‘The Bachelor’: Are Contestants’ Names on the Roses? Why Some Fans Are Convinced
Thanks to The Bachelor franchise’s decision to finally select the first Black Bachelor, more women than ever before sent in applications hoping to join the cast of the show. This has resulted in the largest group of contestants in the show’s 19-year run. Matt James met a whopping 32 contestants on his very first night and then had five more women join his season a few weeks later. Now, Heather Martin (a former contestant from Colton Underwood’s season) is set to join the show, bringing the grand total up to 38 women in one season.
Though James has already begun forming connections with some of his contestants, keeping track of the remaining women may sometimes prove to be challenging. This is especially true during a rose ceremony and some fans of The Bachelor believe that the producers have figured out a way to help James remember the names of all the women still left on his season.
Some fans of ‘The Bachelor’ think the contestants’ names are written on roses
Recently, a clip of a James in the midst of a rose ceremony was posted on the official Instagram page for The Bachelor. Some fans were intrigued by the way James held roses before he handed them out. “I just realized that on the show every time when he is in this rose ceremony every time he picks up a rose he looks at the rose and turns it around,” one fan commented. “I feel like it’s like the person’s name is on the rose.”
“You are correct!” another fan of The Bachelor responded. “I heard that years ago.” But is there any truth to the fact that the contestants’ names are written on the roses? While things may have been changed for James, that theory has been debunked a few times over the years. However, there is a system put in place to help leads remember the names of all the contestants, especially in the earlier weeks before they’ve gotten to know them a bit better.
How does the lead remember the names of the cast during a rose ceremony?
In a 2020 interview with US Weekly, Chris Randone (who competed on Becca Kufrin’s season of The Bachelorette) shared that the rose ceremony isn’t done all at once. Instead, the lead only gives out a few roses at a time before going to consult with the producers and repeating the process. This is likely the reason that rose ceremony nights are so exhausting and often last until the wee hours of the morning.
“They come out and [Becca] only said three names at a time, and then she goes back in and then comes back out,” Randone recalled of his experience on The Bachelorette. “Three names at a time. And it’s like, stop production, start, stop, start. … She doesn’t name off every single person right away. She’ll come out, [name] three [men], go back in, five minutes later, come back out, [name] three.”
Do ‘The Bachelor’ producers prolong the rose ceremony intentionally?
While this is certainly a strange system, it likely takes some of the pressure off of the lead. Perhaps it would be less taxing on the contestants if names were, in fact, written on roses. But, considering The Bachelor producers likely benefit from the drama that sometimes erupts during rose ceremonies, we hardly expect the process to change anytime soon.
