PEOPLE The Bachelor!: Celebrating 20 Seasons of Love, Lust, Hookups, Breakups, Roses & Rings

By Editors of PEOPLE

From the first rose to the last woman standing, this special edition of People looks back at all the seasons of TV's top matchmaking show, and previews the 20th season, which begins airing in January.

Highlights include:

• Every bachelor from every season revisited and updated: Who's still married, who's still single, who is still living down the most scandalous moments.


• Updates on memorable contestants and those who became Bachelorette stars


• Inside the mansion: Hookups, breakups, and all the drama you didn't see.


• Interviews with men behind the Bachelor: Host Chris Harrison, producer Mike Fleiss and celebrity jeweler Neil Lane.

• Language: English
• Publisher: People
• Release date: Jan 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781618934581

Book preview

love.

THE SHOW + ITS FANS = TRUE LOVE FOREVER!

NOVELIST JENNIFER WEINER GETS OVER THE

GUILT AND DECLARES HER DEVOTION TO

WATCHING—AND SHARING—TV’S GUILTIEST PLEASURE

Weiner on Good Morning America with Harrison.

YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST TIME. Mine was in a posh, my-publisher-put-me-up-here hotel room in Los Angeles in March of 2002. I was on book tour, lonely, 3,000 miles from home, when I turned on the television and saw a handsome management consultant named Alex Michel looking for love on a show called The Bachelor.

The program was instant catnip, an irresistible mashup of reality TV standards: the beauty contest, the competition show, where winners are crowned and losers voted off the island, and the water-cooler sensation of that moment, Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, where a man, over the course of a few televised hours, chose a woman to wed. It is no wonder that, 19 seasons later, The Bachelor is still going strong and we are still tuning in and debating its somewhat problematic pleasures.

Right from the start the show got it right, unveiling what by now are delicious rituals: the opening-night cock-tail party at Bachelor Mansion, where the contestants lived, ate (not much), drank (almost constantly) and back stabbed. The entrance of suave host Chris Harrison, a perfect blend of ther-apist and good-hearted big brother. The make-out sessions. The on-camera confessions. The accusations of contestants not being there for the right reasons. The Fantasy Suites, where the Bachelor could enjoy an overnight, off-camera visit with the finalists (and where it is widely assumed that activities are not limited to canasta).

Each show concluded with the women standing in a lineup for what felt like hours, waiting for the Bachelor to hand them a single rose and invite them to stay. Almost each season was capped with a proposal and two glorious rewards: the happy couple, kissing, finally able to declare their love; and the loser, sobbing her heart out in the back of a limo while cameras lapped up every tear.

As far as guilty pleasures, The Bachelor was the guiltiest. How can a feminist stomach a show that puts women in bikinis (even when there’s no water) and tells them (and us) that the highest goal of life is a wedding ring? A show whose purportedly equalizing spinoff, The Bachelorette, proudly showed footage of Andi Dorfman, a lawyer, removing her diploma from her wall so she could start her journey to find love?

It’s not easy. Social media helps. Tweeting OH NO SHE DID NOT at tens of thousands of like-minded lady viewers, coming up with drinking games (do a shot every time someone says fairy tale!) or using poor Kaitlyn to talk about double standards does lessen the hypocrisy’s sting.

Even for those who can suspend their politics, the notion that The Bachelor is about true love is hard to swallow, given that its ratio of proposals to actual marriages isn’t great. Indeed, the show’s most lasting connections have been among the viewers, who call themselves Bachelor Nation. But, of course, marriage isn’t really the point.

The point is entertainment. Great, juicy, jaw-dropping, can’t-miss-it, must-watch-in-real-time entertainment. Who can forget Andi’s blistering post-Fantasy Suite dismissal of ees okay Juan Pablo? Jake and Vienna’s showdown? Ashley shaming an older contestant (Her eggs are almost dead!)? Then, of course, there was Jason. Jason Mesnick, single dad, star of season 13, who, torn between two lovers, stood on a hotel balcony and cried. And cried. And cried and cried and cried. It was amazing, especially after Mesnick rescinded his proposal to Melissa and declared true love for Molly, and it’s why I can’t stop, won’t stop, watching. Tears. Drama. Big twists and happy endings. The Bachelor might not always end in true love eternal for its couples . . . but truly I will love the show forever.

HOW CAN A WOMAN

STOMACH A SHOW THAT

TELLS US LIFE’S HIGHEST

GOAL IS A WEDDING RING?

SOCIAL MEDIA HELPS

Jennifer Weiner is the author of 12 novels, including In Her Shoes and most recently Who Do You Love

MEET THE NEW GUY

10 QUESTIONS FOR: BEN HIGGINS

LAST TIME: Ben Higgins

Higgins didn’t meet his match in Kaitlyn Bristowe on The Bachelorette.

The sound of cheering across Bachelor Nation? The legions of fans of Ben H as he was known on the most recent Bachelorette season reacting to the news that he is now The Bachelor. Just 26, this software account manager from Indiana is taking his role seriously: At the end of the show, ideally, I’ll be down on one knee, he told People senior writer Aili Nahas when they spoke in Los Angeles.

1. What do you first and foremost look forin a partner?

First off I look for somebody with a genuine heart. Somebody who really believes in truth and authenticity but also has a background of, hopefully, the same faith that I do. I am a Christian, and I would like to find somebody who can be a life partner for me who shares those similar beliefs. I’m also looking for somebody who’s willing to just live life together. Not only do I want to make life really good for my partner and allow her to wake up every morning excited for the new day and excited about the relationship we’re in, but I hope for the same from her toward me.

2. Do you have a physical type?

I’ve dated many different types of women. Most of the time I seem to date really nice beautiful people.

3. Do you believe in love at first sight?

Yeah. I think it can happen. I believe