I realize this post is up a bit late, but here we are. Welcome to the first episode of the new season of the Bachelor! As you can see from the graphic, we decided to rename the podcast to: “For the Right Reasons!” We wanted a new name since “Rachel and Kay Chat the Bachelorette” was a little limiting! Going forward, we can chat all things Bachelor Nation under one fancy new podcast name. And if you’re not here for the right reasons, are you even a true Bachelor fan? Unfortunately, this week we had a little bit of a blunder with the audio recording correctly. And then life, work etc. So, this will be more of a summary of what we talked about and we’ll have a real podcast up for this week’s episode! I’ll try to cover a little bit of what we both said without getting too wordy. So let’s get to it!
Hour One
It seems that ABC is trying to make this show even longer by adding an extra hour of fluff at the beginning. That, or they realized every “first night” episode kind of ends up they same so they wanted to make it a little more interesting. They introduced us to this season by showing various “watch parties” around the country, all of which were hosted by previous participants from the show. The studio audience viewing party was hosted by Chris Harrison, of course. And one of the parties had fan favorite Jason as a co-host (we still think he should have been the Bachelor!). Another watch party at a bar was hosted by former Bachelorette Kaitlyn along with ex Bachelor contestant (and super annoying) Alexis as well as Chris Harrison’s mom!
So, after an HOUR of parties, clips of successful bachelor couples babies, two proposals live on air, promo videos of a few of the girls and a special tribute to Chris Harrison (which, I have to admit, was cute) we finally get to the limos bringing in the women. Oh, and there’s also a weird hot tub party in the parking lot of the studio. Just throwing that randomly in there, because that’s kind of how it felt in the episode. Oh and least we forget the good five minutes of footage of Colton with his shirt off either in the shower or under some sort of water. (Can you imagine if this was a season of the Bachelorette and they had shots of her in the shower?)
Let’s Meet the “Ladies”
What do a sloth, Cinderella, a bag of nuts and cop car have in common? All gimmicks the women used to impress Colton, of course! As usual, there are several faces and names we don’t even remember. In fact, Colton had a hard time remembering a few of them, but I don’t blame him. I took notes while I watched and I missed at least four people. Here are the ones that stuck out to us.
Hannah B and Hannah G: Both Hannah’s are from Alabama, have nice hair and cute dresses. Hannah B is Miss Alabama, and I admit I found her quite annoying at first, but by the end of the episode she has grown on me. Hannah G reminds Colton “of home,” seems super sweet, and got a kiss and the coveted first impression rose. If I had to bet I’d say she is the winner. At the very least Colton is definitely going to Alabama for at least one of the hometown dates.
Caelynn: Caelynn is Miss North Carolina and knew Hannah B from the Miss America competition (Hannah was not too excited about this, shes seemed to want a clean slate and not be competing against someone she already knew.) Caelynn is very pretty but seemed a little boring to me as all she had to talk about was how she “loves to travel,” but then looked confused when Colton asked her where her favorite place has been. Nevertheless, she received the first kiss of the night (that they showed at least) and we’re pretty confident she’ll be at least in the top 6 or so.
Cassie: Cassie was the first woman shown in the promo videos during the first hour. She was shown surfing and telling us she loved it, but never seemed to mention it to Colton. She did, however, have an interesting gimmick coming out of the limo where she gave him a box of fake butterflies they could dump out so as to get rid of their nerves together. As she walks away we see Colton picking up one of the butterflies and sticking it inside his coat pocket to save, which of course is very cute. I think Cassie will be a top contender as well.
Heather: We are introduced to Heather as someone who has never been kissed. It’s listed there under her name like it’s her job, which is odd. She’s also super young and innocent looking, and seems a little in over her head with some of the big personalities in the house. Girlfriend also has super long hair and shows up in the same dress as another contestant, Laura. I feel that Heather and Colton are going to be virgin buddies throughout the show and she’ll make it pretty far along.
Catherine: A DJ from Fort Lauderdale, Catherine is so clearly set up to be the house villain that you have to wonder if ABC hired her to play the role. Everything about her is fake from her forehead Botox on down and her 20-something year old face is frozen in way that sadly makes her look about 20 years older. She brings her dog and for some reason decides to give it to Colton. She interrupts not one but four of the girls chat time with Colton because she “didn’t get enough” on her turn. This sets her up as enemy number 1 with the rest of the girls. She describes the other girls as “beautiful statues” with no substance, which is ironic, because she seems to have no real personality. We predict she’ll stay on just as long as the producers make Colton keep her, but be cut before things start to get really serious.
Kirpa: Kirpa made an impression on us because she seems like a totally normal and nice person. She seems like someone you could just hang out with and have no drama. We compared her to Leo from Becca’s season who was just a chill dude and a peacekeeper in the house. We think she’ll make it pretty far, but in the background of the group.
In the end there were 22 girls given roses out of the initial 30, which helps us feel like we really don’t need to know each woman yet. After about week 3 we’ll be able to remember everyone’s name and face and then we’ll really get into the drama! This week we’ll cover Episode 2 in more detail in the podcast so stick around for more Bachelor fun!