Listening to ex-producers speak candidly about The Bachelor and Bachelorette’s production always manages to take the ‘real’ out of reality TV, and the latest spill is no different.
In an on-air interview with Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Byron on Friday, an ex-Bachelor producer named Steph sought to destroy any last believability the show had.
During the chat, Steph covered all bases, revealing cocktail parties are filmed over two nights, contestants are paid very little, and sadly, strict laws permit only a small number of beverages an hour.
When asked about the cocktail parties, Steph said, “We actually filmed that over two nights. If you look closely, about halfway through the cocktail party they’re looking a bit blurry-eyed, and then when it comes to the rose ceremony they’re fresh as a daisy.”
Though, it wouldn’t be the grog making them blurry-eyed, given the regulations around drinking on shows.
“Yes, they’re allowed to drink. The rules on Australian TV are very different to American TV — it’s only two drinks per hour … roughly.“
“Do you remember years ago, Big Brother, that [turkey slap] incident? That changed all the rules, you weren’t allowed to get blind after that. They threaten that someone could turn up on set at any time [to police the rule], but it’s loosely two drinks per hour.”
Surprisingly, Steph added producers are likely to coerce the Bachelor/Bachelorette to keep the crazies around.
“[The Bachelor]’s not told, but he’s guided towards decisions. I think the Bachelor keeps certain people in because it takes the weight off his shoulders.”
“He’s being encouraged, and he’s seeing the merit in it, because then he doesn’t have to be this outrageous entertaining character the whole time; she can carry a bit of the workload.”
So, how much do contestants get paid?
“It’s not a lot — enough to cover their rent, their phone bills … they’re certainly not making a profit from it. Well not on my series, anyway.”
And lastly, Steph was asked how much of the show is scripted.
She responded, “They’re not fed lines, but there are standard producer tricks. I’ll say, I’m going to ask a question, you repeat the question back in your answer.”
“I’ll say ‘How did you feel when Richie brutally rejected you at dinner?’ and they have to [say] ‘When Richie brutally rejected me at dinner, I felt …’ They can always say they don’t want to say it, and that’s fine.”
“But the thing with people on reality shows nowadays is they’re quite savvy, so they want to be entertaining because that means more airtime. The smart ones will give us good stuff naturally.”
B&T has contacted Channel 10 for comment.
