Apparently there’s a new TV show called Bachelorette on ABC TV (the Disney channel, remember) that “pairs the bachelorette with 25 men to find her one true love.” Not only is it unabashedly ripped off from The Bachelor, but what I find even more interesting is that the woman who is the ostensible star of Bachelorette, Trista Rehn, was the #2 choice of the man in the Bachelor show. Is this incestuous or what? As if the concept itself wasn’t pathetic, the fact that the Bachelorette is one of the “contestants” (?) on the Bachelor is just mind boggling.
Think about this: everyone who signs up as a possible bachelor or bachelorette agrees to the following small print in the eligibility statement:
“Each applicant acknowledges, understands and agrees that applicants’ submission of the Participant Application entries may cause Producer to disclose information to third persons connected with the Program and to compile information from third parties in connection with such application and the application process about applicant’s private, personal and public life, personal relationships with third persons, confidences and secrets with family, friends, significant others, including without limitation: physical appearance; personal characteristics/habits (both physical and mental); medical treatment/history (both physical and mental); sexual history; educational and employment history; military history; criminal investigations, charges and records; personal views and opinions about life, the world, politics, religion, and the like”
What most bugs me about this entire concept is that it reduces the search for love to a cattle call: the Bachelorette must pick one of the twenty-five men selected by the producers and, in the other show, the Bachelor must pick one of the twenty-five women selected. Is that how love works, then, as a statistical crapshoot?
If we’re willing to be entertained by someone choosing a life partner as a TV show, we’re all contributing to the decline of the marriage vow. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that getting married should be more serious, and more long-lasting, than just another 30 minute entertainment on television?.