Colton’s fence jump gave series ratings lift
It’s the sort of plot twist you might be more likely to see on reality TV satire UnREAL than on an actual episode of The Bachelor.
The leading man has a meltdown, runs away from his handlers, jumps a tall fence and disappears into the night, vowing that he wants to quit the show.
I can’t recall a piece of footage dominating a season of the long-running dating show the way Colton Underwood’s jump did, but from the moment it was shown in a season preview video last November the fans known as Bachelor Nation were obsessed.
Come January, as each new episode aired with no sign of the jump, they took to social media with variations of the question, “When is Colton going to jump the fence?” There was even a Twitter account named “Did Colton Jump Over the Fence?” the sole purpose of which was to track whether he’d taken the leap and to react when he finally did: “YES. YES. OH MY GOODNESS. IT HAPPENED. AND IT WAS INCREDIBLE.”
And for those of us immersed in Bachelor world, it was. We had never seen a franchise star break the unspoken rules to this extent: declaring repeatedly that he was “done,” throwing away his microphone, physically shoving crew members out of his way and eluding them with what looked like an effortless leap over a barrier estimated to be eight feet high.
The only ones more thrilled than the viewers to see that feat of athleticism were the people who make the show.
The season ratings went up. Monday’s episode, which showed the aftermath of the jump, even beat NBC powerhouse The Voice in viewership. And the episodes that featured the jump drove #TheBachelor to the top of Twitter’s trending list worldwide.
For once, host Chris Harrison’s yearly claims of “the most dramatic season ever” rang true.
But here’s the thing, all that drama was part of what overall was a very ordinary season.
Yes, other things were different apart from Underwood’s disappearing act: He broke with the usual pretence of pretending to be torn between women and told contestant Cassie Randolph that he loved her and wanted to end up with her.
After she failed to reciprocate his love and left (which is what propelled him over that fence), he sent both of the runner-ups home early so that, at least for a portion of Tuesday’s finale, he was a Bachelor without any bachelorettes. But once Underwood had been corralled on his jaunt through the Portuguese countryside, he fell back into the format and hit all the usual beats. Randolph agreed to take him back; they travelled to Spain so she could meet his family; they went on a final date; they stayed together in a “fantasy suite.” There was no engagement, but the couple was beaming and claiming to be “super in love” on the live portion of the show.
So a pretty ordinary outcome, even minus the proposal on a windswept beach.
Here’s the other thing that made the outcome of this season ordinary: the behindthe-scenes manipulation that went into steering the plot.
I’m not suggesting anyone told Underwood to jump a fence, but producers had a hand in setting up the event that precipitated his breakdown.
Weeks of observing the contestants would have tipped them off that Randolph was having serious doubts about staying on the show, given her reluctance to get engaged — a reluctance reinforced when she took Underwood home to meet her parents and her father expressed skepticism about their relationship.
Her doubts were sent into overdrive when producers flew her father to Portugal to con- front her. Sure, they couldn’t guarantee she’d break up with Underwood, but bringing in Dad was their best bet to secure that outcome and send their star into an emotional tailspin.
It’s of a piece with last season’s dirty trick, when producers filmed Bachelor Arie Luyendyk, Jr. blindsiding winner Becca Kufrin with a breakup and kept the cameras rolling well past the point of decency. This ratings-at-anycost mentality could even have something to do with the choice of the next Bachelorette. Hannah Brown seems far from a fan favourite. She could barely string a sentence together Tuesday; appeared overly awkward and nervous; and has previously declared herself as riding on the “hot mess express.”
But when it comes to this reality warhorse, which just finished its 23rd season and will begin its 15th season of The Bachelorette in May, it seems that “hot mess” is just what the producer ordered.
The only ones more thrilled than the viewers to see Underwood’s feat of athleticism were the people who make the show