Bachelor Franchise, Stop Wasting My Time

I'm fed up.

Let me start off by saying I am an avid Bachelor/Bachelorette fan. For the past few years, many of my Monday evenings have been consumed with viewing parties with friends, live tweeting, and lots of laughs (with the occasional tear).

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However, I'm beginning to think my passion for this show is becoming a waste of time.

Let me explain.

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In the earlier seasons, the Bachelor episodes would air for one hour, typically from 8 p.m.- 9 p.m. Group dates, one-on-ones, funny scenes, dramatic encounters, and a rose ceremony all managed to fit inside the one hour block of time almost every week. Typically once or twice a season there was a "two-hour special," in the case of an extra dramatic episode or the finale.

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At some point during the past few seasons, the puppet masters of the Bachelor decided to make two-hour episodes a weekly thing.

It started off great. The two-hour specials were typically the most exciting episodes of the previous seasons, so I was pumped. It was nice to be able to see a bit more footage of all of the dates, and more diary-room shots of the women's witty commentary.

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But this season. THIS SEASON. This season has been a colossal waste of time.

For the past eight weeks, I've been blocking off two hours of my Monday to tune into Nick Viall's crying sessions. I mean seriously he's cried more than Jojo and she cried a lot.

The mostly empty episodes have irritated me a little for a while, but I didn't realize how bothered I was by them until this past week's episode.

Last week might take the throne as the most boring episode so far this season, and we weren't even rewarded for sitting through it with a rose ceremony at the end.

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Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing all the girls' families and there were some great moments thrown in there, but I spent the majority of the two-hour episode trying to not fall asleep.

Then I realized this has been reoccurring this season. We have had five rose ceremonies so far instead of nine. This was justified in a few episodes, in which multiple women went home from the various dates throughout the episode. For the most part, though, it seems like some of the content included could've been shaved down to fit in a rose ceremony.

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Five of the eight episodes ended with "cliffhangers" which resulted in the following week's episode awkwardly starting with a rose ceremony instead of leading up to one. Three of the episodes have not had rose ceremonies at all, sometimes because Nicky has gotten upset and canceled them.

Many of the episodes have allocated a big chunk of time to the one-on-one dates, sometimes dedicating up to 30 minutes or more around them. While the concepts and activities on the dates are cool, they get boring after ten minutes. Plus there are about 57 commercial breaks per episode.

In the two hours that is set aside for this show, they have chosen to not fit in the necessary components. Instead, the episodes have been filled with empty content, boring dates, and people crying.

The most interesting parts of these episodes have been the last ten minutes, which typically end on the "cliffhangers" that most of us have grown bored of by the time the next week comes around. (We all knew Andi was there to wish him good luck, not to beg for him back)

Tonight, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the episode was only running for one hour. That is until I realized the entire episode consisted of a visit from Andi, Corinne (the only entertaining part of this season) being sent home, and one dragged out date - in that order.

Had a rose ceremony been fit into last week's snore-fest, we could've nixed the Andi appearance, shortened the three dates to the point that they were actually interesting, and had a rose ceremony. That would've left us fulfilled, happy, and ready for the Women Tell All next week.

The point I audibly sighed was during the preview when Chris Harrison's charming voice said, "Next week, on a three-hour special of the Bachelor..."

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Despite my complaining, we all know exactly what I'll be doing next Monday. I'll be watching, for the entire three hours. Regardless, hear my plea; if you're going to take two/three hours of my time every week, please make it worth it. I have faith in you, Bachelor franchise. Let's make the Bachelor great again.

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