How ABC broke it off with ‘Bachelor’ author
In a shocking twist you won’t want to miss, it’s Los Angeles Times writer Amy Kaufman who’s dropping the newest and most dramatic ever Bachelor bombshells, not perma-host Chris Harrison.
Those involved with the franchise might be holding their breath like anxious contestants at a rose ceremony with the release of Kaufman’s book, Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure, out Tuesday. And for good reason: It dulls the show’s Neil Lane-sparkle with claims of unseemly tactics used to produce the reality competition series.
“These contestants have a lot of insane stories to share, and if they were willing to talk to me I think there’d be something there,” Kaufman told USA TODAY, explaining how interviews with former cast members gave her the idea for a book.
She writes that the production has gone to extremes in the name of gripping TV, from tracking contestants’ menstrual cycles so it can capture emotional interviews to bending reality by twisting their words in a process called “Frankenbiting.” In Bachelor Nation, Kaufman also says producers pressure contestants into engagements to provide audiences with fairy-tale endings.
Kaufman, who was hooked by Bachelor No. 13 Jason Mesnick’s “insane” season in 2009, recapped the male- and female-led versions of ABC’s dating show for the Los Angeles Times beginning with Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky in 2010 and ending with Juan Pablo Galavis’ Bachelor stint in 2014.
In what she describes as being “banned” by ABC, Kaufman says her access shifted after a 2012 blog post on Ben Flajnik’s “Women Tell All” episode. In the piece, Kaufman wrote about an unaired interaction between producer Elan Gale and Courtney Robertson, the winner of Flajnik’s season, who was positioned as the villain. Afterward, Kaufman says, she was denied access to a conference call with a castoff and was left off an email promoting it.
“One of the producers might’ve said, ‘Wow that wasn’t cool,’ or, ‘ You really went for it with that post,’ or something,” Kaufman says. “But, it was never ‘How could you do that?’ ”
Confused about the change, Kaufman says her editor reached out to ABC, only to learn the network thought her coverage was “too negative.” She adds in her book, producers “no longer wanted me near any show-sponsored events.”
She has also been a target for Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss, who slammed her as a “moron” on Twitter in 2016.
In Bachelor Nation, Kaufman writes of running into a wall masoned by ABC. She says the owner of the Bachelor mansion, which houses the contestants as they vie for love and a final rose, canceled a planned visit to his property in Agoura Hills, Calif.
The owner “was gonna take me there and let me come and tour me around, and then he said, ‘I’m sorry, but I called ABC, and they don’t want me to do this, and I have to keep my client happy,’ ” she says. “So, that didn’t happen, and there were just a lot of people who wrote back and said: ‘I’m still in the industry. I don’t want to piss anyone off,’ like that kind of thing, which you’d expect.”
ABC had no immediate comment on Kaufman’s claims.
Still, Kaufman’s sincere affection for the show runs deep, rivaling the four (yes, only four) Bachelors and Bachelorettes married to the winners of their seasons. She’s part of a “Bach discush” email group, as well as viewing parties that former franchise participants and celebrities have attended.
Kaufman says that after being excluded by ABC and stopping her recaps, she began to watch the show in a new way. “I was just enjoying the night with my friends and (thinking), ‘Why am I so into this, especially when I don’t have a job obligation to the show?’ ”
For Kaufman, it’s the “right reasons” that keep her hooked — a theme that has become almost a joke on the show about contestant’s motivations for appearing on the show.
“I think most of the people who I watch with love railing on the crazy contestants, and it’s just a fun get together every week with all of us,” she says. “I obviously do enjoy those elements, but I honestly do love the parts at the end when they start showing ‘genuine’ connections and seeming like there could be a real possibility of love between them.
“It makes me think about the kind of guys that could be out there and the kind of partner I want to have one day,” she adds. “And I hate that about myself, but I’m like, ‘It’s so nice.’ ”
But she acknowledges that it’s not a perfect love, and she struggles with aspects of the show that don’t align with feminist ideals.
“I don’t love that it upholds a very specific ideal of beauty and that to be loved by a man you need to be, like, 95 pounds and really tan and look great in a bikini and generally have very long flowing hair,” Kaufman says, noting Bekah Martinez’s pixie cut from Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s current season as an exception. “Just by tuning in I’m sort of giving it ratings, and ... I’m perpetuating that. I don’t like that feeling.
“But on the other hand, I think the idea that just because these woman are going on the show and saying, ‘I am putting love first in my life and maybe not my career first,’ I don’t judge the women for doing that, and I don’t think because you are open about your desire to get married that you’re not a feminist. You can be a feminist and love fantasy and love romance.”