‘The Bachelor’ Season 27: 1 Popular Podcast Won’t Be Covering Zach’s Season: ‘There’s No Hook to This Man’
Each season of The Bachelor is a magnet for controversy. This is usually a goal for the show’s producers. Like every other reality show, it thrives on viewers getting so invested in the competition that they root for particular people to win or lose.
But the 27th edition of The Bachelor involves a hot take that won’t create better ratings: This season’s lead Zach Shallcross is too boring to carry the show. A popular podcast run by members of Bachelor Nation has gone as far as to pull back on their coverage of the show because of their apathy toward Shallcross.
‘2 Black Girls, 1 Rose’ covers ‘The Bachelor’ and its spinoffs from a different perspective
2 Black Girls, 1 Rose is hosted by Justine Kay and Natasha Scott. As they explain on the show, the podcast is “where two Black a** girls invade the whitest show on Earth.” The Bachelor has not been especially welcoming to nonwhite contestants. But Kay and Scott manage to discuss the show’s storylines and shortcomings in funny, insightful ways.
The duo provides recaps of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor in Paradise while poking fun at the antics of the contestants and host Jesse Palmer. They also create additional content on social media.
Full episodes of 2 Black Girls, 1 Rose are only available on their Patreon. But they do release extended snippets of each episode on streaming platforms every Wednesday. Patreon subscribers can also get Love is Blind and Married at First Sight recaps, video podcasts, and livestream hangouts with the rest of the community.
The ‘2 Black Girls, 1 Rose’ podcast won’t cover this season because there’s ‘no hook’ to Shallcross
It’s a bad sign for The Bachelor that the hosts of 2 Black Girls, 1 Rose are publicly backing away. They announced their decision a few weeks ago on their Instagram. The main reason was that they didn’t find Shallcross interesting at all. And they didn’t like what his choice as the Bachelor said about the show’s direction. Justine explained:
“It’s a double-edged sword because we’ve all been wronged by this franchise so many times with their choice of bachelor, continuing to choose the safe, boring white man instead of anybody else, and this choice of Zach seems like a slap in the face.
In the end, it’s a lose-lose situation because we’ve seen them pick a black bachelor before, and we can’t ever forget how tragically Matt James’ season went and how much work it took for Natasha and I as black women to recap that season.”
They still plan to check in on The Bachelor from time to time. But their current focus is the new season of Married at First Sight, which filmed in Nashville.
They discussed it more during an appearance on another Bachelor Nation podcast Game of Roses. “The No. 1 thing is that there’s no hook to this man. There’s no reason to follow this man’s journey for love,” said Justine. “We’re at a point in reality dating culture that we need a reason to see these people fall in love, especially to be chosen as the bachelor.”
It’s blunt, but points were made. Previous leads of The Bachelor had something that made them compelling to viewers. Pete Weber was a pilot that had sex in a windmill. Colton Underwood was a former football player. Shallcross’ backstory just isn’t that interesting. The fact that actor Patrick Warburton is his maternal uncle is neat. (Warburton did make a guest appearance in an early episode.) But that’s not enough to center an entire season of television.
They’re not the only ‘Bachelor’ fans skeptical of Zach Shallcross as a lead
From the time he was announced as the lead, Shallcross hasn’t convinced Bachelor fans he was a good choice. There are a few reasons for this.
When he was introduced to the audience during Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey’s season of The Bachelorette, Shallcross didn’t appear that interested in a long-term commitment.
On a more serious note, his casting was the latest signal that the producers aren’t as invested in increasing the diversity of the show as they claimed to be when Matt James was the lead.
The hosts of 2 Black Girls, 1 Rose probably aren’t the only fans with a wavering interest.
