The Bachelor’s Lead Into Conveyor Belt of Love

I’ve come to the conclusion that The Bachelor needs to stop the inbreeding that seems so prevalent the past few years of the show. They take a popular reject from the show, make them the bachelor or bachelorette the following season, then use the next reject, etc. The only thing that makes all this interesting after awhile is the drama. Face it. That’s the only reason we tune in. However, the shows that are at least putting something different out there, no matter how ridiculous the concept, such as Conveyor Belt of Love, become much more interesting.

We all tuned into The Bachelor last night because we wanted to see Jake the pilot who was turned down by Jillian on the last season of The Bachelorette. But since he’s now had his fifteen minutes of fame, he’s turned into a mini celebrity, and the women that are on the show courting him are the ones that fell in love with him while watching him court Jillian. They don’t seem to want him so much as they just seem flabberghasted that Jillian passed him up.

There wasn’t even the outrageous and desperateness that we usually find on the first night as the group of twenty-five available women met the bachelor. There was no drunken party guests, underwear-giving, or hot dog condiments. All we had was one woman giving parting gifts to the other twenty-four women, as she was so sure she would be the one picked in the end, and another that came out wearing a flight attendant uniform that looked like it was straight out of the book Coffee, Tea, or Me?

Additionally, everyone was so milquetoast. Jake is cute, granted, but he’s also very WYSIWYG. Honestly, what can anyone remember about him from The Bachelorette otherr than the fact that he was a pilot? His pool of twenty-five girls here was just the same, and as has been reported, it seemed a little racially unbalanced, as there were no women of color in this pool. I really can’t tell you much about any of them. No one really stood out that much, except for the divorcee. Interestingly enough, that’s who he gave the first impression rose to, so obvoiusly he experienced the same troubles.

As is the case with all the most recent seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, we have promised drama that they’ll keep promoting as we wait every week for it. This season it’s one of the bachelorettes having an affair with a crew member. Really, are we that shocked that a woman who is one of many dates to a single bachelor wants a little one-on-one time that doesn’t come from a date box? It’s not that shocking, but is surprising that it’s never happened before.

This all led right into Conveyor Belt of Love. I read the descritption of the show and was quite incredulous that reality TV dating had come to this, but wondered how different it really was than The Bachelor. Why is twenty-five women arriving in five different limos and meeting one man for ten seconds, then talking to him for another 30 seconds before he makes a decision that different than a group of guys arriving via conveyor belt and getting ten seconds to show their wares to a group of five women, hoping to be one of the five chosen in the end? Kind of the same.

I have to say watching Conveyor Belt of Love that it was far more interesting that the previous two hours of The Bachelor that I watched. Everyone wasn’t milquetoast. The five women were all very different, in personality, interests, looks, etc. And the guys arriving on the belt were just as random of a group. They had buys with nice bodies, guys that were heavy, guys that were thin, guys that lived at home still, guys that were successful, guys that played music, guys that told jokes. They were so entertaining, much more so than the twenty-five girls wearing evening gowns that were mostly all blonde.

We saw the outcomes of the dates at the end of the hour. Some were successful; some weren’t. Interestingly, the one guy that was heavy was one of the successful dates. The woman who had chosen him liked that he put her first and enjoyed his sense of humor. She liked that they did something differenet on the date. They had fun. There was no big drama and no one running out in tears upset that they weren’t chosen or that the process was too stressful.

I’ll keep watching both shows, but I know how it will end up already. Conveyor Belt of Love is going to most likely be a a one-season-and-out show, while Jake becomes engaged, but never marries, and one of the women Jake rejects, either in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place, will become the next Bachelorette that will air this summer.