I started watching The Bachelor last year by accident. I had just moved into a new share house that sported a huge flatscreen, and I would sit down after work and watch whatever was on. The Bachelor came on and there was seriously nothing better on the other channels. So I watched that first episode, which was the first episode in the 2014 season, and I was completely sucked into it.
At first I was embarrassed and apologetic to anyone I mentioned it to, but it started to become a ritual, where I would come home and gather the house mates, and we would sit down for 2 hours on Wednesday and Thursday and yell at the television and the stupidity that is The Bachelor. This was my first experience of watching television in a group (outside of watching The Simpsons with my family), which was noted in the lecture as an interesting “viewing mode” that is particular to reality television. We didn’t do any of the drinking games that came up on the internet during that season, but we did start eating meat pies for dinner every episode after the “dirty street pie” incident.
I came to really enjoy these evenings, and I actively joined in the conversation online about the show. In the lecture, this was noted as “multiple platforms of consumption”. To use myself as a case study, I would consume The Bachelor by watching it on television, catching up on episodes using Chanel Ten’s online catchup website, Tenplay, reading Rosie’s Recap of every episode, messaging my friends during and after each episode about the episode, and commenting/liking/sharing content about the show on social media.
I moved out of that house, and for the 2015 season of The Bachelor I lived with my partner who doesn’t watch television, so I began to watch it alone. Is it still hate watching if you watch it alone? Probably not, but I continued to be active in the online community that discussed the show and consumed it through different platforms.
This year I moved house again, this time into an apartment with my partner where we don’t have a TV. I started a new ritual of going to my friend’s house to watch the first season of The Bachelorette (2015) because I find that it is a lot more fun to watch reality television with others. The Bachelorette is interesting as a spin-off of The Bachelor, because the Bachelorette herself was the winner of the 2014 The Bachelor (but was obviously dumped for a runner up, drama!). Here it is important to note that The Bachelor is an international format that has been made in 17 countries, and I would also classify it as a reality game format and a reality life experiment format.
After thinking and talking about The Bachelor for TV Cultures, I have also been reflecting on whether I actually like reality TV or not… and I do. I really really do. I remember the first reality TV program that I watched was the first season of Australian Idol. I voted for Guy Sebastian because I loved seeing someone on the TV who wasn’t white and blonde and thin. Here was a guy who could sing and had an afro and I needed him to win, and he did! I think at the core of this sentiment is the reason why I like reality TV, because I get to see (comparably) real people on TV, who I can relate to more than pretty actors. My favourite reality TV show of all time is Rupaul’s Drag Race because of this. At my last university I wrote an essay about Rupaul’s Drag Race and how it subverts the reality TV genre, by mocking and satirizing it, which is what drag queens do to gender, and this is why I think this show is amazing. I also love seeing people on TV that I have never seen represented in any complex, entertaining and informative way. Does The Bachelor do this? I don’t think so, but I can tell you that I do like it because I get to participate in the conversation online and treat it like a silly distraction to life, and who doesn’t need a distraction every now and then 😉
