Bachelorette No. 8 starts thinning herd Monday
I am still at a loss to explain the continued popularity of ABC’S The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. Completely baffled. No clue.
Viewers get another dose of the lady’s choice when Season 8 of The Bachelorette kicks in at 8:30 p.m. Monday. The first culling of the suitor herd will take 90 minutes.
The popularity? Maybe there’s not enough romance in our busy, hectic lives. Maybe we’re all closet voyeurs living vicariously through the pretty young single people on the programs.
Maybe we’re just too lazy to turn off the TV and read a book.
Do the millions who tune in each week still believe in fairy tales and happily ever after? The track record for The Bachelorette isn’t all that inspiring. What do we expect? They’re looking for love on a reality show.
Here’s what happened to the previous seven women who each opened her heart to a couple of dozen guys who all claimed to be totally smitten with her.
1. Trista Rehn. Still the poster girl for the series, Trista married Colorado firefighter Ryan Sutter in 2003 and they have a couple of kids.
2. Meredith Phillips got engaged to Ian Mckee, but they broke it off.
3. Jennifer Schefft — In the smartest move so far, Jen spurned all the suitors.
4. Deanna Pappas broke off her engagement to winner Jesse Csincsak, but later married the brother of another Bachelorette contestant.
5. Jillian Harris broke up with winner Ed Swinderski, but (even better!) landed a designer gig on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
6. Ali Fedotowsky moved in with winner Roberto Martinez, but they later broke up.
7. Ashley Hebert is still engaged to (and living with) winner J.P. Rosenbaum. They claim they’re planning a fall wedding. I’ll believe it when it happens.
So far, that’s 1 for 7 — a .143 batting average — for the ladies. Not very impressive.
But romantic hope springs eternal, and now it’s time for “fan favorite” Emily Maynard to take her turn at bat.
Fans already know the sad, tragic tale of the 26-year-old single mom. In 2004, she got engaged to NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick (Joseph Riddick Hendrick IV). Hendrick died in a plane crash in October 2004, leaving his 18-yearold fiancee pregnant.
Josephine Riddick “Ricki” Hendrick was born June 29, 2005.
What’s a young single mom to do to find love? Last year, Emily went on Season 15 of The Bachelor, Brad Womack’s Round 2. Womack had rejected all the contestants in Season 11.
This time, Brad was smitten. Emily was smitten. Everyone was smitten and the smittenees got engaged.
Happy ending? Nope. The couple split in June. A “tearyeyed” Emily told People magazine, “Just because we love each other doesn’t mean we’re right for each other.”
But the West Virginia native (who now lives in Charlotte, N.C.) is a plucky Southerner who, ABC says, “believes that she will find her soul mate on The Bachelorette.”
Among the 25 men who’ll be seeking to charm her socks off, Emily “is looking for someone who makes her laugh, doesn’t take himself too seriously and can be her best friend. Emily is hoping that the third time is the charm.”
After tucking Ricki in, Emily arrives at a Charlotte mansion, where she greets her 25 potential soul mates.
They include a biology teacher, a mushroom farmer, a marine biologist and a former professional football player.
One single dad produces a glass slipper and proclaims her a princess; and one wealthy man’s grand entrance in a helicopter makes him the object of ridicule from the other bachelors.
Emily’s first-impression rose will save one guy right away, but the others will sweat out the initial rose ceremony that’ll trim the remaining 24 guys down to 19. Those 19 will move into the mansion and the game is on.
Season finales. Closing up shop for the season today and Monday are the following series.
Today: Survivor (two hours), Desperate Housewives (two hours); Once Upon a Time.
Monday: How I Met Your Mother (full hour), Two and a Half Men, Gossip Girl, Bones, Mike & Molly, Smash, Heart of Dixie, Hawaii Five-0.
Reminder: Season 7 of America’s Got Talent comes to NBC at 7 p.m. Monday. Shock jock Howard Stern replaces Piers Morgan as a judge. Are you shocked and disgusted? Me neither.