9 Most Shocking Revelations From the ‘Bachelor Nation’ Tell-All Book
Bachelor fans beware. After reading Amy Kaufman’s tell-all (yet unauthorized) book, Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Favorite Guilty Pleasure, you may not have the same feelings about the show.
In her stunning debut, Kaufman—a journalist with the Los Angeles Times—pulls the curtain back on the ABC franchise. Thanks to a number of interviews with producers and conversations with past contestant, she has plenty of insider details to share, many of them shocking and controversial.
Here are the 9 biggest revelations from Bachelor Nation, in order from least to most shocking:
9.
The Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants get paid to be there. They can make a salary that’s close to the jobs they leave behind, if they negotiate in the right way.
8.
The money doesn’t stop just because you leave the show, either. Booted contestants could make anywhere between $250 and $10,000 per Instagram post, so don’t make fun of that Fit Tea life ever again.
7.
Producers own the rights to the Neil Lane ring and the TV wedding for two years after the show. So that means if a couple breaks up, they cannot sell the ring and if the couple gets married, they get $10,000/hour to televise it.
6.
The memorable dates that take place all around the world don’t cost ABC anything. Yes, it all revolves around free publicity. Kaufman claims the show encourages producers to negotiate with vendors (hotels, helicopters, horseback riding) for free stuff in exchange for airtime.
5.
Michael Carroll, an ex-producer, told Kaufman that producers label contestants immediately. “You’d pre-categorize (contestants) and have some shorthand as to who they were,” he said. “Mom. Southern Belle. The cheerleader. The b*tch. We all called them ridiculous names. The fat one, the hot one, the crier.”
4.
Kaufman explains how editors use a method called “Frankenbiting” to create the perfect picture. She describes it as a “sound bite that has been re-cut so that it has a different meaning.” So a word might be dropped in a sentence to force the plot move along. The only part of the show not spliced and diced? The emotional rose ceremonies.
3.
There is allegedly a psychologist available to the contestants 24/7 to help them unload the emotional stress while filming. In addition, each contestant is also supposed to meet with a private investigator so producers can stay ahead of any controversial or tabloid-y stories that might be lurking in one’s closet.
2.
Top producers supposedly offers other crew members money for catching juicy drama. “The first producer to get tears? A hundred bucks,” writes Kaufman. “Catch a chick puking on-camera? A hundred bucks!”
1.
Producers tracked the contestants’ menstrual cycles to interview them at optimal emotional moments for heightened reactions. Former Bachelor/Bachelorette producer, Ben Hatta, said, “So a girl’s now crying, mid-interview, about nothing, or being reactionary to things that are super-small. It helped the producers, because now you’ve got someone who is emotional—and all you want is emotion.”
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