The Bachelorette


The Bachelorette is an American reality television dating game show that debuted on ABC on January 8, 2003. The show is a spin-off of The Bachelor, which airs on the same network. The first season featured Trista Rehn, the runner-up from the first season of The Bachelor, offering the opportunity for Rehn to choose a husband among 25 bachelors. The 2004 season of The Bachelorette again took a runner-up from the previous season of The Bachelor. After last airing on February 28, 2005, the series returned to ABC during the spring of 2008, following an absence of three years.
On August 5, 2019, the series was renewed for a sixteenth season.

Plot

All of the rules are adapted from the rules of The Bachelor—its parent show. As the name implies, the series revolves around a single bachelorette, usually a former contestant from the previous Bachelor season, and a pool of romantic interests which could include a potential husband for the bachelorette; it is essentially a gender-reversed version of the parent show. The show starts with the bachelorette standing in front of the mansion and greeting each male contestant individually, as they make an entrance to the bachelorette. After each rose ceremony, at least one contestant does not receive a rose and goes home; therefore, the pool of contenders gets smaller, and eventually leaves the bachelorette to decide between two contestants in the final rose ceremony.
For the final selection, one of two male suitors proposes to the bachelorette. Unlike its parent show, all fifteen seasons of The Bachelorette have ended with a proposal which the bachelorette either accepted or declined. Trista Rehn's marriage to Ryan Sutter, Ashley Hebert's marriage to JP Rosenbaum, Desiree Hartsock's marriage to Chris Siegfried, and Rachel Lindsay’s marriage to Bryan Abasolo have been the only marriages to result. The weddings of the first two were broadcast on ABC.

Casting

Season 11 was the first season to feature a twist in casting. Since producers could not decide between The Bachelor Season 19 contenders Kaitlyn Bristowe and Britt Nilsson, the 25 men participating had to decide which bachelorette would make the best wife. In the end, more men voted for Kaitlyn and Britt was sent home on the first night.
Season 13 was the first season to have an African-American contestant, Rachel Lindsay, as the lead in the entire Bachelor franchise.

Questions of authenticity

Family Guy parodied the show's authenticity in the episode "Brian the Bachelor" on June 26, 2005.
The Bachelorette season 4 winner, Jesse Csincsak, commented that contestants must follow producers' orders and that a storyline was fabricated in the editing room.
On March 15, 2010, The Bachelorette creator Mike Fleiss appeared on 20/20 to confess that he developed the show's contestants into characters that catered to his audience's tastes, and that they "need fair share of villains every season". Fleiss has come under fire for admitting that The Bachelor has less to do with reality than it does making good television.
By season 7 of The Bachelorette, some believed that actors were being hired by ABC to play specific roles on the show. Some viewers were becoming tired of the show's scripted nature and speaking out.
In 2018, Amy Kaufman published a book titled, 'Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America's Favorite Guilty Pleasure'. This book provided insight on some of the manipulation tactics that producers employ in order to boost drama and ratings.

Setting

Much like the parent show, the first two seasons were filmed in a luxurious house in Los Angeles County, California, and "Villa De La Vina" in Agoura Hills, California for later seasons. Since the fifth season, the third and remaining episodes filmed around the world. Episodes have been filmed throughout the United States, Canada, Spain, Iceland, Turkey, Portugal, Thailand, China, Bermuda, England, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and Ireland. In season 3, filming was located in New York City; Charlotte, North Carolina for season 8, where Emily Maynard lived so that she could stay with her daughter Ricki during production. In addition to Villa De La Vina mansion, the contestants in seasons 4 and 5 lived in a bunkhouse close to the mansion. The sixteenth season is set to film entirely within the United States, due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

Seasons

#Original runBacheloretteWinnerRunner-upProposalStill togetherRelationship notes
1January 8–February 19, 2003Trista RehnRyan SutterCharlie MaherRehn and Sutter were married on December 6, 2003 on national television. They have two children, son Maxwell Alston "Max" and daughter Blakesley Grace.
2January 14–February 26, 2004Meredith PhillipsIan MckeeMatthew HicklPhillips and McKee were engaged at the end of the show but ended their relationship in February 2005.
3January 10–February 28, 2005Jen SchefftJerry FerrisJohn Paul MerrittDuring the first live final rose ceremony, Schefft chose Ferris over Meritt. Ferris proposed to Schefft, but she rejected his proposal.
4May 19–July 7, 2008DeAnna PappasJesse CsincsakJason MesnickPappas chose Csincsak, and their wedding was set for May 9, 2009, but they broke up in November 2008.
5May 18–July 28, 2009Jillian HarrisEd SwiderskiKiptyn LockeHarris, the first Canadian bachelorette, chose Ed Swiderski in the finale, but in July 2010, it was announced that Harris and Swiderski had broken up.
6May 24–August 2, 2010Ali FedotowskyRoberto MartinezChris LambtonFedotowsky and Martinez got engaged in the season finale, but the couple broke up in November 2011.
7May 23–August 1, 2011Ashley HebertJ.P. RosenbaumBen FlajnikHebert and Rosenbaum married on December 1, 2012, and their wedding aired as a TV special on December 16 of that year. The couple have two children, son Fordham Rhys and daughter Essex Reese.
8May 14–July 23, 2012Emily MaynardJef HolmArie Luyendyk Jr.Maynard and Holm ended their relationship in October 2012.
9May 27–August 5, 2013Desiree HartsockChris SiegfriedDrew KenneyHartsock and Siegfried were married on January 18, 2015 and currently live in Portland, Oregon. They have two children together, sons Asher Wrigley and Zander Cruz.
10May 19–July 28, 2014Andi DorfmanJosh MurrayNick ViallMurray proposed to Dorfman in the season finale. However, the two announced their breakup on January 8, 2015.
11May 18–July 27, 2015Kaitlyn BristoweShawn BoothNick ViallBristowe and her fellow The Bachelor season 19 contestant Britt Nilsson were selected as candidates. In the second episode, the men chose Bristowe to be the Bachelorette. Bristowe then picked Shawn Booth in the finale. The couple officially ended their relationship in September 2018, but it wasn't made public until November of that year.
12May 23–August 1, 2016JoJo FletcherJordan RodgersRobby HayesRodgers proposed to Fletcher in the finale, and the two are still engaged as of . The two star in a series called Cash Pad on CNBC, where they flip houses. Rodgers re-proposed to Fletcher on August 25, 2019. Fletcher announced on June 13, 2020, via an Instagram post, that today was supposed to be her wedding day to Rodgers. However, it was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
13May 22–August 7, 2017Rachel LindsayBryan AbasoloPeter KrausLindsay and Abasolo were married on August 24, 2019. They currently live in Miami, Florida.
14May 28–August 6, 2018Becca KufrinGarrett YrigoyenBlake HorstmannKufrin and Yrigoyen are still engaged as of .
15May 13–July 30, 2019Hannah BrownJed WyattTyler CameronOn the season’s finale, it was revealed that Brown and Wyatt broke up in June 2019 after Brown discovered that Wyatt had a girlfriend at the time of filming. Wyatt also admitted that he went on the show to promote his music career. After the show, she reached out to Tyler Cameron and went on a date, although the relationship did not progress.
16Fall 2020Clare Crawley

Reunion

On April 10, 2019, it was announced that a two-hour special titled Bachelorette Reunion: The Biggest Bachelorette Reunion in Bachelor History Ever! would premiere on May 6, 2019. Bachelorettes from seasons 2 and 3, Meredith Phillips and Jen Schefft didn’t make an appearance during the reunion special. Although host Chris Harrison claimed Meredith Phillips was unavailable to attend, Reality Steve reported her sending him the text “No, I was never contacted or spoke to anyone. I didn’t even know the show was happening.” in regards to the reunion. Schefft couldn't make it due to a long planned family vacation.

Ratings

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International versions