It’s no secret that we genuinely LOVE The Bachelor and we started this website because of that sincere love, but there is no denying that The Bachelor has become BIG BIG business for ABC and their advertisers to the tune of $187.3 million in during the 2014-15 season alone.
On March 25, 2002 the show premiered with Bachelor Alex Michel. We had seen reality dating shows before, but nothing as amazing and ridiculous as this. I think the success of the show was a result of the seriousness with which it took it’s responsibility of finding the lead a life-partner, and the seriousness with which the contestants took the process.
The show is certainly not with out its critics though—-people who lament about how the show is fake and the couples never last, or it’s gotten boring, whatever…..Say what you want about the show, producers are laughing all the way to the bank.
The Bachelor is an anomaly in the world of television. Most shows never last more than 7 seasons—even the most successful, but The Bachelor is now in it’s 20th season and is almost as popular as ever.
The only bad news for ABC is they are still down from their high according to Kantar Media, down from $212.5 million in 2012-13, but up from $111.3 million in 2007-08.
“While all shows continue to erode due to increased fragmentation, ‘The Bachelor,’ like ‘Survivor,’ has been able to remain viable in a cluttered landscape thanks to the fact that these shows are built for real-time conversation and social media, which certainly help nourish the brand,” said Billie Gold, VP-director programming research, Amplifi U.S., part of the Dentsu Aegis Network.
I love that Reality Steve referred to this article and was outraged that he was not mentioned as the official show spoiler— in other words his point is that the show is successful despite the fact that he continuously spoils it.
Well true but producers have no way of knowing if the show would be more successful without the spoilers so Reality Steve is a rather moot point. Plus I think it is painfully obvious that Steve’s “sources” are one source and it’s someone who has the power and immunity to listen to phone calls and scrape texts and emails without fear of prosecution—hmmmm where would someone get that power from?
Thus RS is just a guy that got lucky and happens to have a buddy that has “legal” access to this info. So I don’t know why he is so bent out of shape about being ignored by the MSM. I think he should just count his lucky stars.
Viva The Bachelor!!!