The Bachelorette: Chris Harrison had no knowledge of Lee Garrett tweets
Show host Chris Harrison is typically the mouthpiece for production in moments of controversy, and in a post on Twitter, he said that “of course” production didn’t know about some of the tweets that were posted. Is it comforting in some way that a guy showing racist behavior wasn’t cast intentionally on the show? Sure, but this shows yet again a systemic problem in reality TV casting: Producers booking people without scrolling through their entire social-media history. This is something that does have a tendency to happen with shows like Big Brother, but it’s been reasonably rare here with The Bachelorette.
It may be a pain in the butt to go back years into someone’s timeline to look at old tweets, but you better believe that someone else out there is going to do it. Maybe they are a member of the media looking for a story, or maybe they are someone who is just bored and will forward said story to a member of the media. Either way, you do have to recognize that this is something that could very well happen.
Will this scandal hurt The Bachelorette? Maybe slightly, but it’s doubtful that the show is going to be losing too many viewers over it. It’d be far more harmful in the event that Lee was someone who seemed to be getting a great edit in the coming weeks, but all indications from early previews are that he’s a bit of a toolbox who tries to pit guys against each other and stir up drama in the house just because it’s fun for him to do so. He’s probably not winning this show, and with that, this won’t cause production too many headaches. (Can you imagine what would’ve happened if he was someone who did? That would be a publicity nightmare.)
Ultimately, here’s to hoping that The Bachelorette — and all reality shows in general — find a way to better vet these contestants before they are put on the show.
For some further updates all about the series, head over to the link here right now. (Photo: ABC.)