‘Bachelor’ was a period piece

THE producers of ABC’s “The Bachelor” are so focused on getting emotional sound bites, they track the contestants’ periods. According to Amy Kaufman’s new book “Bachelor Nation,” producers “have been known to keep track of when the women in the house are menstruating,” so they can interview lovesick contestants during that time of the month, The Post’s Lindsey Kupfer reports. “When women cycled together in the house, it created a completely different vibe,” Ben Hatta, a former producer, told Kaufman. “So a girl’s now crying mid-interview about nothing, or being reactionary to things that are supersmall. It helped the producers, because now you’ve got someone who is emotional — and all you want is emotion.” He continued, “Maybe one of the producers knew she was in that emotional state and was like, ‘You know what? Now’s a better time than ever. You should do it, you should do it!’ ” Sometimes, contestants know exactly what games the producers are playing. Brooks Forester, Sharleen Joynt and Chris Bukowski all described caving to the pressure during an in-themoment interview. Bukowski, who appeared on the series and its various spinoffs five times, compared the process to a police interrogation. “I was saying lines verbatim from producers because I’d been sitting in a stupid room for an hour and just wanted to go,” he told Kaufman. “You would say something you totally didn’t even believe or want to say, but they just keep asking you and asking you and asking you — just like you’re being interrogated.” The book’s out Tuesday from Dutton.