In his weekly blog for EW, host Chris Harrison defended his show and vaguely denied some of the bombshell Bachelor spoilers that have rattled the show's fans.
The charge? That ABC conspired with Bachelor star Jason Mesnick to d!ck over Melissa Rycroft, with him proposing to her on the season finale only to dump her later for runner-up Molly Malaney, creating "shocking" aftermath footage.
The supposed evidence? A second "After the Final Rose" special scheduled to air Tuesday - after Monday's two-hour finale and first "After the Final Rose" special - and some classic misdirection possibly planned by ABC all season long.
Basically, Harrison denies it was all a set-up, but is purposely vague as far as whether the purported season-ending scenario involving Melissa Rycroft, Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney, as alleged by a certain reality TV blogger, are accurate.
Here are excerpts of Chris' blog (written Saturday) ...
"As much as I'm sorry that some of you have somehow found a reason to doubt my integrity and honesty, there's not a whole hell of a lot I can do about that.
If something you may have heard or seen from somebody you don't know has suddenly changed your opinion of me then is there really anything I could say or do that could change your mind anyway? I learned a long time ago (15 years of marriage) to pick my battles and this, my friends, is one I don't care to fight.
The Bachelor producers ... are not responsible for, nor have we ever scripted, the ending of this show. Let me re-type this slowly so all of you can read this:
We do not, and have not, decided the ending of any of our seasons.
Let's be honest, if we did that, don't you think we would do a much better job and have a much higher success rate?
As much as we'd love to take credit, we didn't tell Trista to fall in love with Ryan, get married, and have two babies.
We didn't script Charlie falling in love with Sara only to struggle as a couple battling an addiction and then persevere and now thrive as a happy couple.
Nor did we tell Brad Womack to not pick anybody and just go back to Texas. These were all cases of good ol' fashioned human behavior and free choice.
I know I didn't really deal with the "Women Tell All" special that millions of you watched Monday (thank you for that) but I felt like we had bigger fish to fry.
I do love the reunion specials but I think it was pretty self explanatory. I don't expect or really want what I have written to solve all the mysteries surrounding this season. I will be back at some point next week to wrap things up I promise.
But let me leave you with one last nugget to chew on. I'm sitting in my house Saturday night on the eve of the Oscars writing this blog.
We have not shot the second "After the Final Rose" special yet! I gotta be honest. It's going to be really hard to go back and edit a show we haven't even shot.
Well, I'm sure some of my new friends out there will figure a way around that one.
I would love to go on but I have to figure out how to explain to my kids that their daddy is a pimp... I loved that comment the most!"
Who do you think will win The Bachelor?
Share
2 Comments
February 28th, 2009 2:50 PM
Chris, I have thought the world of both you and Jason and just refuse to believe that you would both take part in a scam to hurt Melissa. If they do break up, I am sure that they both decided it wasn't right so Jason moved on. I hope he wasn't deceiving Melissa by dating Molly.
One suggestion I have for this show to be successful is that the Bachelor/ette come down to the final two and then take a time till the ATFR to date, sans cameras, and do the FR at the ATFR. I think putting people together in a gorgeous setting for 6 weeks and then keeping apart for 3 months is the road to ruin as evidenced by the success rate. This could be your answer to success in the future. And tell Mike Fleiss that most of us DO tune in to see a love story.
Thanks so much. My best to you and Jason.
March 2nd, 2009 1:11 PM
What do these women not understand about dating/proposal/marriage? If they decided they didn't want marriage for "whatever" reason, they should have been mature enough to bow out early and let this guy move on with his life. This bachelor has a son in the mix which makes this even worse should he be re-jected AGAIN after all these weeks of dating these "eligible" women!
Do these eligible women (and men) not discuss this program with family members prior to leaving for the filming? I think Melissa should run far and fast from her parents because they are making her life miserable! The Bible says, "..leave your father and mother" to start your own life. Jason is not marrying her "family" but, out of respect, wanted and deserved to meet them. I think they (including Melissa) owe the viewing audience a loooooooooong apology. Jason, you don't deserve this...again. You should have stayed closer to Stephanie or Jillian - nice girls who were honest and sincere.