As an avid fan of the “Bachelor” TV franchise, I will happily be the first to admit that my favorite thing to do on a Monday night is grab a blanket, pop some popcorn, and drink grape juice as I sit on my couch drowning in the gossip and drama. After watching these shows for so many seasons, I’ve began to notice a blueprint, almost, for what each season looks like, and one major pillar of said blueprint is the presence of a villain. The villain seems to be hand selected by the show’s producers, and because of this, their lives are impacted in terrible ways.
In some respects, I would say that the die-hard fans of this franchise seem to have cult-like qualities, in the sense that they will all join together in unfaltering support for, or in pure hatred for contestants that join each show. These shows are edited and produced in a way that makes them incredibly easy to get invested in, and people often forget that the contestants are people just like anyone else. Producers of the show will purposefully choose shots and moments that invoke and show the most amount of drama because it is ultimately their job to air the things that will bring in views. This means that contestants on any of their shows can be shown in their worst moments at any time because of their entertainment factor. What we don’t see as viewers from these villains, though, are the sentimental, positive, and human moments they have on their seasons.
One contestant that specifically comes to mind is Caelynn Miller-Keyes. She was on Colton Underwood’s season of “The Bachelor” and then season 6 of “Bachelor in Paradise.” During her days on “The Bachelor,” she was the villain that the producers created. She was a pageant winner that seemed to cause a lot of drama, especially with fellow contestant Hannah Brown. They had known each other before the show filmed because of their pageant days, but this feud and the drama surrounding Caelynn throughout the entire season caused her to be disliked by so many fans.
“The internet can be very dark” she says in an Instagram post talking about how trolls have targeted and threatened her. She exposes that not only her, but some of her fellow contestants had all received threats from these online trolls. Caelynn specifically mentioned instances where she had been told to kill herself. The contestants that become villains on these types of shows are hit with so much hate and harsh words that it can truly affect their mental health in negative ways. Trolls often forget that the people they say terrible things to are people just like them, who have emotions and feelings too. People shouldn’t have to face so much backlash simply because of how they are portrayed on a television show. People make mistakes, and many times will make poor decisions, but it’s no reason to threaten and tear them apart through words on a social media platform.
Happy to see a fellow member of bachelor nation. But I agree, I too am a fan of the show and have been watching it for years. It never fails that season after season, they set up certain people from the cast who are then looked at as the villain. While there is so much more that goes on that is no aired, the aftermath of this kind of production can take a turn for the worst for these so called “villains” on the show. These people have to deal with the aftershock of what they were made up to be and the internet is not the friendliest place. However, if these cast members make a return on the show in the summer paradise show, there is always a chance that they can turn around people’s opinions!