STEALING THE SHOW
Becca’s big break hijacked by her co-stars’ bad behavior
By JACLYN HENDRICKS ‘T HE Bachelorette” star Becca Kufrin can’t stay away from reality TV’s bad boys — and now she’s taken a back seat this season to her castmates’ bad behavior.
Nine suitors remain on ABC’s reality warhorse and, Monday night, viewers will see how Kufrin’s journey continues — and if controversial suitors Garrett Yrigoyen and Lincoln Adim will survive another week (to once again stealing Kufrin’s thunder).
“I’ve heard it, I’ve gotten e-mails about it ... that it seems to be people are upset that all this negativity is coming out with the Lincoln stuff, the Garrett stuff,” says Stephen Carbone, who writes popular “Bachelor” blog “Reality Steve.” “We’ve never had something this egregious in the past with contestants.”
Frontrunner Yrigoyen, 29, came under fire shortly after the spring premiere for allegedly “liking” offensive social media posts. Though he’s since apologized — and Kufrin herself has spoken out on his behalf — fans appear to be mixed on how they feel about him and all the accompanying negativity surrounding this 14th season.
Adim, 26, was convicted of indecent assault and battery in May, resulting from an incident in Boston two years ago. Warner Bros. released a statement in June, noting they were not aware of the incident or charges.
Despite a dark cloud seemingly looming over a show which thrives off creating real-life fairy tales, #BachelorNation still likes what it sees. The show has averaged around 6.8 million viewers thus far this season, down a bit from last season’s average (7.5 million) with star Rachel Lindsay (she ended up engaged to Miami chiropractor Bryan Abasolo and they’re still together).
“[The fans] are enjoying this season and they really like Becca as the ‘Bachelorette,’ so I guess it’s in the eye of the beholder,” says Carbone, who thinks Kufrin was the right choice to star in this season since viewers were already invested in her story.
(Kufrin got engaged to Arie Luyendyk Jr. on “The Bachelor” last season — and he then infamously dumped her as the cameras rolled.)
“There was no better person to cast as the lead this season than [Kufrin], at least going into it,” says Carbone. “She had the best storyline and this show works off storylines. You’ve got to get your audience behind your lead. Not only did she get dumped [on ‘The Bachelor’], but she was the ‘winner’ for two months. Here she was thinking she had found her true love — and then [Luyendyk] blindsides her.”
While viewers won’t see the recipient of Becca’s final rose until later this summer, Carbone suspects Internet sleuths will yearn to uncover potential dirty secrets of future contestants.
“I think people now, because of what happened this season with Garrett and Lincoln ... there are going to be so many fans of the show that are going to want to be the ones to find something out,” he says.
“The Bachelorette” 8 p.m. Monday on ABC