Another new book is exposing Bachelor Nation’s sordid underbelly. The book accuses The Bachelor franchise of promoting boozy binges, limo sex romps, and generally encouraging female contestants to engage in behaviors their mothers wouldn’t approve of.
The new release, Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV, exposes the behind-the-scenes secrets of The Bachelor machine. Author Emily Nussbaum reveals all the methods producers use to evoke racy behavior from female contestants, sometimes putting them in dangerous situations.
Corrine Olympios and DeMario Jackson come to mind. They may have behaved outrageously in the pool at the Bachelor in Paradise resort, but remember: somebody (over)served them all that alcohol. Producers knew what they were doing at the time.
Breakdowns encouraged
In the book, casting director Marki Costello admits to looking for emotionally unstable women who could easily be pressured into an on-camera breakdown. ‘Cause watching young women be bullied to tears is always good TV, right?
And if they were “unstable and pretty,” even better! “That’s gold,” Costello says in the book.
Psychologically profiled for weaknesses, the contestants were tracked on “a whiteboard with bullet points suggesting qualities that might make them crack: ‘Daddy’s Girl,’ ‘Recovering Anorexic,’ ‘Just Got Dumped.’”
Plentiful and free alcohol helped fuel wild behavior. On the first night, the ladies arrive in limos, sipping champagne. Once they get into the house, there is more free booze but very little food.
Real estate agent Rhonda Rittenhouse was a contestant on the very first season of The Bachelor. She remembers trays of cocktails constantly circulating, saying she “felt like a caged rat.”
Humiliation is routine
It was routine to place contestants in situations meant to humiliate them, like belly dancing to catch the Bachelor’s attention. Show creator Mike Fleiss once browbeat a contestant for two hours into taking off her robe and getting into a hot tub. She was concerned about the possibility of “cameras [being] in the water.”
Producers received cash bonuses for causing contestants to melt down on camera, the book claims. “The show’s supervising producer described peeling off $100 bills, rewarding producers for special achievements, like getting a girl to cry on camera.”
Staff and crew also felt free to drink alcohol and smoke pot behind the scenes, the book says. Nussbaum claims Fleiss liked to drink tequila during filming. “The cast drank, the crew drank, the managers drank,” she wrote.
“You had to drink with [contestants] to get them to trust you,” said executive producer Lisa Levenson. Meanwhile, rumors circulated that Fleiss and Levenson, who were both married to other people, were engaged in a sizzling “open affair.”
All episodes of The Bachelor are now streaming on Hulu.
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