Reality Steve: Why ‘The Bachelor’ Production Company Has Sued the Spoiler Multiple Times

Stephen Carbone, AKA Reality Steve, has made spoiling The Bachelor and its spinoff shows his career for almost two decades. But by giving away endings and behind-the-scenes information of the franchise, ABC has taken issue with what he does. Therefore, ABC has actually sued Reality Steve — multiple times. Read on to find out why and what happened.

What kind of work does Reality Steve do spoiling ‘The Bachelor’?

Reality Steve has been writing spoilers on his blog about The Bachelor since the near beginning of the show. What started as an e-mail newsletter turned into an online phenomenon. His site has made him the go-to person in Bachelor Nation for the inside scoop.

Now, Reality Steve has always been hush-hush on who exactly feeds him information. People have speculated, but Reality Steve has never outright said who has given him information.

Reality Steve got in legal trouble for spoiling ‘The Bachelor’

NZK Productions (the production company behind The Bachelor) and Alternative Television sued Reality Steve in 2011, per The Hollywood Reporter. The companies alleged he was “soliciting information from bachelor participants, cast, crew, and other employees of the series.”

The case also claimed Reality Steve was “inducing them to breach contracts promising to divulge nonpublic information.”

Reality Steve, NZK Productions, and Alternative Television settled the case.

“We […] are pleased he has agreed to have no further contact whatsoever with any of the cast, crew, or employees of The Bachelor,” Warner Bros. (on behalf of NZK Productions) said to THR.

Reality Steve acknowledged the settlement on Twitter and said “they had no case.” He also did an interview about being sued.

There was another case against Reality Steve for spoiling The Bachelor the next year that was “confidential” and was settled, per THR.

He received a cease-and-desist letter in 2017, as well

That wasn’t the end of Reality Steve’s legal problems with The Bachelor‘s production company.

Five years after his last settlement, Reality Steve received a cease-and-desist letter, per Refinery29. He responded to the settlement online.

“For years I have stood behind the fact that all I really do is spoil and make fun of a silly reality show which itself is very easy to make fun of,” Reality Steve replied to the case. “This isn’t CIA level sh*t.”

“This isn’t insider trading,” Reality Steve continued. “What I do is on such a small scale in even just the TV world, it’s not really a blip on the radar. If this were the only show on television, yes, it’d probably be a big deal. But it’s not.”

“They are being completely unreasonable, bullying me essentially into giving up my sources, and are trying to prevent me from continuing my livelihood,” the blogger concluded. “They are infringing on my First Amendment Rights as a reporter and trying to squash my freedom of speech because they don’t like that I’m spoiling their show.”

Despite Reality Steve’s multiple legal troubles with the franchise, he remains on top of his spoiling game to this day. For now, he’s in the clear.