Do viewers really want to see another season of the Bachelor/Bachelorette?

[Jennie]

After Jen's season I vowed not to watch another bachelor/bachelorette. I couldn't believe she would reject both guys on national TV. It was shocking at the time but at least there was some type of closure and we knew the outcome.

Talk about going from one extreme to the other.

This season there is nothing. After all of the time viewers have invested in watching/following the show the producers/ABC can't even give an official announcement. Just a simple statement would do that lets viewers know the status of Travis and Sarah as a couple.

Do we really want to follow another season of the bachelor/bachelorette? What do you all think? Would you watch another season after all of this craziness?

[RandalR]

After Jen's season I vowed not to watch another bachelor/bachelorette. I couldn't believe she would reject both guys on national TV. It was shocking at the time but at least there was some type of closure and we knew the outcome.

Talk about going from one extreme to the other.

This season there is nothing. After all of the time viewers have invested in watching/following the show the producers/ABC can't even give an official announcement? Just a simple statement would do that let’s viewers know the status of Travis and Sarah as a couple.

Do we really want to follow another season of the bachelor/bachelorette? What do you all think? Would you watch another season after all of this craziness?

Sure. Just make sure that the Bachelor actually wants to do it this time, and has some interest in getting married. Byron was perfect and there are a lot more like him out there - maybe he had one or two too many wrinkles to appeal to the MySpace demographic Fleiss craves, but the odds of a successful conclusion were a lot higher.

American society has changed, and the whole idea of getting married in one's twenties - a virtual mandate thirty years ago - has become profoundly unfashionable. If they want to keep the "proposal at the end" theme going with even the slightest shred of credibility, they are going to have to stick to a somewhat older demographic. Men over 35 - women (who are somewhat more interested in marriage at a younger age) over 25.

[Snapit]

If it come on tomorrow or even next week, my answer would be NO!!

Although I will admit that chances are if TPTB renew the show after a few months, the bitter taste in my mouth might have subsided enough. It really depends on how long we are left hanging without an official statement.
Just tell us something, even if it is NOT what we want to hear. Geeze...We were not watching a movie in which we can dream about the possible endings. This is suppose to be freaking reality tv. I think I'm entitled to something...good, bad or indifferent. JMO (can you tell snapit is about to snap on someones head? )

[MsFroggy]

When it comes to this show I'm a masochist. I'd watch it and rip it to shreds... again. When is it on?

[MissThing]

I'm with MsFroggy. I love the show, and I love what it brings out in the FORT. Nothing else comes close to the instant classics of the Maid Diaries, and the Fun with Bachelor 8 thread.

[cynicgal]

I'd watch another installment.

I wish that TPTB would change a few things.

1.Have a Bachelor/Bachelorette that wanted to get seriously involved.
2.A few more real people and less model/actress types.
3. Compatability date - gave them the chance to see someone on more than a surface level after the cocktail hours.
4. Let the Bachelor pick who he wants to go on one on ones with.
5. The bachelor should have a choice on the type of dates. Not to plan them all but give them a choice like a fancy dinner at a posh restaurant or steak and dancing at a local hangout. Spa or Gym.


Better yet, why doesn't ABC team up with eharmony.com. Pick one of their bachelors that seems worthy(money, success, handsome, whatever) and bring in the top 25 women that are compatable with the guy. They may have better success.

[pajamasam]

Better yet, why doesn't ABC team up with eharmony.com. Pick one of their bachelors that seems worthy(money, success, handsome, whatever) and bring in the top 25 women that are compatable with the guy. They may have better success.

Good idea but there's no way the guy and the women would agree - or have the time off to do it. That's the problem.

[Krom]

My feeling is that The Bachelor is the "Star Trek" of reality shows. It needs a long rest and something of a reinvention before they dare bring it back.

Trek needs a decade and a new premise. Bachelor needs... let's say... a full year between broadcasts, maybe even a year and a half. Make people hungry for it. Then bring it back with some essential change in the formula. For example, they might actually want to follow through with two bachelors for more than a single episode.

At the same time they spice it up with something like 2 bachelors, they also need to spend far longer casting people. Take most of that year to cast people. Make sure there are no boyfriends at home waiting in the wings. Cast regionally--they don't have to be from the same city, like Sarah and Opie were, but at least have them from the same side of the country. The WHOLE cast I mean.

And a huge change. The Bachelor himself should be part of the vetting procedure with the applications, with the producers having the power to add no more than one or two freaks just for the opening show.

Speaking of the opening show, it should be structured completely differently--especially since the Bachelor will have pre-knowledge of these ladies. It shouldn't be a cattle call, it should be a series of completely independent meetings. The girls shouldn't even meet until they've all meet with the Bachelor at least once.

As for twists? Sure, they need them. And we even need some cynical ones. I'd take a page from the now departed "For Love or Money" and offer a bribe or two at some point for ladies to leave. Don't hold out the possibility at the end, but use it as a mid-show device to weed out some chaff.

Nothing can really be done about the inherent evil of needing to edit out stuff to keep the audience in suspense about the winner and the other inherent evil that it takes a certain kind of twisted cast to go along with a scenario of sharing a man like this in the first place, or in the case of the guy, being shared.

There also needs to be some kind of safety valve if the chemistry between all of the ladies and the Bachelor fizzles, as I think might have happened this time. By the mid-point the producers and the Bachelor need to sit down and discuss the possibility of throwing a couple of wild-card new girls into the mix. Sure, it's manufactured drama, but it's no more dishonest than trying to present a bunch of lemons as lemonade--which is exactly what's happening if nobody has clicked by that point.

[britty05]

All interesting points so far. I'm willing to give The Bachelorette another chance. I liked that formula better, altho Jen probably ruined our chances of another installment.....I haven't watched an entire season of The Bachelor since Byron's season. I watched Charlie's and Travis' seasons on and off. The younger "casts" just don't interest me as much anymore.......IMO, Byron's season was the best in the franchise because he was sincere in his quest of finding a wife and settling down. While that season might not have been the ratings hit ABC wanted, it did prove that the premise of the show can work if the right lead is chosen. The only way I'd watch another season of The Bachelor is if the lead is over 35 (as Randal suggested) and is open to the prospect of marriage (ala Byron) or at the very least, the willingness to be in a commited relationship (ala Charlie).

[wisgalb]

Plain and simple NO..this show has run its course.

Thats not to say that I won't be back if indeed they do another season.