A new book has revealed shocking claims of ugly backstage antics and cruel manipulation that fueled the success of The Bachelor.
In Cue The Sun: The Invention of Reality TV, Pulitzer-winning television critic Emily Nussbaum says female contestants were chosen based on how likely they were to have a meltdown on camera, and were plied with booze to encourage unfiltered behavior.
Adding to the chaos on set, she writes, is that the show’s creator Mike Fleiss and executive producer Lisa Levenson – both of them married – were having a barely concealed affair.
She quotes casting director Marki Costello as saying that no woman was too off-kilter to cast as a bachelorette: ‘Unstable and pretty? That’s gold.’
She writes: ‘Costello created whiteboards with photos and mini-bios, with bullet points suggesting qualities that might make the women crack — “Daddy’s Girl,” “Recovering Anorexic,” “Just Got Dumped.”
A new book has revealed shocking claims of ugly backstage antics and cruel manipulation that fueled the success of The Bachelor
Alex Michel was the first bachelor. According to the book, the women were goaded into humiliating themselves in an attempt to impress him
‘From Costello’s account, Fleiss didn’t care as much about those backstories as the other top brass: He just wanted “petite blondes with big tits.” (Fleiss denied he cared about cup size, just “beautiful blondes.”)’
And alcohol proved to be a crucial ingredient to the show’s success. Nussbaum recounts how, on the first day of filming, the women were deliberately plied with free drinks – and the results got messy.
‘When the women pulled up in their limos for the first day of the shoot, having pregamed on free champagne, they still had only a fuzzy concept of how the show would work.
‘Because there were no Porta Potties, a few of them wound up hiking up their ballgowns and peeing on the side of the road.
‘Inside the house, they were offered more drinks, but no food — and when the food finally arrived (the caterers had been fired, they were told), it was disgusting stuff: white bread with squeeze cheese and pickled cucumber. Unsurprisingly, they got trashed, fast.’
Rhonda Rittenhouse, a commercial real estate agent who was one of the first bachelorettes, recounted how trays of cocktails were constantly circulating, while the fridges were always full of refills.
They weren’t forced to drink, but there was nothing else for them to do. Rhonda described feeling like a ‘caged rat’.
Alcohol proved to be a crucial ingredient to the show. Nussbaum recounts how, on the first day of filming, the women were deliberately plied with free drinks – and the results got messy
Amanda and Michel were the first Bachelor couple – but after a few months they split
Fleiss is said to have personally spent two hours cajoling Shannon to take off her robe and get into the hot tub
The women were also goaded into humiliating themselves, writes Nussbaum. On one occasion, they were convinced that belly dancing would impress the series’ bachelor Alex Michel.
On another, producers encouraged Michel to ask bachelorette Shannon Oliver how many people she’d had sex with, ‘even when she begged them to stop, worried about her grandmother seeing the show, finally using her fingers to show him the number, placing her hand under the camera.’
And Fleiss is said to have personally spent two hours cajoling Shannon to take off her robe and get into the hot tub. ‘She wanted to know if we had cameras in the water,’ he said.
In fact, getting one of the women to crack became a game show within the game show, says Nussbaum. ‘Scott Jeffress, the show’s supervising producer, described peeling off $100 bills, rewarding producers for special achievements, like getting a girl to cry on camera. Levenson handed out Prada handbags to her favorite employees.’
Drinking and smoking pot among the crew was also rife, the book claims.
‘During the early seasons of the show, Fleiss was smoking so much pot that he put a towel under the door of his office,’ writes Nussbaum.
‘He binged on tequila. The cast drank, the crew drank, the managers drank. This behavior was strategic — and to Fleiss, to some extent, it still felt that way, when he looked back.
‘He said, of Levenson, that “she was probably right, that you had to drink with those people to get them to trust you, in those early days.”’
But adding to the wild atmosphere on set was the fact that Fleiss and Levenson – both married to other people – were having an ‘open affair’.
‘All the field producers talked about how much they were screwing around in the limos,’ the book reports one of the bachelorettes, Amanda Marsh, as saying.
Ben Hatta, a development executive on the series, is quoted as saying it was ‘embarrassing and disappointing’.
In an interview with Nussbaum for the book, Fleiss said Levenson ‘was a very important person to me for a long time,’ adding: ‘I was in a bad marriage. Sexless, loveless marriage. I’m traveling the world with Lisa, making a show about romance, and it was intoxicating.’
In 2019, Fleiss’s pregnant second wife, Laura Kaeppeler, accused him of domestic violence and of pressuring her to get an abortion. Three months later, they reconciled
Fleiss said Lisa Levenson ‘was a very important person to me for a long time,’ adding: ‘I was in a bad marriage. Sexless, loveless marriage. I’m traveling the world with Lisa, making a show about romance, and it was intoxicating’
He said Levenson was ‘a smart, talented person,’ who ‘brought a female perspective and she wasn’t shy about anything. I mean, she could brazenly go in and tell somebody to do this or say that – you know, she could cry on command! She’s kind of crazy. And I’m kind of crazy, so it required that.’
He paused, before admitting: ‘We were partying heavily.’
After 13 seasons of The Bachelor, Levenson left and oversaw hits including MasterChef and Hell’s Kitchen.
Fleiss’s future was less stellar. He never had another hit, and his personal life bombed.
‘He divorced his first wife, then remarried; in 2019, his pregnant second wife, a former Miss America, accused him of domestic violence and of pressuring her to get an abortion – and then, three months later, the two reconciled.
‘In 2023, he stepped down from The Bachelor, after an internal investigation into allegations of racial discrimination.’
Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum is published by Random House
