‘The Bachelor Canada’ season 1 in review: Did Brad Smith’s journey deliver?

Now that we have had a little bit more time to digest “The Bachelor Canada” as a season, and also compare it a little bit to the series here in America, there is really only one thing to do: give the show a round of applause. This was a short and imperfect season in many ways, but there was so much here that was done correctly that you cannot feel anything but hope that CityTV has a franchise here that echoes of the original, but at the same time brings a fresh feeling to the table.

The best thing that “The Bachelor Canada” did right was not only cast the sort of man (in Brad Smith, even with the ugly tattoo) that viewers want to watch, but also throw enough compelling women around him that we would care about the journey. There were fan favorites (Chantelle, Kara), women that were easy to root against (Whitney), contestants game to cause drama (Gabrielle), and even a winner in Bianka who was not necessarily the obvious choice from the get-go. This is always the sort of cast that you want to have for a show like this: it would be boring if everyone was nice and down-to-earth, and there were always enough people left to root for that it never felt too dramatic for its own good.

As for the locations, it was nice to see “The Bachelor” north of the border stay somewhat true to its home country, and show off so many different locales in all of their majesty. However, it was also equally nice to see them embark on short trips to other places (including New Orleans in an early episode) that showed off different parts of the world from a Canadian perspective. Like with “The Amazing Race Australia,” it is always entertaining as an American to see how we are represented elsewhere. The format was also nice and refreshing, since it was not the same pattern of “two one-on-one dates and a group date every week” that Chris Harrison and company have beaten into our heads.

Really, the only singular thing that the Canadian show did wrong in comparison to its US counterpart was just not making it long enough, and that may be due to budgetary reasons of it being the first season. By the time we had the hometown dates, there was a contestant in Gabrielle who had spent very little alone time with Brad. Therefore, it was obvious that she was not going to be the one. The middle part of the competition was far too short, which made the final few weeks feel far too long.

All in all, do you think “The Bachelor Canada” was a worthwhile experiment, and who would you endorse as the first-ever “Bachelorette” north of the border? While Chantelle may be fun, we presently think that Kara would have the greatest appeal across the board.