Overview

The Bachelorette is a dating reality show series created by Mike Fleiss. It is a spin-off of The Bachelor, another dating game show. Both of these series fall under the category of reality TV and air on ABC. 

The Bachelorette had its first episode on January 8, 2003. This season aired until February 28, 2005 before taking a 3 year hiatus. The show returned to the air on May 19, 2008, and was renewed for a sixteenth season on August 5, 2019. The sixteenth season is scheduled to air sometime in 2020 (at the time of writing). 

Premise

The Bachelorette takes all of its rules from The Bachelor and is essentially a version of The Bachelor that has been gender reversed. 

The show gives a single bachelorette the opportunity to select a husband from a pool of bachelors. There are typically 25 bachelors at the start of the season for a bachelorette to choose from; season 5 is the only exception, as there were 30 bachelors from which the bachelorette could choose. 

There is a different bachelorette for each season. Each season begins with the bachelorette individually greeting each of the male contestants as she stands in front of the show’s mansion. The bachelorette goes through a series of dates and romantic experiences with each of the show’s contestants in exotic locales. 

As the show progresses, male contestants are eliminated through a rose ceremony; the bachelor who does not obtain a rose at the end of the ceremony is sent home and thus eliminated from the dating game show and the pool of romantic interests. 

The pool of male contestants thus becomes smaller and smaller in this manner. Eventually, the bachelorette is left to choose between the last two remaining bachelor contestants in an episode which depicts the last rose ceremony. After the bachelorette makes her final selection, the winning male contestant proposes to her and she either accepts or rejects the proposal. 

Cast and characters

Here are the cast members who have appeared in episodes of The Bachelorette over the years:

• Host – Chris Harrison
• Contestant – Nick Viall
• The Bachelorette – Ali Fedotowsky
• The Bachelorette – Ashley Hebert
• The Bachelorette – Kaitlyn Bristowe
• Contestant – J.P. Rosenbaum
• The Bachelorette – Emily Maynard Johnson
• Winner – Jerry Ferris
• The Bachelorette – DeAnna Pappas Stagliano
• The Bachelorette- Hannah Brown
• The Bachelorette – Joelle Fletcher
• The Bachelorette – Desiree Hartsock
• The Bachelorette – Rachel Lindsay
• Contestant – Jed Wyatt
• Contestant – Tyler Cameron
• Contestant – Jason Mesnick
• The Bachelorette – Andi Dorfman
• Contestant – Peter Weber
• Contestant – Drew Kenney
• Contestant – Shawn Booth
• The Bachelorette – Trista Sutter
• Contestant – Ben Higgins
• The Bachelorette – Jillian Harris
• The Bachelorette – Rebecca Kufrin
• Contestant – Robert Hayes
• Contestant – Jordan Rodgers
• Contestant – Luke Parker
• Contestant – Arie Luyendyk Jr.
• Contestant – Jef Holm
• Contestant – Chris Siegfried
• Contestant – Josh Murray
• Contestant – Chris Soules
• Contestant – Sean Lowe
• Contestant – Chris Bukowski
• Contestant – Eric Bigger
• Contestant – Jared Haibon
• Winner – Ryan Sutter
• Contestant – Ben Flajnik
• Contestant – Bryan Abasolo
• Contestant – Neil Lane
• Contestant – Kiptyn Locke
• Contestant – Reid Rosenthal
• Contestant – Chris Lambton
• Contestant – Roberto Martinez
• Contestant – Garrett Yrigoyen
• Contestant – Brooks Forester
• Contestant – Peter Kraus
• Contestant – Chase McNary
• Contestant – Luke Pell
• Contestant – Blake Horstmann
• Contestant – Jason Tartick
• Contestant – Joe Bailey
• Contestant – Constantine Tzortzis
• Contestant – Graham Bunn
• Contestant – Michael Stagliano
• Contestant – Jake Pavelka
• Contestant – Bob Guiney
• Contestant – Jeremy Anderson
• Contestant – Jesse Csincsak
• Contestant – Ed Swiderski
• The Bachelorette – Meredith Phillips
• The Bachelorette – Jen Schefft
• Winner – Ian McKee

Filming locations

The Bachelorette is famous for filming in a variety of different locations, many of which are considered exotic. For the most recent season (season 15), filming locations included Newport, Rhode Island, Inverness (Scotland, United Kingdom), Boston, Massachusetts, the Hague and Gouda in the Netherlands, Greece, and Latvia. 

Filming for the season before that (season 14) took place in Richmond, Virginia on Lombardy Street, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, Virginia State Capitol, The Veil Brewing Co, Carpenter Theatre, Nevada, Utah, Thailand, the Bahamas, and the Maldives.

Production

Jesse Csincsak, the winner of season 4 of The Bachelorette, stated that the contestants are supposed to follow the orders of the producers and that the storyline is generated beforehand. 

Mike Fleiss, The Bachelorette creator, admitted that he had developed the contestants of the show into characters which would cater to the tastes of his audience and that his audience required certain villains in each season. Fleiss has confessed that The Bachelorette has more to do with creating decent television than it does with reality. 

Episodes and reception

On July 30, 2019, the 169th episode of The Bachelorette aired, which served as the conclusion of the fifteenth season. The sixteenth season, which is supposed to air in 2020, has been indefinitely postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic (at the time of writing).

Season 1 had 7 episodes, seasons 2 and 3 had 9 episodes each, seasons 4, 13, and 14 had 11 episodes each, seasons 5 through 9 and 12 had 12 episodes each, and seasons 10 through 11 and 15 had 13 episodes each. 

The show has also held 5 specials which have depicted the weddings of two of the contestant couples and a Bachelorette reunion. 

The Bachelorette currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 62%.