The Bachelor has been making headlines again, and this time it’s about the currently airing season 27. On Monday, Feb. 20, viewers of the ABC reality dating show saw Bachelor Zach Shallcross and his last group of women go to London. Unfortunately, things went downhill from the middle of the trip when Zach tested positive for COVID-19.
The 26-year-old Bachelor held the show’s first-ever virtual rose ceremony from his hotel room. However, former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe has suggested The Bachelor footage of Zach in bed with COVID-19 was not filmed in London.
While the camera team appeared to check in on the bedridden Zach when filming in London, some Bachelor Nation fans didn’t buy his story on social media.
As it turns out, there is a good reason for that. On her podcast Off the Vine, The Bachelor Franchise alum Bristowe revealed: “When they show B-roll of Zach, and he really doesn’t look like he’s doing too bad despite the dramatic footage of him blowing his nose — you remember him? He’s, like, in his hotel room, in the bed, blowing his nose, he’s got a little fake cup of tea. That’s a hotel in LA.”
According to Bristowe, the show has frequently used the hotel for in-studio specials such as Men/Women Tell All and After the Final Rose. “It was the very unique bed that had writing on the back,” she explained, revealing that the headboard was a dead giveaway.
Bristowe went on to speculate why the producers may have filmed the extra shots of Zach in the LA hotel room. “They must have had to be like, ‘Oh s–t, we need some B-roll of Zach looking sick. And so, then, he’s back in LA, and they’re like, ‘Can we just get you blowing your nose and, like, holding a cup of tea in the hotel room?’”
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The former Bachelorette joked that she found the whole change of location “funny.” She even revealed she was a little envious of Zach’s time off for being sick. She said, “I actually thought in that moment, I was like, ‘Damn, I could have used five days off with some tea in bed during my season.”
With Zach testing positive for COVID-19, it would make sense that producers wouldn’t send a camera crew in to capture him blowing his nose, etc. Those scenes could be reproduced later without putting anybody else at risk.
The Bachelor showrunners did admit they had to make many changes once Zach tested positive for COVID-19. And since he was the show’s first positive case, there was a lot of uncertainty about what would happen.
This wasn’t the first time ‘The Bachelor’ producers were accused of manipulation
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that The Bachelor has been accused of manipulating storylines and footage to create drama on the show. In fact, it’s become something of a tradition for the show to bend the truth and manipulate situations to make for better television.
In the past, contestants have accused the producers of scripting scenes and conversations, using editing to make people look bad or good. Speaking to Who Magazine in 2019, former Bachelor star Brooke Blurton accused producers of trying to stereotype her into a dramatic character for the show.
Despite the accusations of manipulation, The Bachelor remains one of the most popular reality shows on television. Fans tune in season after season to see the drama and romance unfold, regardless of whether it’s real or staged.
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