You have to respect a reality show that’s willing to pull a stunt so chaotic that it blows up years of established formula, and The Bachelorette US has done just that, with Tayshia Adams stepping in to take over from current lead Clare Crawley.
The new US season of the show is only a few episodes deep, but it has gone wildly off the rails in that time, with Crawley falling hard for contestant Dale Moss, to the point where she is openly calling him her “future husband” and refusing to give out roses on group dates.
It all comes to a head next week, and the promo is wonderfully dramatic, showing a tearful Crawley debriefing with host Chris Harrison, as the dudes sit around, wildly confused, before Tayshia Adams slips out of a pool, looking cool as a cucumber.
While all this unfolds, there’s a whole separate layer of drama about when the Bachelorette producers actually decided to bring Tayshia Adams in, and if, as some have claimed, they were actually planning to pull a stunt like this all along.
Robert Mills, an executive at the US ABC network, says that the show made the call to bring in a replacement after Clare declined to give out her second group date rose, keeping it for herself so she could “sleep on things.”
There were also reports that Tayshia was “on standby” for the season in case of some kind of COVID emergency, but blogger Reality Steve has called bullshit on this, saying that her entry into the show was “planned before the season started.”
This is flat out untrue. They are selling you a lie. If you honestly think they didn’t make the call to Tayshia until Clare decided not to give that group date rose, her last date of the season by the way, you need to wake up. The timeline doesn’t even work in that scenario. pic.twitter.com/QiN0oXrU8Y
— RealitySteve (@RealitySteve) October 28, 2020
That’s not the case here. Tayshia wasn’t on standby “in case.” This wasn’t a COVID thing. But I’m not going to compromise sources just so people who don’t wanna believe it can be appeased. This was planned before the season started. https://t.co/bErxYnmNsP
— RealitySteve (@RealitySteve) October 28, 2020
To make things spicier, Clare Crawley chucked a like on a tweet that implied she had a miserable time on set, and producers always planned to replace her. Chris Harrison then gave an interview, denying this was the case and saying she was in “complete control” of her destiny.
The Bachelorette will give up its normal Tuesday night slot for the US election, so the next instalment will air on Thursday November 5. ABC execs have confirmed that Tayshia “will be part of the season starting next week”, so fans will soon get a little more clarity on all this.
