‘The Bachelor’: What Sean Lowe’s season could learn from ‘The Bachelor Canada’
A funny thing happened while covering “The Bachelor Canada” this fall: we realized that the show as a whole was better than its American counterpart. The editing was clever, there were a number of interesting characters, and we also had interesting dates and format changes that were a little bit different than what Chris Harrison and company have shown us in recent weeks.
So what can Sean Lowe’s upcoming season learn from this? While we would love to proclaim that producers need to scrap their familiar date formats and freshen things up a little bit to keep viewers on their toes, it is a little bit late for that at the moment given how far along we are in the season. At this point, there really is no turning back from whatever was recorded for the show itself.
However, there is still some time to make adjustments on the fly when it comes to editing, and for this reason we have a noble list of suggestions based on things we saw during Brad Smith’s season north of the border.
1. Make it less predictable – In recent years, it’s grown frustrating how “The Bachelor,” rather than trying its best to give fans who want to avoid spoilers a good show, has just tried to combat them by spoiling certain parts of the experience themselves. Even if you do show clips from future episodes (which the Canada show did), don’t make it that we necessarily see the winner get a ton of screentime the first week. What made Bianka Kamber a great winner is that at first, she was barely a presence on the show at all, and we got to know her just like Brad did.
2. Show natural conversations – It was refreshing to at times see Brad have seemingly normal conversations with his ladies, and even at times get into confrontations with them. These little touches of realism can go a long way in making the experience believable for the viewers.
3. Cut down on the parts that drag – We don’t think ABC will ever consider shortening “The Bachelor” to an hour and a half, but this was the perfect run time for the Canadian show in that the dates actually felt quick and breezy. We’d rather see less filler on the dates, and more on the cocktail parties and events going on prior to the Rose Ceremony. (After all, this is where the drama typically is!)
Are there any changes you would like to see “The Bachelor” put into motion for Sean’s season?