The Bachelor is suffering from its toxic, Real Housewives-like drama between women

BuzzFeed News

"The Bachelor has always been more about the drama between its women contestants than about the search for Mr. Right," says Pier Dominguez. "Bringing together complete strangers and locking them in a house while they date the same man is a breeding ground for heightened and highly editable emotions. And for years the 'organic' drama of that scenario seemed to be enough to keep viewers tuning in. But the dramatic strategy has recently pivoted into tropes familiar to any viewer of Real Housewives: bringing in women who have histories outside of the show." Dominguez adds: "Because the castmates on a show like Real Housewives coexist and interact through multiple seasons, their relationships and alliances get fleshed out in a deeper way, and there is a balance between cycles of friendship and conflict. On The Bachelor, it just flattens most of the show’s drama into petty conflict."