When it comes to reality TV romances, there’s a certain franchise that dominates here in Australia. You guessed it, it’s The Bachelor.
Since the show kicked off Down Under in 2013 when a fresh-faced chiropractor by the name of Tim Robards decided to find love on national television, Aussies have been obsessed.
There’s glitz, glamour, a handful of villains and of course, that overarching romance that culminates in a fairytale declaration of love.
Two years after the first season of The Bachelor we were granted with the female spin-off of The Bachelorette and we’ve seen some iconic men and women try to find their Mr or Ms Right, from Richie ‘Cool Bananas’ Strahan to the self-confessed ‘Inappropriate Bachelorette’ Angie Kent.
However whilst the Australian franchise is far more successful than the American original, there is a big difference when it comes to the success rates of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.
Of the eight men who have taken on the role of the Bachelor, half of them have found long-lasting love and are still together as of now. But when it comes to the seven women who have worn the Bachelorette crown, only one is still with her chosen guy – TV journalist Georgia Love.
2020 Bachelorette sisters Elly and Becky Miles are the latest to go through highly-publicised break ups after putting their hearts on the line. So why have the men been luckier in love than the women?
Well, some reality TV fans reckon it all boils down to the type of men who are applying for The Bachelorette versus the women applying for The Bachelor.
“I think the Bachelorettes have it a bit tougher than the Bachelors do,” Shameless podcast co-host Michelle Andrews mused in a recent episode.
“I think the women going on this show are more likely to be hopeless romantics who actually do want a romantic relationship. I feel like with the recent Bachelorettes we’ve had in Elly and Becky, Angie Kent, Ali Oetjen, Sophie Monk – I feel like they really do get that frat boy, boys’ trip vibe of the contestants going on and it truly doesn’t seem like many, maybe only a couple on each season, are genuinely invested in a relationship. The rest of them just want to go on for a holiday.”
It certainly seems like the last few batches of Bachelorette boys have been all about upping their profiles rather than finding love.
When Sophie Monk followed her heart and chose playboy Stu Laundy, few were surprised when they announced their break up just months later and Sophie described them as “very different people.”
Ali Oetjen and Angie Kent were also presented with similar, Instagram-obsessed suitors – something Angie commented on when the third season of Bachelor in Paradise aired.
“Me sitting here knowing that 98% of the fellas from my season were casted and only there to get onto BiP. This season should have been renamed ‘98% from Angie’s Season of Bachelorette, in Paradise’… Love that for me,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories as she sipped her wine knowingly.
Even Georgia Love, who met fiancé Lee Elliott in 2016 when she was the Bachelorette admitted that there were men on her season who weren’t there for the right reasons, as the old reality TV phrase goes.
“I’m not silly. And I don’t think you’d have to be silly to know that out of 18 blokes – who willingly chose to go on a reality TV show – some had intentions other than being my boyfie,” she wrote in a column for TV WEEK.
“There were, at the very least, three guys on my series who I don’t think realised the idea of the show was that someone would end up with me. I’m almost certain two of them didn’t know my name.”
So what makes for a Bachelor/Bachelorette success story?
Season three’s Bachelor Sam Wood told Now To Love in 2019 that he was happy when astrophysicist Matt Agnew was announced as the Bachelor, explaining that it was “quite nice” to not see a celebrity or former contestant in the leading role.
“I’ve got such fond memories of how I felt getting thrown in the deep end of literally knowing nothing about the show and not having any agenda or anything like that so I definitely think that’s one of the reasons why Snez and I worked out so well,” he revealed, referring to his season’s winner Snezana Wood, who he has been married to since 2018 and shares three children with.
Let’s hope the casting team ditch the party boys for 2021 and that both the Bachelor and Bachelorette along with their contestants are 100 per cent there for the right reasons.