New bombshell book makes shocking claims about The Bachelor

Another new book exposes the dirty underbelly of Bachelor Nation. The book accuses The bachelor Franchise promoting drinking and sex in limousines and generally encouraging female contestants to engage in behavior their mothers would not approve of.

The new release, Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV, reveals the secrets behind the scenes of the Bachelor machine. Author Emily Nussbaum reveals all the methods producers use to get female contestants to engage in revealing behavior, sometimes putting them in dangerous situations in the process.

Corrine Olympios and DeMario Jackson spring to mind. They may have acted outrageously in the pool at the Bachelor in Paradise resort, but remember: someone served them so much alcohol (excessively). The producers knew what they were doing back then.

Breakdowns welcome

In the book, casting director Marki Costello admits that he looked for emotionally unstable women who could easily be bullied into having a nervous breakdown on camera. Because watching young women bullied to tears always makes for good television, right?

And if they were “unstable” And pretty,” even better! “It’s gold,” says Costello in the book.

The candidates were psychologically examined for their weaknesses and “tracked on a white board with bullet points pointing to characteristics that could drive them crazy: ‘Daddy’s girl,’ ‘Recovering anorexic,’ ‘Just dumped.'”

Abundant and free alcohol encouraged wild behavior. On the first night, the ladies arrived in limousines sipping champagne. Once they enter the house, there is more free alcohol but very little food.

Real estate agent Rhonda Rittenhouse was a contestant on the very first season of The Bachelor. She remembers trays of cocktails being constantly passed around and says she “felt like a caged rat.”

Humiliation is the order of the day

It was common to put contestants in situations designed to humiliate them, such as belly dancing, to get the Bachelor’s attention. Show creator Mike Fleiss once pressured a contestant for two hours to take off her robe and get into a hot tub, worried that there might be “cameras in the water.”

Producers received cash bonuses for making contestants freak out on camera, the book says. “The show’s executive producer described how he would cut $100 bills and reward producers for special achievements, such as making a girl cry on camera.”

Staff and crew were also allowed to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana behind the scenes, the book says. Nussbaum claims Fleiss liked to drink tequila during filming. “The cast drank, the crew drank, the managers drank,” she wrote.

“You had to drink with (the contestants) to gain their trust,” said executive producer Lisa Levenson. Meanwhile, rumors circulated that Fleiss and Levenson, both married to other people, were having a sizzling “open affair.”

All episodes of The Bachelor are now streaming on Hulu.

TELL US – DID YOU KNOW THERE WAS SO MUCH MANIPULATION ON THE BACHELOR?