On March 25, 2002 the world was introduced to a new form of reality television that would grow to consume the lives of many. The Bachelor is an American dating and relationship reality television series on ABC. The show is hosted by Chris Harrison. Currently in the 24th season of the Bachelor, the show is still going strong. From the original show, there have been 15 seasons of its spin off The Bachelorette; Bachelor Pad which did not last long but had the same concept as The Bachelor and The Bachelorette; and six seasons of Bachelor in Paradise, in which participants who were not chosen in the The Bachelor or The Bachelorette from various seasons gather on a beach in Mexico and must hook up to survive and stay on the show.
The Bachelor has created words that when spoken in today’s society are recognized whether you have seen the show or not. Terms like “rose ceremony” ,”final rose”, “Fantasy Suite”, “journey”, “connection” and “here for the right reasons” are all mentioned throughout the course of the show. The show is developed through the lightning flash timeline of what a typical relationship would move in. Starting with group dates (kind of like hanging out with friends, that are all of one sex, where there is a common interest in the one man or woman of the group), to one-on-one dates (like a normal date with a person), to more serious one-on-one dates, to meeting the parents (referred to in the show as “Hometowns”), to taking a weekend away (the “Overnights,” complete with a “Fantasy Suite”), and finally ending with a proposal where the couple is then allowed to take their relationship into the real world.
When The Bachelor was introduced in 2002 it was “hot on the heels of Survivor, Big Brother, and Fear Factor, and months before American Idol, creator Mike Fleiss claims the concept is sui generis, developed at the same time as those other shows” (Yuan 2016). The creation of The Bachelor never thought of the large scale it would grow to have among people. In television ratings from 2019, The Bachelor beat the television show This Is Us into second place, with the NBC drama recording a 1.8 rating and roughly 7.5 million total viewers of the show. The age demographic ranges roughly from 18-49 but even still expands from those ages. Almost equal numbers of men (65 percent) and women (68 percent) watch these kinds of reality shows for the contestant drama. With this show having a high volume of viewers it coined the term “Bachelor Nation” to further explain their following.
Once a part of the Bachelor ‘family’ people tend to stay invested. The current season of The Bachelor revolves around Peter Weber, an airline pilot who caught the attention of Hannah Brown and fans alike during Season 15 of The Bachelorette. Peter came back to the Bachelor Nation looking for a co-pilot who will join him for a life full of love, laughter, dancing and adventure. Peter, who had his heart broken after expressing his love on The Bachelorette to Hannah Brown came back to be on another season of The Bachelor for his shot at love. While on Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette Peter formed a friendship with Tyler Cameron. While Cameron is no longer involved with the current season he is still apart of the ‘family’ known as Bachelor Nation. Bachelor Nation is a fan based group of The Bachelor helps to share the information not only from the current season but also the lives of participants both currently and past. As the current season is airing Tyler Cameron has made comments with the live viewing of the show making jabs at both the girls who are the contestants as well as jabs at his friend Peter. Cameron has shown that he is investing in the show as much as everyone else is.
The Bachelor has grown so large in volume that it is almost not hard to know what is happening in the current season. With social media being used by roughly 79 percent of the population of the United States alone, fans of The Bachelor go to the media to be able to share their thoughts, feelings as well as predictions as to what might happen in the next episode. Tweets during the airing of The Bachelor flood in, memes are created with drama that has occurred during the show, chatter among people rises of who they want to win. Even people who are not invested in the show, while they may not be able to give specific examples of what is happening from episode to episode, are able to give a general summary of what is occurring in the current season. Bachelor Nation has grown so large that it has influences and extends beyond the community. Media has allowed for a show such as The Bachelor to grow to have a large impact on people just constantly being up to date with information that is occurring allowing every and anyone to become invest and be a part of #bachelornation.
