‘The Bachelor’: Producers sue Reality Steve for Sean Lowe spoilers
This story is going to feel a little bit like a broken record straight from the get-go: a pair of production companies in NZK Productions and Horizon Alternative Television are after Reality Steve once again over spoiling “The Bachelor,” and this time it is coming less than a year after the two parties reached a settlement last year after he was accused of offering contestants on Ben Flajnik’s season money in return for revealing secrets about the outcome.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the suit was filed last month after Steve (whose real name is Steve Carbone) published the outcome of the first several episodes of the season starring Sean Lowe. In making this move, the producers are alleging that he broke an agreement in the settlement stating that he will not have contact with anyone directly related with the show for the purpose of obtaining information. Steve, however, refutes that claim, and we insinuate from his comments that he feels as though producers are just upset because his spoilers for this year are both accurate and thorough:
“The suit is bogus. The suit was brought in violation of the settlement agreement I previously reached with the producers of the Bachelor series. That agreement does NOT prevent me from publishing spoilers. The producers have provided no proof that I did anything in violation of our agreement because there is none. They just seek to put me out of business by intimidation and litigation costs. I am currently exploring my legal options, including a counterclaim.”
Spoiling TV shows full-on has long been a touchy subject here, mostly because we feel like saying that sharing secrets on one show opens the floodgates for a number of others to be possibly ruined. While we know that there are some out there who actually prefer knowing who the “Bachelor” picks before the season, there are also others who like to actually be surprised, and we genuinely feel bad for those people when they are just surfing around somewhere and see on accident who sees the final rose.
If spoilers are contained, it’s hard to really argue against them. But the fact that countless outlets exploit Steve’s spoilers for web traffic after they are unveiled has turned this into more of an epidemic for ABC. It hasn’t really seemed to impact the ratings too much over the past several years (and in some ways actually builds buzz, as it did with Ben and Courtney Robertson), and we suspect that the main point of frustration must be that producers are merely unhappy that they put so much hard work into creating and editing a show, only to later have someone take away their ability to be the first one to reveal the winner. The reason we don’t publish the outcome here is simply because we want to respect the wishes of the people bringing us the show, but it’s really a “to each their own” issue.
Who are you siding with at the moment: Reality Steve, or the “Bachelor” producers? Be sure to share your thoughts below, and you can also read some more of Sean’s comments about this season over here.
Photo: ABC
