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Quick spoilers for last night’s The Bachelor coming up:
I watch The Bachelor much like someone who is not a football fan—that is, me—watches football: I tune in for the Super Bowl, which is to say the final Rose Ceremony. So I can’t say I had any particular rooting interest in Emily vs. Chantal (other than enjoying seeing Brad practically melt into a puddle of nervous sweat when Emily pressed him on how committed he would be to her and her daughter). Like the big game, it’s about the ritual: the last long talks, the moment of “decision,” the big promo for the diamond industry when the Bachelor decides which rock-encrusted piece of bling best says “love” in front of an HD camera.
It’s the post-game that’s often most fascinating, though: the After the Rose special, in which our visions of romance are almost immediately dashed by the interviews of bitterness and recrimination, the vague updates on the status of the new couple, and the Kremlinological game of deciphering the interviews to guess how much life the relationship still has in it (or if it’s even still a thing). Shockingly, Emily and Brad need a little more time to figure things out!
All of which, of course, builds to the announcement (on Jimmy Kimmel Live) of the real winner: the rejectee who gets to have an entire season of The Bachelor/ette built around him or her. (Maybe the most delightful thing of the show’s being on ABC is the required involvement of Jimmy Kimmel in the Bachelor franchise.) In this case, it was not the runner-up but an earlier would-be bride, Ashley Herbert. Again, I didn’t regularly watch this season, so I can’t speak to the choice, but do Tuned In’s regular Bachelor fans—you can tell us, you’re among friends—like the pick?