women Tell All spoilers, Reality Steve said that Kelley wasn’t even invited, and they made no mention of her during the show. That seems super weird to me, but clearly something happened between Kelley and whoever makes the decisions. Maybe they weren’t happy about how she steered clear of drama in the house, but it’s too bad that one of the only functional adults who has a real job won’t be the Bachelorette.
Demi
I’ve seen this rumor tossed around on the internet, and whether it’s true at all or not, it’s really fun to think about. The Bachelor has always been painfully heterosexual, and Demi’s relationship with Kristian last year on Paradise was unlike anything that the franchise had ever seen before. Now that they broke up, a season with Demi as the next Bachelorette would be an amazing opportunity to mix things up—it’s 2020, for god’s sake! Plus, Demi also happens to be hilarious, and I think she’d be way more fun to watch than a lot of the other leads we’ve had.
That being said, do I think ABC will actually pull the trigger and make this happen? Sadly, no. I mean, it’s been 24 seasons and we still can’t get a Bachelor that’s not white, so the ABC execs would probably roll over in their graves if there was a ~bisexual~ woman running the show. You hate to see it.
Tayshia or Katie Morton
Much like Demi, both Tayshia and Katie left Paradise in relationships, but they didn’t last. All of these women from past seasons seem like way more dynamic, interesting personalities than anyone on Peter’s season, and one of them could bring a fun, fresh energy to the show. Also, they’re both in their late 20s, which would be a refreshing change of pace from all these 23-year-old pageant queens and Insta models. Combine that with this show’s desperate need for diversity, and Tayshia and Katie are exactly the women ABC should be considering.
Hannah Brown
Basically ever since she broke up with Jed, there have been rumors that Hannah Brown could come back for a second round as Bachelorette. Of course, that would be totally unprecedented, but audiences really love her, and she clearly likes being on TV. I never really thought this was going to happen, but it was an exciting prospect to consider. But this rumor was basically shut down a few days ago, when Hannah was added as a special guest star to several stops on the Dancing With The Stars live tour. The dates, in late March, are right in the middle of when The Bachelorette would be filming, so it’s not meant to be this year. Honestly, I feel like Hannah should probably take a little bit of a break from the Bachelor franchise, so I’m not sad about this. Maybe she’ll show up in Paradise this summer, who knows?
At this point, I would put my money on Madison, Hannah Ann, or Kelsey, because ABC is lame and they don’t usually go with the exciting casting option in these scenarios. But obviously we don’t know anything for sure yet, and we could still be surprised. Did I miss anyone that you really think would make a great Bachelorette? Let me know in the comments!
Images: ABC; Giphy; realitysteve / Twitter; dancingabc / Instagram
Hello, and welcome back to yet another update on what is easily the messiest season of The Bachelor, like ever. Both on and offscreen, things are basically a disaster at this point, and today we’re dealing with a whole mess of social media drama that’s all about… Sydney’s high school life. Y’all, I am so tired, but the drama of Bachelor nation waits for no one.
On Monday night’s episode, Sydney opened up to Peter about how she was bullied in high school. She told him that she ate lunch in the bathroom every day, and basically had no friends. As we all know, it’s pretty much a requirement to be a Bachelor contestant that you must have a sob story, and Sydney must have sensed that she needed to kick the waterworks factor into high gear to buy herself an extra week on the show.
But as we’ve all learned through countless spoilers and social media scandals, The Bachelor does not exist in a bubble, and this sh*t was bound to seep into the outside world. It didn’t take long, and while the episode was literally still airing, one of Sydney’s high school classmates posted pictures from their yearbooks, saying she would sell them for $200 a pop. This would have been beautifully messy regardless, but the actual photos are very important. On the show, Sydney has said that she’s not a fan of pageants and pageant girls, but in all four yearbook photos, she is COMPETING IN A PAGEANT. Oh my god, even Mike Fleiss’ diabolical brain couldn’t dream this up.
“Ate lunch in the bathroom everyday of highschool” #bachelornation I’m selling my yearbooks for $200 a pop, who wants the tea😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Kjz9LuMEru
— jc me rollin (@jc_me_rollin_) February 4, 2020
Okay, so Sydney won a title called “Upperclassman Top Beauty,” and my main question is what the f*ck kind of high school was still having a beauty pageant in 2012? Had the idea of mental health not made its way to this part of the country yet? At my high school, we just had a male pageant where guys had to like, juggle and sh*t. This sounds like the type of toxic shenanigans the school in 13 Reasons Why would pull.
Obviously, the yearbook tweet went viral immediately, and it only took an hour for Sydney to respond. In a series of three lengthy tweets, Sydney tried to clarify the details of her pageant win, and got into more details about the horrible, racist treatment she says she experienced at school growing up.
Feels ridiculous I even have to address this.But correct I did win a beauty pageant my senior year of highschool.That was voted for by 5 judges.Not by my peers.Winning a pageant based off of outer beauty does not take away the racial bullying,and isolation I’ve been through.
— Sydney Hightower (@sydhightower) February 4, 2020
I was also on the cheer team in middle school and in many clubs in highschool. You’ll do anything you can to fit in, and I tried. I won pageants because of my “looks” and I was in clubs because I wanted a scholarship to get into college . Not because I was accepted by my peers.
— Sydney Hightower (@sydhightower) February 4, 2020
Any one from my highschool want to pull out the videos of girls stuffing my locker with Oreo cookies , vandalizing my home, shoving me in the hall ways? Teachers literally referring to me as a halfbreed? Calling my mother the worst names I’ve ever heard in my life? I doubt that.
— Sydney Hightower (@sydhightower) February 4, 2020
These tweets are a lot to process, and some of the stuff Sydney describes is truly upsetting. Nobody should have to put up with bullying like that, whether they’re winning beauty pageants or not. (I’m still confused about her attitude on beauty pageants, but whatever.)
Later that night, Sydney tweeted again, this time posting screenshots of a long DM she sent to @jc_me_rollin, the person who originally posted the yearbook photos. She recalls that the woman’s “social group did not care for” her in high school, and shames her for “spreading hate.” To be honest, I think posting the yearbook photos falls more into the “being shady” category than “spreading hate,” but clearly Sydney was hurt by it. In the DM, she also gets into more specifics about the racist treatment she endured, which, again, is really awful.
Setting the record straight. I’ve been through so much from the town I grew up in and will not allow my story, or others to be deminished because of one of the same girls, with the same mindsets as the people who terrorized me. Not happening. pic.twitter.com/9vIi7uy4Rd
— Sydney Hightower (@sydhightower) February 4, 2020
In response to this, jc then posted a screenshot of the DMs that she sent to Sydney, in which she claims that Sydney was “one of the biggest bullies in county high.” She accuses her of “back tracking most of her high school experience” for her storyline on The Bachelor, and in true mic drop form, says that Sydney was “a MEAN girl.” The girls have officially gone wild. In the back-and-forth, Sydney accuses jc of trying to manipulate her, and jc is adamant that Sydney is lying about pretty much everything.
Sydney why didn’t you share my replies? I have so many people from school recalling you as a bully. A huge one. pic.twitter.com/NQaC8PHOUk
— jc me rollin (@jc_me_rollin_) February 4, 2020
When it comes to the specifics of Sydney’s high school life, we’re really never going to know exactly what happened, but I will say that I don’t think we are getting the full truth here. As we all know, there are three sides to every story. I feel like bullying rarely exists in a vacuum, and having been bullied does not preclude you from also bullying others. And, in my experience, people who have been the bully either don’t remember or claim to not remember what they did to other people. So it doesn’t necessarily mean anyone is lying, but it might mean that we have a case of selective memory on our hands.
We did get one other source on Twitter backing jc up—a guy named Evan who claims that Sydney was suspended for writing “some of the nastiest stuff” in his yearbook. What is with Tuscaloosa and yearbooks?! At my school, you either wrote a million inside jokes, or just HAGS if you weren’t really friends with someone.
Funny that she says she was bullied because in middle school Sydney wrote some of the nastiest stuff in my yearbook and signed her name like she was proud and ended up getting suspended☕️
— EKAT🐾 (@evan_etheridge) February 5, 2020
But wait—there’s more! Now that we’ve made it through all the bullying allegations, let’s get into the part of this that’s just pure, glorious mess. Along with her more inflammatory tweets, jc also dropped the bomb that SYDNEY AND HANNAH BROWN WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL TOGETHER. How, how, HOW was this not addressed on the show? Here I am, thinking that the Bachelor producers are evil geniuses, and they just let this slip through their hands? Frankly, I’m disappointed.
This video showing that their yearbook pics are literally one page apart is my new favorite movie:
Bachelor production works hard but I work HARDER!!!!! #BachelorNation pic.twitter.com/zr7uTXGRPO
— jc me rollin (@jc_me_rollin_) February 4, 2020
If Hannah is at The Women Tell All, this better f*cking be addressed. Hannah might be the only one who can tell us once and for all if Sydney really ate alone in the bathroom, or if she was the one pushing girls into lockers. Hannah, spill the tea!!! There’s also an extra episode of The Bachelor on tonight, and knowing these producers, jc could show up in the jungle to confront Sydney. With this show, you truly never know.
At this point, it seems unlikely that anyone on this season is actually there for the right reasons, but we can at least enjoy the messiness while it lasts. Peter might not find love, but at least we’re still getting good, old fashioned Twitter drama.
Images: ABC; jc_me_rollin_, sydhightower, Evan_etheridge / Twitter
We’re only one week into the new season of The Bachelor, and I already can’t keep up with these girls. I don’t know if this premiere week has been messier than usual, but it feels like there is just so much to talk about. Already, we’ve broken down Hannah Ann’s suspicious background and Maurissa’s date with Mike Johnson, and today it’s Madison’s turn in the hot seat. Pretty much every Bachelor contestant has exhibited cringeworthy behavior on Instagram at one point or another, but Madison’s is… something else.
On this week’s premiere, she emerged as an early frontrunner when she was chosen for the first one-on-one date of the season. She and Peter seemed to vibe pretty well, and even without spoilers, it’s not hard to guess that she’ll be around for a while. On Tuesday morning after the premiere aired, she posted a photo from her date with Peter, saying that it was “the most perfect date with the perfect guy.” I can’t wait to see how that caption ages if she doesn’t end up winning the show, but that’s not what’s important here.
You’ll notice below that there’s a super sweet comment on the photo, saying that Madison’s date was “beautiful,” and that she’s “so genuine and real.” The problem? The comment came FROM MADISON.
That’s right—Madison is SO genuine and real that she’s giving herself compliments on her own public Instagram post. We love a humble queen! I really can’t imagine a more genuine and real thing to do. But actually, this comment obviously wasn’t supposed to come from Madison’s own profile, so who was it supposed to come from?
The prevailing theory behind this is that Madison made a fan account for herself, and then forgot to switch to that account before commenting on her own photo. If this is the case, which seems likely, it’s sad and hilarious. Like, I don’t know how many of these women are out here making fan accounts for themselves, but if you’re going to be shady, you’ve got to be good at it! I’m logged into four different Instagram accounts because my job is just that important, and I double-check what account I’m on every single time I post something! It’s an easy mistake to make, but that just means you need to be careful.
After the comment got clocked by the entire internet, she deleted it, but it was too late. From there, she went into full damage control mode, and it didn’t go super well. She got her friend (sister? idk, the account has no info) to comment on photo, saying that the comment came from her, but she “was logged into Madi’s from when she got back from filming.” Um, yeah, I’m calling bullsh*t on that. According to spoilers, filming for Peter’s season ended in early November. As you may know, it’s now January, which means that even if Madison makes it to the end, she’s been back for a full two months.
Even if this other woman was running Madison’s Instagram while she was away, I don’t believe that she just hasn’t checked her own Instagram since November. Madison quickly responded, saying that “it happens” but like, does it? This explanation is shaky at best, and I’m disappointed that Madison couldn’t come up with something a little more convincing.
But this weird, bad cover-up has yet another layer, and it only gets more puzzling. After Madison’s friend or whoever took the blame, another account posted a story with more aggressive explanation of what allegedly happened here. The post explains that Madi’s “sisters has access to her account, and they commented.” Besides this being terrible grammar, I also don’t really get why her sisters would be just casually on her account. Whatever.
The most important thing is the account that posted this story: @teammadisonprewett. An actual fan account! While the account is anonymous, it was probably made by someone who knows Madison, because it was started the day ABC released contestant photos on Facebook back in September. Sure, it could have just been someone who wanted to hang onto the handle in case she made it far, but who else would make a fan account for someone based on one photo and a first name? This was way before we had any actual info about the contestants or the season. The account probably run by one of her sisters or something, if not Madison herself. Either way, giving the inside scoop on your Instagram f*ckup to a fan page for yourself isn’t the way to make people believe you. And also, the overly aggressive tone and capitalization screams middle school cyber bullying. Like nobody here is SPREADING lies, we’re just stating a logical explanation for what’s happening. And what’s more PATHETIC—pointing that out or running a fan Instagram for someone who won’t be relevant past August? Yeah, I’m convinced this is like, a younger sister or little cousin behind this account.
Naturally, Madison is getting trolled all over the internet about how “genuine and real” she is, and I’m mostly just disappointed that the whole season is filmed in advance, so Chris Harrison won’t get to make fun of her for it. Maybe in 2020, The Bachelor needs to happen in real time. Like, if I were Peter, I would want to know all the dirt that Reddit had dug up on my contestants, not just the two fun facts that the producers put on the bios. If I found out someone I was dating made a fake fan page for herself, that might actually affect my opinion of them!
But alas, Peter has already made his choices, so we just have to watch to see if Madison lets her desperation show in some other way while she’s in the house. I mean, all of these women are desperate, so she’ll probably still be fine either way. Isn’t this season fun!
Images: ABC; bachsleuthers, madiprew, thebetchelor / Instagram
It’s been a long few months, but the Bachelor off-season is finally coming to an end. After teasing us with driver’s license photos of the women and that weird CGI windmill commercial, today ABC finally gave the people what they want: the full list of contestants, including bios and photos that don’t look like they were taken on a first-generation iPhone. Don’t worry, we’ll have our full contestant breakdown tomorrow, but for now we have something more pressing to discuss, and that’s the manner in which The Bachelor made this announcement.
I’ve never understood the appeal of Facebook Live, and honestly, I mostly judge people who go live on social media. So as you can imagine, I wasn’t thrilled when I found out they would be announcing this season’s Bachelor contestants with a live stream. But I was especially not thrilled when I saw that it was Chris Harrison, standing in front of a green screen with rose petals all over it, talking to himself for a full 30 minutes. These days, that’s longer than he’s on camera in an entire season, so this is hard work for him! There was light tea about the season, way too many dad jokes, and random laughter from off camera. Y’all, it was awkward.
They’ve done this video format for the past couple seasons, but somehow I’ve avoided watching a full one of them until now. I’ll save you the time and say that it’s basically just Chris Harrison holding a stack of paper and rambling about each of the 30 contestants, and then he literally just throws the pages on the ground when he’s done with them (same). Some of the intros are way more interesting than others, which makes sense considering that some of these ladies went home on night one, and Chris probably only met them for 10 seconds total.
While the entire video is not really worth watching, and mostly consists of Chris making jokes about windmills and planes, Chris did leave us with s0me interesting tidbits of information about the upcoming season, so here’s what you really need to know.
Alayah
The first contestant in the video is Alayah, who just happens to be this year’s Miss Texas. These producers really just can’t resist, can they? Chris says that Alayah is the center of some major drama this season, and that something happens to her that has never happened to a contestant in Bachelor history. What could this be?? I’d love to think she gets pregnant or loses a limb or something crazy like that, but she probably just has some invisible skin condition that she talks about to seem vulnerable.
Hannah Ann
According to Chris, Hannah Ann will be heavily involved in a lot of the drama this season. I’m prepared to be disappointed by this tease, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough. She looks like the hot babysitter who gets murdered first in a horror movie, but Chris warns that she definitely has a backbone.
Kelley
The person I’m perhaps most interested in is Kelley. She’s an attorney, and Chris says she “knows how to work the game…she uses all of the rules, and actually makes up rules and finds loopholes to her advantage.” Okay, is Kelley on Survivor or The Bachelor? I don’t know what loopholes Chris is referring to, but he also says that Kelley had met Peter prior to the start of filming. Can’t wait to watch all the other girls have panic attacks when they learn about this!
Madison
Madison is from Alabama, but she went to Auburn, so don’t f*cking say Roll Tide to her. Aside from talking for too long about how she’s a great basketball player, Chris drops the pretty major spoiler that she gets the first one-on-one date of the season. That doesn’t necessarily mean much in the long run, but take note if you’re making bets with your friends.
Savannah
In the same vein as the Madison spoiler, Chris also hints heavily that Savannah will be the first kiss of the season. Again, mark that down so you’ll have an advantage over all your friends who didn’t watch this dumb video.
Sydney
Chris also says that Peter called Sydney one of the best kissers in the house. Honestly, with Chris giving away all these clues, I probably won’t even watch the first couple episodes of the season.
Victoria F.
As we know from some of the spoilers, Victoria F. is going to be…a lot. Chris calls her “the most… everything,” and says that he’s never seen a contestant go through more sh*t during her time on the show. He relates her journey on the show to watching Forrest Gump, which sounds like a wild ride that I will absolutely be tuning in for.
Chris also tells us that this season has a lot of instances of “where girls knew other girls” before the show, which sounds like something the producers would NEVER do on purpose to cause drama. Bless this mess. Specifically, there are several flight attendants, two of whom apparently have worked together in the past. I. AM. READY.
That’s all the tea for now, and whether it’s actually groundbreaking or not, it’s definitely enough that I’ll be watching this season. I’m not looking forward to the amount of airline and windmill references we’ll have to sit through, but it sounds like the season actually might be pretty dramatic. Damn Mike Fleiss and his goons, they’ve done it again! Coming soon, we’ll have our full contestant breakdown, as well as Jared Freid’s famous Bro’s Breakdown, so check back for full roasts of all the contestants.
Images: ABC
