The Bachelor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the 1999 movie The Bachelor starring Chris O'Donnell, see The Bachelor (movie).

The Bachelor
Genre	Competitive reality show
Running time	60 minutes (including commercials)
Starring	Chris Harrison (host) Alex Michel, Aaron Buerge, Andrew Firestone, Bob Guiney, Charlie O'Connell, Jesse Palmer and Dr. Travis Lane Stork
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	ABC
Original run	March 25, 2002–Present
No. of episodes	81
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Bachelor is a American reality television dating game show that debuted in 2002 on ABC. The series has been renewed through spring 2007. The 2006 edition is titled The Bachelor: Rome.

1 About the Show
2 Ratings
3 Season 8
4 Season 9
5 The Bachelors
6 External links

[edit] About the Show

The series revolves around a wealthy bachelor courted by 25 women. The bachelor eventually selects one of the group to continue their romance. The show begins with a series of group dates, after which female contestants are eliminated until only a handful remain. At this point the contestants begin to go out on individual dates with the bachelor, which, for contestants not eliminated, culminate in overnight dates and meetings between the bachelor and bachelorettes' families. The series quickly gained a cult following. Many of its catchphrases have entered into the pop culture lexicon, such as the refrain, "Will you accept this rose?" The runner-up from the first season, Trista Rehn, later starred in The Bachelorette, a spin-off program in which the format was gender-reversed. In light of the fact that many of the couples formed during previous seasons later ended their relationships, the premise of finding true love has proven difficult to sustain. To maintain interest, producers added an assortment of "twists" to the format. The fourth season featured Bob Guiney, popular comic relief from the first season of The Bachelorette. The fifth season featured NFL player Jesse Palmer. The sixth season had yet another new twist, as the women of the house were forced to choose between two eligible bachelors. They chose fisherman Byron Velvick; he ultimately ended up with none of the original women, as season four contestant Mary Delgado was returned to the show and became his final choice.

[edit] Ratings

Solid ratings throughout the eighth completed editions have resulted in an average audience of nearly 10 million viewers, with some decline in the series' more recent seasons. While much of the series has aired on Wednesday nights — in a timeslot now occupied by Lost — its ratings slide reversed somewhat with a move to Mondays in January 2006.

[edit] Season 8

Host: Chris Harrison

The show was renewed for an eighth season and first ran on January 9, 2006. The season was set in Paris, France, and featured bachelor Dr. Travis Lane Stork, a 33-year-old emergency medicine resident from Nashville, Tennessee and a graduate of Duke University and University of Virginia. In the final episode that aired on February 27, 2006, Stork gave the final rose to fellow Nashvillian and kindergarten teacher Sarah Stone, a 26-year-old University of Tennessee alumna. Just more than a week after the airing of the finale, and nearly four months after the eight season wrapped, Stork and Stone announced they were no longer a couple in a joint interview with Nashville's daily newspaper, The Tennessean. Both cited contractual post-production obligations to remain apart as a major reason the relationship failed. In a season fairly free of wild behavior, one of the more memorable moments of the involved bachelorette and fellow doctor Allie Garcia-Serra, who angrily confronted Travis after she was not given a rose in the first episode.

[edit] Season 9

The ninth season of the show began airing on October 3, 2006. This time, the scene is in Rome, Italy, and features the bachelor "prince" Lorenzo Borghese, a 34 year-old pet cosmetic entrepreneur who was born in Milan but has resided in Manhattan since 1987. The show had a new twist this year: two beautiful Italian women, Agnese and Cosetta, were suddenly added to the cast of twenty-five, adding new tensions. Agnese stayed on the show until after the group dates, when Lorenzo eliminated her because of their communication barrier.