Does The Bachelor really work? Currently in its sixteenth season, none of the contestants have ever had long term success. The show started in 2002 with Alex Michael as the first Bachelor, Michael chose Amanda Marsh in the season finale. After several months, the two split up. Season after season, The Bachelor has ended with hopeful love only to find out later that the romance was no longer there.
The Bachelor is like a televised, drama-infused match.com. There’s hope for love but, for the past contestants, the love never works out. The longest bachelor romance lasted for five years from 2005-2009 between Byron Vlevick and Mary Delgado. Their relationship was reported to be rocky and the couple announced their break up in 2009. Charlie O’Connell and Sarah Brice had an on again, off again relationship from 2005 to 2010. They broke up once in 2007, got back together in 2008 and split again for a final time in 2010. These two cases are rare though, many of the contestants did not make a year once the finale aired. Most did not even make it for a few months, splitting up soon after or right before the airing of the season finale.
If all of The Bachelor couples fail after the season finale, then why is it so popular? I believe it is because the series is unscripted and therefore raw. This attracts attention to the show because many people are drawn to reality dramas. And The Bachelor is filled with drama. This season alone, which stars Ben Flajnik who also appeared on The Bachelorette, has a large amount of drama. Most of the drama is caused by contestant Courtney Robinson who is said to be in the show merely for fame and is not trying to win Flajnik over for love as the rest of the girls are. The other contestants have tried to tell Flajnik, but he has yet to kick Robinson off the show. This intense drama is enough to keep viewers coming back, even after sixteen seasons and fifteen failed couples.
The Bachelor succeeds in drama but fails when it comes to long-term romance. The show may pride itself in being unscripted, but it does not succeed in finding true love which is what the show is supposedly all about. The show has shown that it is not possible to find true love out of a group of women, and it proceeds to encourage this thought each season in hopes that there will be one couple that succeeds in staying together. After fifteen failed seasons, I think it is time to call it quits. The Bachelor is nothing more than an easy way to get famous; it is not a way to find romance.
The Bachelor contestants could be compared to lonely women sitting on the computer at home hoping for a hit on match.com. They just trade their mouse for a rose. The chances of finding ‘true love’ are the same in each scenario. There just is not any five second fame if you cause drama on match.com as there is if one of The Bachelor contestants causes a ruckus on the show.
The Bachelor is not a good way to find love; it is just another easy way to gain fame until the season finale of the show. After that, the bachelor remains a bachelor and each of the contestants go back to their lives, hoping that maybe they will just stumble on love.
