Over spring break, I spent a lot of my free time being invested in reality TV. There are endless amounts of reality TV shows out there, especially dating shows…which are usually the ones I watch. I find them pretty entertaining. Usually, I love watching reality TV, but lately something about the content being released nowadays has thrown me off. Honestly, I am so over reality TV.
Some of my favorite shows, such as Love Is Blind,started off great during the first seasons and quickly derailed as they progressed. Love Is Blind is a reality TV show about people finding love without knowing what the other person looks like. The main debate of the show focuses on “Is love really blind?” Season 2 contestant Shake Chatterjee disagrees and believes “love is blurry.” The new season, season 10, was released in February. Despite the show carrying on for 10 seasons, nothing beats the first season, which featured genuine couples such as Lauren and Cameron. What started as a pretty wholesome concept has escalated into a show full of insufferable wannabe influencers who are clearly not looking for love.
If anything, these dating shows just give them a platform to get casted in other dating shows, like Shayne Jansen, who went on Perfect Match afterwards. One of the most unlikeable people from season 10 includes Chris Fusco, who has made several shallow and body shaming comments towards Jessica Barrett. However, this behavior is nothing new on this show. Several contestants throughout the years have shown other behaviors and instances of body shaming, gaslighting, manipulation, aggression, harassment, self-hate, internalized racism, and misogyny…at that point all you want to do is just turn off the TV!
A new show from Netflix called Age of Attraction was released this month on March 11th. The show brings together individuals of all ages (21+) to fall in love without knowing how old someone might be. It has a very similar vibe to Love Is Blind, except we are “blind” to how old they are…or are we? Can that really happen when aging is so visible? I will admit that the people they select do look pretty good for their ages and even had me fooled. The show tries to highlight the discourse of “age is just a number.” Can age really just be a number? Where’s the line between consenting adults versus predatory dynamics? In real life, I have met age gap couples where they are happy and it does work out for them…but of course there are many reasons why relationships like these typically don’t last.
The show is hosted by Nick Viall and Natalie Joy, who are married and have their own age gap of 18 years. The couples selected have age gaps between 15 to 33 years. The show does make an effort to showcase age-gap couples where both men and women are the older partners with younger ones. But of course, there are still couples included that follow the classic “older man and younger woman” dynamic. However, things get weird once they have to reveal their ages to their partner in the “Promise Room.” Spoiler: Many of the older partners are picking love interests that are in the age range of their own kids…or even younger…eww (Theresa’s oldest child is 29 years old and her partner John is 27 years old). Not only did I find the show to be a Love Is Blind knockoff, but the show feels more like a bunch of rage bait material rather than positive age gap relationship representation. If anything, all the show did was make me want to puke.
Another popular show I was excited to tune into this month was The Bachelorette for the new season 22. The shows The Bachelorette and The Bachelor are related since they are a part of Bachelor Nation franchise. In the show, the lead “Bachelorette” meets a group of male contestants and ultimately picks one to become her fiancé through several rounds of dating. The show is always dramatic yet light-hearted with fun and spontaneous dates included. In general, Bachelor Nation has been struggling with a decline in viewership within the last few years. So, what does the franchise decide to do? They decided to shake things up by picking Taylor Frankie Paul to lead the new season of The Bachelorette…someone who is not from the franchise. This is something that has never been done before…or maybe not happening at all. Season 22 was canceled due to pressure from fans after TMZ released a video of Taylor being physically abusive to her ex-boyfriend Dakota Mortensen.
Her history is public knowledge and the incident from the video is not new. You may be thinking, “why on Earth did the show pick her as the lead?” But it makes perfect sense from a calculated perspective since the ABC Network, Hulu, and Disney Plus are all related (Hulu and Disney Plus have a joint merger). Taylor Frankie Paul is an influencer from the Hulu reality TV show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. So logically, another way for them to continue integrating the ABC Network and Hulu together was to cast Taylor as the lead, after the success of shows like Dancing with the Stars and Vanderpump Villa.
But why is someone like her being reframed as the perfect Bachelorette for “a second chance at love”? Not only did Bachelor Nation ignore the fact that she was arrested for domestic violence, but the show didn’t consider the liability and safety of the other contestants when picking her for the show. Unfortunately, in the past Bachelor Nation has been known for not doing background checks before casting people. Last season, Jenn Tran got engaged to Devin Strader, who was arrested for burglary and faced a restraining order from his ex-girlfriend in 2017. When will we stop casting criminals as love interests for TV? After losing millions from canceling this season, Bachelor Nation might not be able to recover. (The ABC Network and Bachelor Nation had it coming!)
Behind the scenes of Taylor Frankie Paul on The Bachelorette are explored in the new fourth season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Season four of the show came out on March 12th, focusing on some of the cast members competing on Dancing with the Stars, Taylor being picked for The Bachelorette, and the changing dynamics of the overall group. The show follows a friend group of Mormon mom influencers who make videos together, shaping #MomTok with Taylor is the leader of the group. This friend group went viral after a 2022 scandal on a TikTok livestream because of a confession made by Taylor that went against the religion.
Back in season one, not only does the show focus on the controversy of the scandal, but it leads episode one with a brand new controversy…Taylor getting arrested for domestic violence towards her new boyfriend Dakota Mortensen. Although, the episode only included them talking to the cops and Taylor getting arrested. Season one was released in 2024, but the incident happened in 2023 and she is on probation until August 2026 (this is the same incident from the TMZ video that caused the new season of The Bachelorette to get canceled). In February 2026, another domestic violence incident occurred between them and it is currently under investigation. Isn’t it such a double standard that a woman arrested for domestic violence can continue to star in her own reality TV show (until the show paused production on season five)? As much as I love the drama from the show, it almost feels like the show is enabling abusive behavior by having her as the star of the show.
The current climate of reality TV has shifted in a weird direction. Reality television is not real life and quite overrated. Not only do reality TV shows have overlapping influencers starring in them…but also overlapping issues that are too hard to ignore.
Featured Image by Freestocks on Unsplash
