The Bachelor’s Colton Underwood recently said he was annoyed at how ABC producers made him rank the contestants on his season. They would then use those rankings to mess with the format of the show.
Underwood starred in the latest season of The Bachelor, where he dated 28 women over the course of two months. On the show, he took women on group dates, spending time with five or more of the contestants at once, and one-on-one dates, getting some alone time with the women he’s (presumably) most interested in at the moment. Only, the Bachelors have way less control over the situation than fans might think. While in the end, the choice is Underwood’s - and he ultimately went with Cassie Randolph, sending contestant Hannah Godwin home heartbroken - there is a lot that happens on the show that’s out of his hands. While viewers of The Bachelor know the series is highly produced and many of the scenes and conversations are completely staged, Underwood recently shed some more light on exactly how showrunners manipulate the outcomes on the series.
In an interview with the This American Life podcast, Underwood explained that the show’s producers asked him to rank the women on the show in terms of who he was most interested in. But then they’d later use that information against him. For instance, at one point during his season, Godwin was number one on his list, but she wasn’t chosen for a date that week. Underwood said he recalled feeling “burnt” by producers when they did that. He felt like he wouldn’t be able to spend time with the women he actually liked. That’s when he decided to attempt to cheat the system.
From that moment on, Underwood said he no longer told producers who his actual top choices were. Instead, he’d lie about who he was most into, so that he’d get more dates with the people he had genuine connections with. The Bachelor looked at it as defending himself and the women against any manipulation on the production side. In the end, it backfired. Since producers thought Godwin was his no. 1 pick, they didn’t think he’d be hurt if Randolph went home, which she attempted to do before the finale. Producers flew her father out to see her, because he didn’t think Underwood was right for her.
Underwood said he felt like he got “screwed” by producers and realized he didn’t have the control he thought he did. That’s when he stormed off set, punched a camera, and (famously) jumped a fence. At that point, he was done talking to production after feeling betrayed by them. He hid from the show’s host, Chris Harrison, and camera crews by crouching in ditches for more than two hours, but returned when he started to hear animals. Knowing the only way to remain off-camera would be to talk to the show’s therapist (they aren’t allowed to film those conversations), Underwood did that for a while before returning to set.
In the end, it all worked out for Underwood. He managed to win Randolph back and now the two are engaged to be married. Meanwhile, Godwin is enjoying her time with Dylan Barbour on Bachelor in Paradise. Underwood’s story is a good cautionary tale for any future Bachelors: don’t mess with the rankings and maybe you won’t have to hop any fences. Or try Tinder.
Next: Colton Underwood Explains Why Peter Weber Should Be The Next Bachelor
Source: This American Life
