The crew working behind the scenes of The Bachelor franchise — which includes the spinoffs The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise — have long taken heat over how much the shows are manipulated in the editing process. It’s widely believed among fans that producers have a heavy hand in manufacturing situations for dramatic effect or editing footage to make some of the contestants and/or their family members more villainous.
A recent preview for the end of Michelle Young’s journey on The Bachelorette makes those claims pretty hard to deny, as some fans deduced that the sound of Young sobbing in the Season 18 finale was not from that Bachelorette at all. And one previous contestant from The Bachelor has come forward, saying this wasn’t the only time editors have pulled one over on the viewers by getting creative with the audio. Let’s take a look at why The Bachelorette fans are saying ABC is so busted.
The Audio Of Michelle Young Crying Was Also Used In Katie Thurston’s Season
Props to the fan who figured this one out! Upon seeing the preview for the Season 18 finale, a Redditor noticed similarities between Michelle Young’s crying and Katie Thurston’s sobs from a season earlier. They posted a comparison video that shows the two moments back to back, which you can see below,
bachelor_editors_slacking_off_used_katie_crying from r/thebachelor
Upon watching the preview again, it doesn’t even look like Michelle Young is upset during the moment in question! The Reddit post suggests the audio is actually Katie Thurston crying during Season 17, but if The Bachelorette editors are reusing audio, how do we even know that was Thurston to begin with? And how often is audio manipulated in such a way?
A Former Contestant Says Her Crying Was Dubbed In For Becca Kufrin Breakup
Right on the heels of the above findings, another claim surfaced from Jacqueline Trumbull, who was on Arie Luyendyk’s season of The Bachelor. The former contestant told US Weekly that audio of her crying was used in the episode when Luyendyk broke up with eventual Bachelorette Becca Kufrin. In her words:
In the ‘unedited’ scene of Arie and Becca breaking up, they used audio from me crying to make it seem like she was crying much harder than she was.
This edit seems malicious on a whole new level, given how often then-host Chris Harrison emphasized that this infamous Season 22 breakup was unedited to give viewers the full picture of what went down. Maybe the full audio spectrum is more interesting than the full visual picture, though.
Other Times Bachelor Nation Has Accused Editors Of Misleading Viewers
While a majority of the creative choices made by The Bachelor crew are surely utilized to amp up the show’s dramatic value, sometimes the editors are caught pulling stunts that are deceptive for seemingly no reason. Connor Brennan, Katie Thurston's "bad kisser" who was on Bachelor in Paradise Season 7, tweeted the claim that the song fellow contestant Dr. Joe Park was seemingly playing on the ukulele in one episode was actually an original song written by Brennan himself.
okay but i just realized they deadass are playing my ukulele audio over this scene 😭😂 it’s an acoustic ditty i wrote in quarantine and i was FREAKING out bc i thought dr joe wrote the exact same melody? then i realized #bachelorinparadise pic.twitter.com/lsEyQrZDH8September 22, 2021
Also in the most recent season of Bachelor in Paradise, former villain Blake Horstmann said the massive bug that viewers saw flying around Tahzjuan Hawkins’ head appeared to be CGI, which Horstmann said was actually indicative of a larger problem. If they were willing to add a fake bug, he argued, “y’all don’t think they will edit words into our mouths?”
Well, Blake, you might be right about this one. It definitely looks like The Bachelorette got busted editing words (or sobs) into Michelle Young’s mouth. I guess we’ll just have to tune in to find out how her journey to love really ends! The Bachelorette airs at 8 p.m. ET Tuesdays on ABC.
